The DEA's Very Expensive Gardening Program
They're yanking up pot plants in Oregon at a cost to taxpayers of $60 per uprooted plant. Christopher Ingraham writes in the WaPo about their efforts in 2014 (noting that pot remains illegal under Federal law):
The Drug Enforcement Administration spent $960,000 to destroy marijuana plants in that state in 2014 as part of its "Cannabis Eradication Program."...That is a lot when you consider that nationally, it costs the DEA *ahem* $4.20 to eliminate a single marijuana plant under this program.
The DEA has budgeted $760,000 in marijuana eradication funds for Oregon this year, according to KGW. Considering that marijuana is now legal in that state, many Oregonians -- including some members of Congress -- are questioning whether that's a sensible endeavor. They are trying to defund the federal anti-pot program that costs about $18 million a year overall.
...The DEA defends the cannabis eradication program on the grounds that much of the marijuana grows it targets in Oregon and elsewhere are the products of Mexican drug cartel activity.
In Oregon? Um, not a lot of hard evidence for that. As in, "We haven't been able to connect anyone to a major cartel," the Office of National Drug Control Policy said about a connection between cartels and pot grown in California.
Let alone all the way up the coast.
Some law enforcement officials in Oregon are dismantling their marijuana eradication programs, according to KGW's report. "I want to focus on person crimes," one sheriff told KGW. "Child abuse, sex assault, crimes against people."
You want to smoke pot or swig some likker -- fine by me, as long as you aren't operating a lathe next to someone's arm or weaving down the highway.
And it should be none of the government's business which plants, drinks, or products adults wish to put in their bodies. None whatsoever.
Oh, and motivation for the coppers? Muzika, a commenter at the WaPo writes:
In Oklahoma the DEA eradication program is welfare for police. On weekends they put on Black DEA Eradication hats and T-Shirts and go out and pull and destroy Wild Weed that farmers grew during WWII for hemp as a Federal Program and grows wild in Oklahoma now. No THC value, so you cannot get high on it. The cops on the team each average $5,000 a month, during the summer months pulling weed. It goes back to Nixon's war on drugs, then Reagan funded the DEA billions.
Also in Oregon, the state, not the Feds, requires a person to obtain a prescription to get over the counter psuedoephedrine. Which often times requires paying for an office call with a state and DEA licensed medical provider. This is to prevent meth labs. Which has been successful, we are told. I buy my psuedoephedrine in Washington state, for my occasional cold.
Meanwhile it is unsafe to enter portions of state forests because of violent marijuana growers protecting their crops. These same growers also show little regard for the environment.
Bill O Rights at September 25, 2015 2:58 AM
Easier for the DEA to pull up Citizen Joe's backyard plants than to set up armed confrontation w/violent growers in public parks.
Let the violent parties "win", it's much "safer" (unless you like to hike).
Bob in Texas at September 25, 2015 6:15 AM
This whole War on Drugs thing was, in retrospect, the biggest mistake Reagan made. That said, I don't think he anticipated the impact it has had on civil liberties, and he would have been horrified if he knew.
Cousin Dave at September 25, 2015 7:15 AM
The Oklahoma bit is 100% true. There are hills covered in the stuff. I think it was WW2 when the farmers were encouraged to grow the stuff. So cops get some federal monies to rip up a field or two. Which of course spreads the seeds and turns the soil for next years hemp crop.
They also get to arrest idiots passing through. Pot heads will drive past, see field after field of weed just growing there, jump out and start harvesting the stuff throwing it into their trunk without realizing it has no THC. (If you don't separate the male and female buds it doesn't make THC) Meanwhile a cop with binoculars sits on top of a nearby hill and arrests them when they drive off. Tosses them in jail for a few day while they test the 'pot' he already knows had no THC. Then they release them.
Ben at September 25, 2015 7:54 AM
Reagan funded nothing. The Congress appropriates all funds for everything. It's a comment at the Washington Post, but still.
MarkD at September 25, 2015 8:40 AM
The pseudoephedrine thing is ridiculous. Once or twice a year my husband and I drive to Vancouver and load up on the maximum amount you can buy. It's only a 30-minute drive, but I should be able to go into any store and just buy it, not jump through hoops while suffering with a sinus infection.
I was under the impression that most of the marijuana they were targeting in Oregon was being grown on federal forest land, not any random person's pot on their own property.
BunnyGirl at September 25, 2015 8:52 AM
IMHO, the DEA is the most knee-jerk, purposeless part of the FG, even more than DHS.
DaveG at September 26, 2015 10:03 PM
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