cannabisnews.com: Marijuana is County's No. 2 'Crop'





Marijuana is County's No. 2 'Crop'
Posted by CN Staff on October 30, 2003 at 14:09:57 PT
By Percy Ednalino, Staff Writer 
Source: Visalia Times-Delta
If marijuana were legal, it would replace oranges as the second most valuable crop in Tulare County. And if marijuana were legal, Tulare County also would lead the state in the plant's cultivation. Figures released Wednesday from the state Attorney General's Office revealed more than a quarter of all marijuana plants seized in California this year have been found in Tulare County.
"For law enforcement, this was a successful year be-cause we kept that marijuana off the streets," said Tulare County sheriff's Lt. Donna Perry. "Did we get all of it? No. But we have aggressively gone after the marijuana growers in this county."  State Figures According to state figures, 141,239 plants were seized in Tulare County. Shasta County was second with 53,556 plant seizures -- less than half Tulare County's tally. Mendocino County came in third with 45,263 seized plants. Kern County was fourth with 31,212 marijuana seizures. Perry said Tulare, Shasta, Mendocino and Kern counties have terrain that allows illegal gardens to grow unseen. "Most of them lend themselves to having some foothill settings," Perry said. "Unfortunately, we have a setting that lends itself for the growing of marijuana gardens." Street Value Perry said most of the county's marijuana seizures were in the Tule River Indian Reservation. The value of the seizures is estimated at $575.8 million. Milk, Tulare County's top agricultural commodity, brought in $961.8 million in gross revenue in 2002. The county's No. 2 crop, oranges, brought in $451.2 million in gross revenue in 2002. However, if marijuana were a legal crop, its value would likely drop because the black market demand would change. The Attorney General's Office reported that 466,054 plants were seized statewide and 75 percent were grown on public lands, such as Sequoia National Park. The plants' value is estimated at $1.9 billion. Last year, 354,164 plants were seized in California. This year, law enforcement agencies conducted 182 raids on 929 illegal marijuana gardens. The seizures yielded 35 arrests and 50 confiscated weapons. Pot Busts Tulare County has seen two of the state's largest pot busts this year. On Oct. 1, more than 35,000 marijuana plants were discovered in the Bear Creek area of the Tule River Indian Reservation. The street value of the plants was estimated at $146.5 million. More than 73,000 plants were seized Oct. 16 from a garden in the foothills east of Porterville. The seizure is the largest in Tulare County history and the largest in California this year. The estimated street value of the mature plants: $229 million. Perry said the number of illegal gardens in Tulare County has grown in the past 10 years. So, too, has the money generated from the gardens and the aggressiveness in which growers are willing to protect their plants. Most of the people tending marijuana gardens are armed, Perry said, which can mean danger for hikers or hunters who stumble on an illegal plantation. "It's dangerous enough for us to take down a garden because we know what to expect," she said. "But someone who is hiking or hunting ... should just be aware of their surroundings. If they see anything that even resembles a marijuana garden, they need to leave immediately and contact law enforcement." Note: Officials: County leads state in pot production.Source: Visalia Times-Delta, The (CA)Author: Percy Ednalino, Staff Writer Published: Thursday, October 30, 2003Copyright: 2003 The Visalia Times-DeltaContact: editorial visaliatimesdelta.comWebsite: http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/Related Articles:Pot Police See Shift To Large Plantationshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17697.shtmlPot: Anti-Cultivation Program Kicks Off http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17007.shtmlMarijuana Found Thriving in Forestshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14764.shtml
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Comment #6 posted by mayan on October 30, 2003 at 18:26:41 PT
"Successful Year"
"For law enforcement, this was a successful year be-cause we kept that marijuana off the streets," said Tulare County sheriff's Lt. Donna Perry. "Did we get all of it? No. But we have aggressively gone after the marijuana growers in this county."Did they get all of it? Hee-Hee!!! Did they get most of it? No. Did they get half of it? No. Did they get a quarter of it? No. But they have aggressively gone after the marijuana growers in this county(on the taxpayer's dime). Meanwhile, murderers,rapists,child molesters,burglars & theives are roaming undetected.I wonder if anyone in Tulare County is having any problem finding weed...besides the cops.Here's another goody about our pal...Rush Limbaugh and the War on Drugs: 
http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=530The way out is the way in...KEAN MUTINY: 
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/9236.htmAn Open Letter regardng the Kean Mutiny:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/archive/scoop/stories/f0/48/200310301124.1517ae47.htmlThe Official Legend of 9/11 is a fabricated Setup:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/archive/scoop/stories/88/7f/200310291028.eb206ccd.html9/11 Commission Secret Mission To Pakistan:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/archive/scoop/stories/a6/d1/200310301124.14da1446.html9/11 Prior Knowledge/Government Involvement Archive:
http://www.propagandamatrix.com/archiveprior_knowledge9/11 CitizensWatch:
http://www.911citizenswatch.org/
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Comment #5 posted by The GCW on October 30, 2003 at 17:30:52 PT
Uncensored: A bitter pill
http://www.boulderweekly.com/uncensored.htmlA bitter pillby Pamela White
(letters boulderweekly.com) Supporters of free-market capitalism and globalization unite! You have a new enemy, an enemy determined to limit consumer choice and resolute in its opposition to free trade. It’s the U.S. pharmaceutical industry–the most profitable industry in the nation.Normally wealthy right-wing corporations are staunch supporters of free-trade, free-market capitalism. But the CEOs of the country’s big pharmaceutical companies don’t fit the right-wing capitalist stereotype. They want to erect barriers to free trade and hinder the natural evolution of the marketplace. Are they out of their Republican minds?No. They’re brutally selfish.The leaders of the big pharmaceutical companies have their panties in a twist because some consumers, dismayed by high drug prices, want to purchase prescription drugs elsewhere. These corporate fat cats don’t want consumers to have a choice and are asking the government to intervene to protect their monopoly.The issue reached a crescendo this week when a report commissioned by Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois found that his state, hit by economic hard times, could save about $90 million by purchasing from Canada prescription drugs for its employees. Employees would save money on co-pays, the report stated.Gov. Blagojevich is not alone in wanting to buy drugs from the Great White North. The states of Maine, Iowa, Minnesota, West Virginia and Vermont, along with the cities of New York and Springfield, Mass., are likewise researching how they might purchase drugs from Canada. And it’s no mystery why.Prescription drugs cost an average of 67 percent less in Canada, where the government has enacted price controls in an effort to make certain that all who need life-saving, health-preserving medications can obtain them. In the United States, however, prescription drugs are a luxury. The number of Americans with health insurance that covers prescription drugs continues to shrink, while the number of those with no health insurance rises. Increasingly, American families are being forced to choose between buying groceries and buying medicine. Even those with prescription drug coverage are facing increased costs in the form of rising co-pays. To make matters worse, the poorest of the poor are often forced to pay the highest prices for their medications. Studies show that drug companies charge senior citizens on Medicare who lack prescription coverage twice as much as they charge other customers. In other words, not only must these seniors bear the full cost of their medications, but their medications cost more from the start. Nowhere else in the developed world do citizens face this problem. Understandably, some Americans have turned to buying medications via mail order from Canadian pharmacies. Such outlets are easy to find online.The pharmaceutical bigwigs are incensed. They’ve been making a killing for a long time, despite the economic downturn. Last year, they raked in $35.9 billion in profits, more than any other industry. And so they’ve turned to the Food and Drug Administration and Congress for help in hopes of maintaining their market share. But they can’t publicly whine about competition in the market or lament the potential for decreased profits. Americans are suffering too much when it comes to health care to be sympathetic to such arguments. So instead they tells us that they need to charge high prices in order to recoup research and development costs and to ensure that companies will feel motivated to design new drugs for debilitating diseases. And they warn that Americans might not be safe taking funny pills from someplace as far-flung and foreign as Canada.Their reasoning frightens a substantial portion of the American public, which understandably worries about West Nile virus and AIDS and doesn’t want to consume cyanide with its Tylenol No. 3. But a closer look shows the industry’s pleas to be a deadly deception.The very idea of Canadian drugs posing a safety risk is ludicrous. Canada has its own drug-quality agency, the standards of which meet, and perhaps even exceed, those of our corporate-controlled FDA. To date, no one has died because they bought medications from Canada rather than a U.S. pharmacy. But it’s the financial truth of this situation that ought to enrage Americans most. According to consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, the pharmaceutical industry allots more money to lobbying, advertising and take-home profits than it does bringing new drugs to market. Public Citizen reports the pharmaceutical industry has some 675 paid lobbyists–that’s seven lobbyists for every senator–working in Washington, D.C., to make certain Congress does the industry’s bidding. This costs up to $200 million each year. The industry spends additional millions on federal campaign donations. But these are small potatoes.If you want to know where the money goes, look at the industry’s advertising budget. In 2001, the big pharmaceutical companies spent some $2.5 billion–about 50 times the cost of researching and marketing a new drug–to convince us to ask our doctors for Nexium, Viagra, Paxil and other drugs.But there’s more. When the pharmaceutical industry weeps about the millions it spends bringing new drugs to market, it doesn’t tell us that much of the bill is footed by taxpayers in grants and tax breaks. In fact, taxpayer-funded research has brought us some of today’s most important drugs. Yes, we pay twice–once in taxes and again at the pharmacy.As the most profitable U.S. industry for two decades running, these pharmaceutical giants clearly make enough for their need. What they want to satisfy–at our expense–is their insatiable greed. Rather than adjusting to the conditions of the marketplace by lowering their prices, they’re asking the government for complete market control.But they shouldn’t be surprised when we turn away in disgust and take our business elsewhere. This bitter pill is of their own making.Respond: letters boulderweekly.com 
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on October 30, 2003 at 16:16:37 PT
pokesmotter 
I got an idea. Ron Bennett who owns http://www.cannabis.com/ and http://www.marihemp.com/ and created CNews has a new board that he wants to develop. I believe his boards have a spell check and picture posting ability. I think he wants to use good articles posted on this link for a magazine but I'm not sure. You don't have a size limited on text or at least you can put a lot of data on one post. Here's the link. http://boards.marihemp.com/boards/threadview.shtml?23x0
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Comment #3 posted by AlvinCool on October 30, 2003 at 16:00:49 PT
Always Amazes Me
The joke is that THC started to rise when we quit using HEMP as our #1 fiber over cotton. After that there was no hemp to pollinate the marijuana plants.
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on October 30, 2003 at 15:45:28 PT
pokesmotter 
Can you post it in a comment for us to read? Is it too big? I haven't posted anything but news on CNews but I could make a page and put it on my FTE page. Would that work?
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Comment #1 posted by pokesmotter on October 30, 2003 at 15:34:57 PT:
FoM
hi FoM i have a question for ya--i just wrote a paper for my english class on weed (pro decrim) and i thought it would be a good thing for cannabisnews. i used to have a website i could post it on and put a link to it but i don't anymore. i think it would be of interest to canabisnews readers.
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