Pubdate: Mon, 30 Jul 2012 Source: East Bay Express (CA) Copyright: 2012 East Bay Express Contact: http://posting.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/SubmitLetter/Page Website: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1131 HUMBOLDT COUNTY SWARMING WITH FEDERAL AGENTS THIS WEEK This just in from the North Coast Journal: "Over the last couple of weeks, Humboldt County has been virtually crawling with federal law enforcement agents on the prowl for big-time weed dealers." "Clearly the county's black market marijuana industry is booming, and while local law enforcement didn't want to say much about the recent raids, referring all questions to equally tight-lipped federal agencies, Humboldt County Sheriff Mike Downey said the backup is welcome. As a matter of fact, he said, 'I'm the one, I hope, who initiated it.' A large, greenhouse full of growing marijuana A large, greenhouse full of growing marijuana The story details how Sheriff Downey has asked multiple branches of the federal government for help with illegal marijuana grows, because the state no longer has funds for the Sisyphean task of weeding millions of square miles of national forest each year. "The inter-governmental Campaign Against Marijuana Planting [CAMP], which once struck fear in the hearts of outdoor growers throughout the Emerald Triangle, is now a shadow of what it used to be," Downey said. "Everything's been downsized. Those programs have been decimated." Critics of current drug policy like Law Enforcement Against Prohibition say a regulated and legal weed market would cut the legs off forest farmers. After all, cartels aren't making bootleg whiskey out in the Emerald Triangle. - --- MAP posted-by: Matt