We are still in the right business.

[Hash Zeppelin]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/10/marijuana-eradication-plummets_n_3055088.html

There is a video too if follow the link

Marijuana Eradication By Law Enforcement Plummets Over 60 Percent

WASHINGTON -- The number of marijuana plants eradicated by law enforcement has plummeted in the last few years from a record high of over 10 million plants in 2009 and 2010 to under 4 million plants in 2012, according to newly released statistics.

From that peak of over 10 million, the Drug Enforcement Administration said the number of marijuana plants eradicated dropped to 6,735,511 in 2011 and 3,933,950 in 2012, just a fraction of the 9 million marijuana plants the DEA had hoped to destroy.

DEA officials attribute the decline in part to the state of California, declaring in the agency's 2014 budget proposal that California's financial constraints resulted in "the decreased availability of local law enforcement personnel to assist in eradication efforts."

The DEA also stated that drug trafficking organizations are moving their operations from public lands to private agricultural grow areas and that those who do still grow on public lands locate in "vast mountainous regions, which are more difficult for law enforcement to detect and reach."

Some of the agricultural marijuana grow sites have "operated under the guise of its state's medicinal marijuana laws," the DEA stated. Plants cultivated on agricultural grows are "super-sized and more robust" and can produce larger quantities of marijuana, according to the DEA.

The DEA budget request also opined that the legalization of marijuana "would increase accessibility and encourage promotion and acceptance of drug use," and said that federal prosecutors "continue a letter writing campaign to encourage property owners to voluntarily close dispensaries/grows." A DEA spokeswoman referred questions to the Justice Department.

Separately, marijuana seizures have also decreased along the nation's borders. The U.S. Border Patrol said in its budget report that cannabis captures were down 9 percent from 2011 to 2012, to 2,999,000 pounds. That decrease came even as the Border Patrol apprehended 7 percent more people illegally attempting to cross the border.

The Justice Department is currently debating how to handle the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington. Attorney General Eric Holder has met with officials from both states, but has not yet indicated whether the federal government will challenge the state laws in court.

Advocates hope that legalization in the states, along with rapidly shifting attitudes toward marijuana use among the public at large, could filter up to the federal level.

At least one group opposed to the war on drugs cheered the new numbers.

"When the DEA cites the 'decreased availability of local law enforcement personnel to assist in eradication efforts' as a reason it's having a hard time enforcing marijuana prohibition, it validates the state-by-state strategy" put into place by drug policy reform advocates, Tom Angell, chairman of Marijuana Majority, said in an email.

"Just as states repealing their own bans on alcohol made it increasingly difficult for the federal government to enforce Prohibition in the 1930s to the point that national ban was soon repealed, each new law that removes local police from the marijuana enforcement equation hastens the day that Congress is going to have to catch up with the majority of voters that polls show support legalization."

This post has been updated with comment from Marijuana Majority and with U.S. Border Patrol statistics about marijuana seizures.

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

bump

 

[mpd]

Hmmmm.

 

[Rob547]

shucks, lack of funding for the drug war? Gas is too expensive for all those helicopters lol.

I'd have to assume a majority of that number is from cartel grows with huge numbers, so would lead me to believe a lot of the <99 plant grows are under increasingly less scrutiny.. just my 2 cents

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

^it was actually proven that the mexican out door growers in cali have nothing to do with cartels.

Also you nailed it with lack of funding. There is also also lack of will for funding. 99 percent of those guys in DEA jackets in a bust are not in the DEA. They are local and state police that are recruited by the DEA just for that bust. It is a tactic used by the DEA to make people think they are everywhere and powerful. It is fear propaganda with a jacket. It is now getting to the point to where local department are receiving more in tax revenue than bust revenue. Naturally they kick the feds out. no one likes the man around. even local cops.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

99 percent of those guys in DEA jackets in a bust are not in the DEA. They are local and state police that are recruited by the DEA just for that bust. It is a tactic used by the DEA to make people think they are everywhere and powerful.

The power of a coat room full of DEA jackets... still pretty powerful in this country. Interesting mental image though. lol

It's nice to see the local leos around here having an anti-fed attitude.

Things are really starting to look up around here.

Stay Safe!

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

^"Experts" congress watchers say there wont be a federal bill for at least another decade.

 

[Slim Pickens]

WASHINGTON -- The number of marijuana plants eradicated by law enforcement has plummeted in the last few years from a record high of over 10 million plants in 2009 and 2010 to under 4 million plants in 2012, according to newly released statistics.

Which means they are gaining on eradicating all those feral hemp plants from when it was legal (and encouraged) to plant.No doubt they have stumbled upon commercial grows,but I would be interested to know just how many of those were feral hemp...it's not like the DEA would know the difference anyway. (or even care for that matter...numbers are numbers to them).

 

[GP73LPC]

^it was actually proven that the mexican out door growers in cali have nothing to do with cartels.

is this online? i would like to read about this.

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

^ok here ya go. prepare to lol. their only evidence was cans of beans and shit like lol. pure bigotry.

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2013/01/feds_admit_no_proof_of_mexican.php

Feds Admit There's No Proof Mexican Drug Cartels Link to California Marijuana Grows

A while back, a medical cannabis grower told us this story: Needing help on his pot farm, a young entrepreneur drove down Cesar Chavez Avenue, convinced some day laborers to become season-long laborers, and headed north. All went well until the helicopters overhead turned into boots on the ground, and the garden was raided.

All hands, including those here illegally, split before they were arrested. One of the agents found something on the ground. It was a tortilla wrapper. This could only mean one thing: Mexicans. And that could only mean one other thing.
Thus was born the legend of the Mexican drug cartels growing marijuana in Northern California's national forests.

It's a persistent tale, especially considering the lack of cartel members arrested and brought to justice in the United States. And this after at least six years of ominous law enforcement warnings about the gangs of brown people with guns. Recently, a federal Drug War official recently admitted what some growers and activists have been saying for years: if it really is the Mexican drug cartels operating in the forests, there is scant evidence.

The official in question is Tommy Lanier, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy's National Marijuana Initiative. Buried in a Los Angeles Times story that ran over the holidays are Lanier's doubts about the reality of Sinaloas, Zetas, and other narcotrafficos in Mendocino and Humboldt counties.

"Based on our intelligence, which includes thousands of cellphone numbers and wiretaps, we haven't been able to connect anyone to a major cartel," he said.

Lanier said authorities have long mislabeled marijuana grown on public land as "cartel grows" because Mexican nationals are arrested in the majority of cases, and the narrative of fighting drug cartels helps them secure federal funding.

As California NORML Director Dale Gieringer pointed out on Thursday, cops from the feds on down to local sheriff's deputies have been more than willing to raise the alarm about cartel activity -- evidence or no evidence.

"Finally, the Drug Czar's office has acknowledged that the "cartel" narrative is a myth devised by law enforcement to help secure federal funding," Gieringer said in a release Thursday.

Not to say there aren't criminals at work growing marijuana in California. But these, the Times reported, are "independent groups of Mexican nationals, often using undocumented fieldworkers from their home groups." Hear them now: The problem is still brown people, but slightly less terrifying brown people.

We hate to say it, but we've long suspected this ourselves -- and we told you so. A few years back, when we reported that the Obama Administration had continued, and in some cases stepped up, prosecution and persecution of California's legal medical-cannabis providers, we asked both the DEA and the Justice Department to tell us about all the cartel members they'd arrested and prosecuted. It was a short conversation, because there was nothing to share.

 

[GP73LPC]

thanks

 

[castout]

THEY need to keep the misinformation train rolling, because people are really starting to see what an expensive loss the war on drugs has been!!!!

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

^yup. fear propaganda and misinformation is their greatest tool.

 

[Rob547]

"Lanier said authorities have long mislabeled marijuana grown on public land as "cartel grows" because Mexican nationals are arrested in the majority of cases, and the narrative of fighting drug cartels helps them secure federal funding."

sounds about right.... thanks for the link

 

[sith44]

gREAT INFO..THANKS!