Pubdate: Thu, 30 Sep 2010
Source: Record Searchlight (Redding, CA)
Copyright: 2010 Record Searchlight
Contact:  http://www.redding.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/360
Cited: Proposition 19 http://yeson19.com/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion)
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/find?272 (Proposition 19)

INITIATIVE IS NO PANACEA FOR POT GARDENS' MENACE

Rep. Wally Herger is still far more likely to denounce "environmental 
radicals" than to lead them on a ground-truthing mission in the 
backcountry of the Shasta-Trinity. But even if he's no born-again 
tree hugger, the mess on California's public lands caused by illegal 
marijuana growing is too big for him to ignore.

And it's too severe for the federal government not to make a top 
priority. The congressman's continued lobbying of his House 
colleagues to get behind a resolution calling for a comprehensive 
strategy to combat illegal plantations in the national forests is a 
welcome crusade. The resolution itself won't solve anything, but 
drawing attention to this menace that has erupted over the past 
decade is the first step toward marshalling the resources to curb it.

The need is urgent. Without letup in recent years, marijuana gardens 
have proliferated in our national forests, parks and recreation 
areas. Even as local and federal law enforcement authorities have 
stepped up their efforts, the drug cartels believed to be behind the 
illegal growing only seem to work harder.

With Proposition 19, the initiative to legalize marijuana in 
California, on the Nov. 2 ballot, its boosters argue that it's time 
to declare a truce in the war on marijuana. The only solution to 
out-of-control growing on public lands, they reason, is to allow 
legal growing on private property.

In the long run, they might be right. But even if Proposition 19 
passes and state criminal laws against marijuana are voided, it's 
hard to imagine the federal government ignoring massive commercial 
pot farms that lack even the nominal cover of medicinal use. They 
would remain very much against federal law. And the Drug Enforcement 
Administration's agents would all but certainly close them down, 
arrest their owners and seize the property - thus the cartels would 
still have every incentive to take to the backcountry.

And as long as they do, they'll pose deadly risks to innocent hikers 
and hunters. They'll continue to wreck the natural environment that 
federal agencies spend so much time and treasure protecting. And 
they'll very much remain a problem that deserves national attention.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake