California Cops Readying to Waste Money on Pot Eradication

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As a career “cop” I can tell you that this is just plain dumb.  I cannot imagine how much it will cost nor can I understand the rationale behind it.  When is the government going to realize the war on drugs is a complete failure, a disaster, a boondoggle?  Oh well.  Here is the story from News Junkie Post:

Local, state and federal law enforcement officers will gather May 10-13 in San Diego to begin “organizing” this year’s Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP), which has failed annually since 1983 to achieve its stated goal: reducing cannabis use and availability in California by “eradicating” illegal grow site

Yes, every single year — all 27 of them, so far — CAMP has failed miserably in its quixotic quest, as marijuana became more and more availabl

The waste, arrogance and abuse associated with the program — which has become the largest law enforcement task force in the United States, with more than 110 agencies taking part — have become legendary.

Ordinary families have been terrorized by paramilitary units, peaceful homeowners have been repeatedly buzzed by low-flying helicopters, and community relations between citizens and law enforcement have suffered almost everywhere CAMP has laid its heavy hand.

The fact that all this is done at taxpayer expense, to the tunes of millions of dollars — along with the dire condition of California’s state treasury — focuses more attention than ever before on CAMP’s futility.

On Monday, at a press conference where CAMP “strategizes,” marijuana advocates will call on government to end this wasteful policy.

CAMP’s wisdom is, even more than ever before, being called into question this year as Californians prepare to vote on a November ballot initiative that would end the state’s prohibition on adult marijuana use.

“These so-called ‘eradication’ efforts have had zero effect on marijuana use, availability, or price, but once again, California law enforcement agencies are perfectly content to throw more tax money down the CAMP rabbit hole,” said Aaron Smith, California policy directory for the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP).

“It’s time to stop this insanity of repeating the futile exercise of CAMP and instead replace marijuana prohibition with a system of taxation and regulation,” Smith said. “Only then will we be able to eliminate the clandestine marijuana plantations — just as the repeal of alcohol prohibition did away with the bootleggers of that era.”

“It’s no coincidence that drug cartels don’t plant vineyards or hops fields in our national forests,” Smith added.

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Professor Mike

Professor Mike is a left-leaning, dog loving, political junkie. He has written dozens of articles for Substack, Medium, Simily, and Tribel. Professor Mike has been published at Smerconish.com, among others. He is a strong proponent of the environment, and a passionate protector of animals. In addition he is a fierce anti-Trumper. Take a moment and share his work.
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13 years ago

Well this is about stupid people being led around by greedy people. There is one group of people who are making money off this and they are in this together though they don’t acknowledge it. The coalition goes something like this: The big time preachers preach against it; the big drug companies lobby against it (after all who needs the mind altering drugs if you have MJ; the cops and other CJ people push against to save jobs; and the drug cartels push against it because as long as it is illegal the profits are big; then there the politicos who are getting fat on the contributions. The other group are the general population who are being told by the preachers and the government that is BAD, Bad Baaddd! It is a vicious circle that has been spinning around for over 40 years and the demon weed has to go!
Stupid is as stupid does, and You can’t fix stupid.

13 years ago

It’s no coin­ci­dence that drug car­tels don’t plant vine­yards or hops fields in our national forests . . .

Is it the Puritan streak in some justice systems that ban things because they are bad for us? Or, is it they don’t like to see us enjoying ourselves?

Jess
13 years ago

I’m thinking this goes along with the whole, we have the money we need to keep these guys in jobs. The correctional officers lobby here in California is HUGE. They get things done, sometimes at the expense of education and programs for the poor among us. I am a smoker and I wish they would legalize it, and plan on voting that way in November. It would save so much by way of people being incarcerated for small amounts of it. There again though, this goes back to the whole, money for prisons at the expense of some other programs. One other thing is the whole big pharma, they do not want it known that nature’s bounty is way safer than the Oxycontin you can become addicted to. Money out of their profits would be bad for America or something bad like that.

13 years ago

Where’s the logic in all this? The state makes medical use legal meaning anybody with a hangnail can get it legally while wasting resources on this.
I don’t do drugs but I’m of the opinion that as long as you’re not behind the wheel of a car or acting stupid in public then legalization would go a long way to eliminating many problems. But then it would have to be done at the federal level as well.

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