HuffAndPuff
Active member
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7016057.stm
"The United States is not just one of the world's biggest consumers of marijuana.
According to UN figures, it is also a major producer.
The country's most populous state, California, ranks first for production and consumption, and local authorities are fighting a constant battle to eradicate marijuana crops.
That battle does not just take place on farms or in private houses - it has moved onto public land and into national parks.
Captain Kevin Mayer is one of six Forest Service guards working in the Sierra National Forest, a nature reserve in California.He is not the typical-looking gamekeeper - he carries an automatic rifle and spends the day patrolling the reserve looking for marijuana crops.
Capt Mayer is convinced that the amount of marijuana being planted in the Sierra National Forest is increasing.
"I think we will see more crops in the future. They will expand along the eastern coast of the US and towards the border with Canada," he told the BBC.
"There is a lot of money in this business."
Organised gangs
We are shown an area where cannabis plants were recently destroyed, but the camp occupied by the clandestine growers was still to be cleared up.
Among the piles of rubbish and dried-out cannabis plants were shotgun cartridges and empty herbicide bottles left behind by those who were looking after the illegal crop.
"Somebody was making fresh corn tortillas here," said federal agent Robert Hernandez.California has seen significant changes in marijuana production over the past 10 years.
"It's no longer a handful of people growing a bit of marijuana in the hills for themselves and their friends," said Jackie Long from California's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement.
"Today, were seeing organised groups, such as members of California's street gangs, and drug-trafficking gangs from Mexico involved."
It is a growing problem for national parks - in 2005, 1.1 million marijuana plants were eradicated from state or federal public lands.
Speaking last year, director of National Drug Control Policy John Walters said tighter border controls had made smuggling drugs into the US from Mexico more precarious.
As a result, Mexican drug cartels were "turning our national parks into centres of international drug production and trafficking", he said.
Crop destruction
The state department's anti-drugs report put the US production of marijuana in 2005 at 10,000 tonnes.
Figures from the California Justice Department show that $6.7bn (£3.36bn) of cannabis crops were eradicated in the state in 2006.
The number of destroyed plants was more than 1.6 million - a five-fold increase since 2001.
The US has pursued the policy of destroying drug crops in Colombia and other Andean countries by spraying them with herbicides.
But in the Sierra National Forest, environmental concerns mean cannabis plants are eradicated by being picked by hand, a labour-intensive task.
"Unfortunately, cannabis crops are next to trees and other plants. If we were to spray them with herbicide, we would kill the forest. So that is simply not done here," Mr Long said."
Ah, where to begin? Our ineffectual border policies? Our asinine prohibitionist, puritanical ban on the ganj? How about how we spend money (ie: tax dollars that could be giving somebodies an edjamukashun) to throw money away? There is literally money growing on trees, and these alleged 'capitalists' wanna throw it away? These are all the things that I was thinking until I got to the last bit, which I put in bold.
This is emblematic of how we do business with the rest of the world. If we don't like it, we'll salt your fields. When did we decide we were the frigging Roman empire? ( A long time ago, I know.) This is a prime example of the golden rule getting a golden shower. It makes me sick, and I am sorry to Bolivia, Columbia, Mexico, et al. I am sorry that we have developed such an Effed up society that we feel the need to be the world's largest consumer of drugs. I am sorry that we are capitalistic enough to send you McDonald's but not enough to, and too cowardly to, regulate your #1 export, so that you might could get out from under the squalor we contribute to you living in. Only in Amerika....
Oh, and whilst this may be borderline political, it's about weed first and foremost, not that I agree AT ALL with the notion of forbidding or preventing topics in the Toker's Den. It's like the people who complain about Howard Stern, or whoever else. If you don't like it, you don't have to read/watch/listen to it. It's not even as if these people are jumping into unrelated threads with any of their political rhetoric/discourse. Someone starts a topic, people can choose to read, or respond, or hover their mouse over the title, read the intro, and decide to pass. Ah, the freedom of choice is a beautiful thing, don't you fellow pot smokers agree?
Stay Safe
HuffAndPuff
[EDIT: Yes I recognize that this was the author's intended response. It's why I love the BBC, they keep me passionate]
"The United States is not just one of the world's biggest consumers of marijuana.
According to UN figures, it is also a major producer.
The country's most populous state, California, ranks first for production and consumption, and local authorities are fighting a constant battle to eradicate marijuana crops.
That battle does not just take place on farms or in private houses - it has moved onto public land and into national parks.
Captain Kevin Mayer is one of six Forest Service guards working in the Sierra National Forest, a nature reserve in California.He is not the typical-looking gamekeeper - he carries an automatic rifle and spends the day patrolling the reserve looking for marijuana crops.
Capt Mayer is convinced that the amount of marijuana being planted in the Sierra National Forest is increasing.
"I think we will see more crops in the future. They will expand along the eastern coast of the US and towards the border with Canada," he told the BBC.
"There is a lot of money in this business."
Organised gangs
We are shown an area where cannabis plants were recently destroyed, but the camp occupied by the clandestine growers was still to be cleared up.
Among the piles of rubbish and dried-out cannabis plants were shotgun cartridges and empty herbicide bottles left behind by those who were looking after the illegal crop.
"Somebody was making fresh corn tortillas here," said federal agent Robert Hernandez.California has seen significant changes in marijuana production over the past 10 years.
"It's no longer a handful of people growing a bit of marijuana in the hills for themselves and their friends," said Jackie Long from California's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement.
"Today, were seeing organised groups, such as members of California's street gangs, and drug-trafficking gangs from Mexico involved."
It is a growing problem for national parks - in 2005, 1.1 million marijuana plants were eradicated from state or federal public lands.
Speaking last year, director of National Drug Control Policy John Walters said tighter border controls had made smuggling drugs into the US from Mexico more precarious.
As a result, Mexican drug cartels were "turning our national parks into centres of international drug production and trafficking", he said.
Crop destruction
The state department's anti-drugs report put the US production of marijuana in 2005 at 10,000 tonnes.
Figures from the California Justice Department show that $6.7bn (£3.36bn) of cannabis crops were eradicated in the state in 2006.
The number of destroyed plants was more than 1.6 million - a five-fold increase since 2001.
The US has pursued the policy of destroying drug crops in Colombia and other Andean countries by spraying them with herbicides.
But in the Sierra National Forest, environmental concerns mean cannabis plants are eradicated by being picked by hand, a labour-intensive task.
"Unfortunately, cannabis crops are next to trees and other plants. If we were to spray them with herbicide, we would kill the forest. So that is simply not done here," Mr Long said."
Ah, where to begin? Our ineffectual border policies? Our asinine prohibitionist, puritanical ban on the ganj? How about how we spend money (ie: tax dollars that could be giving somebodies an edjamukashun) to throw money away? There is literally money growing on trees, and these alleged 'capitalists' wanna throw it away? These are all the things that I was thinking until I got to the last bit, which I put in bold.
This is emblematic of how we do business with the rest of the world. If we don't like it, we'll salt your fields. When did we decide we were the frigging Roman empire? ( A long time ago, I know.) This is a prime example of the golden rule getting a golden shower. It makes me sick, and I am sorry to Bolivia, Columbia, Mexico, et al. I am sorry that we have developed such an Effed up society that we feel the need to be the world's largest consumer of drugs. I am sorry that we are capitalistic enough to send you McDonald's but not enough to, and too cowardly to, regulate your #1 export, so that you might could get out from under the squalor we contribute to you living in. Only in Amerika....
Oh, and whilst this may be borderline political, it's about weed first and foremost, not that I agree AT ALL with the notion of forbidding or preventing topics in the Toker's Den. It's like the people who complain about Howard Stern, or whoever else. If you don't like it, you don't have to read/watch/listen to it. It's not even as if these people are jumping into unrelated threads with any of their political rhetoric/discourse. Someone starts a topic, people can choose to read, or respond, or hover their mouse over the title, read the intro, and decide to pass. Ah, the freedom of choice is a beautiful thing, don't you fellow pot smokers agree?
Stay Safe
HuffAndPuff
[EDIT: Yes I recognize that this was the author's intended response. It's why I love the BBC, they keep me passionate]
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