Pubdate: Thu, 08 Jul 2010 Source: Record Searchlight (Redding, CA) Copyright: 2010 Record Searchlight Contact: http://www.redding.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/360 Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n513/a06.html Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California) FEDERAL DOLLARS HELPING FIGHT DRUG WAR? GOOD Is Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko a mercenary, taking federal cash to pursue marijuana growers while his department's budget cuts leave more serious crimes unaddressed? A front-page Wall Street Journal story this weekend didn't say that, but its exploration of the financial dynamics that have left the sheriff cutting routine patrols because of falling local taxes even as teams prowl the backcountry for illegal plantations fed that line of thinking, especially among drug-war skeptics. In a typical takeaway, the pro-legalization Marijuana Policy Project's Mike Meno wrote in an online commentary that "it really all comes down to money." Now, there's no denying that the sheriff can pursue marijuana eradication because of the money. Without the federal cash, systematic local anti-drug efforts would shrink as surely as day-to-day sheriff's services have. But in that respect, it's no different from similar grants to fight elder abuse, computer crimes or drunken driving. The underlying question is whether illegal pot growing in Shasta County's forests - especially on remote public lands - is worth fighting. Let's see? Growers illegally divert water, pollute pristine streams with fertilizers and pesticides, poach wildlife, periodically shoot at hunters or hikers unlucky enough to stumble on their plantations - all without so much as a wilderness fire permit. Oh, and that's without mentioning the illegal crop itself and the criminals whose pockets it lines. Growers have planted marijuana in the north state's woods for decades, but the scale of recent operations, such as the 40,000-plant farm near Oak Run that the Sheriff's Department raided last month, is on an entirely different scale. Last year, in Shasta County alone, authorities uprooted more than 600,000 plants - approximately the total that the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting seized in the entire state in 2004. You don't have to be a die-hard drug warrior to see our national parks and forests being hijacked by criminals and think it's the government's job to push back. And indeed, the anti-marijuana money didn't just drop from the sky. Local authorities and federal land managers lobbied hard for the resources to address a plainly mushrooming problem. And much of this growing is on federal land, which makes it a federal problem. Is this a doomed battle so long as users demand the illegal drug? Would we be better off if growers could plant their crops legally between the olives and walnuts of the Sacramento Valley instead of clandestinely in the backcountry? Maybe so, and California's voters will have their say in November on an initiative to legalize marijuana in the state. In the meantime, it would be insane to surrender Shasta County's majestic forests to ever more ambitious pot growers. And if federal money helps the struggling county Sheriff's Department keep an out-of-control problem from growing even worse, it's hard to see cause to complain. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake