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