cannabisnews.com: Drug Czar Says Pot Guards Endanger Public Lands 





Drug Czar Says Pot Guards Endanger Public Lands 
Posted by CN Staff on December 15, 2003 at 21:30:53 PT
By Don Thompson, Associated Press Writer
Source: Associated Press 
Sacramento, Calif. -- Mexican cartels have taken over much of California's marijuana farming, boosting both the potency of the drug and the propensity for violence from armed guards protecting the crop, the nation's drug czar said Monday. They're planting huge marijuana plots on public lands, creating a growing danger to hikers and hunters stumbling into the line of fire, said John Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy, in advance of appearances Tuesday in Reno and South Lake Tahoe, Nev.
California's Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement estimated that 84 percent of plants seized this year were controlled by Mexican gangs, in what the bureau called "a major strategic and organizational shift" from recent decades. "Many people think of marijuana growing as just run by a bunch of guys who are Cheech and Chong in the movies, kind of fun-loving guys," Walters said in an interview with The Associated Press. "These are violent organizations. They're using violence without hesitation -- it's part of doing business to them." The multibillion-dollar Mexican cartels have discovered it's safer and more profitable to grow marijuana in the United States than to try to smuggle it across the border, he said. Instead, they're often importing guards and handing them firearms with orders to shoot at anyone coming by. They're also branching into methamphetamine production, often using what authorities have dubbed "super labs." And this summer authorities for the first time discovered 40,000 opium poppies growing in a remote area of the Sierra National Forest bordering Yosemite National Park. The poppy plants originated in Mexico, Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Richard Meyer said Monday. "The public lands have become a preferred area of operation for these organizations that are increasingly violent and sophisticated," Walters said. "People think they're hiking in a remote wilderness area, and they come across these plots or these labs and they're run by armed and violent criminals." Three-fourths of the marijuana gardens discovered by California authorities this year were on public lands like state and national parks and forests. As recently as 2001, the majority of plants were seized from private land. California's recent harvest season was one of the most violent in years. In just one deadly week in September, law enforcement officials in Northern California fatally shot four armed guards protecting marijuana plantations. San Luis Obispo County sheriff's deputies were shot at as they entered a garden; a hunter walking near a marijuana grove in Los Padres National Forest was shot at by three men armed with automatic weapons; and guards tending a Ventura County garden shot at a backcountry hunter. Walters is to address federal, state and local officials from California's Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) Tuesday, but said he also wants to hear more from them about the trends they're discovering, which appear to be spreading to other states. Earlier in the day he is scheduled to tour Step 2's Lighthouse of the Sierra drug treatment program in Reno. Federal, state and local drug agents are working up models that can better predict where the drugs will be grown or made, Walters said. In addition, the U.S. Forest Service, Park Service and Bureau of Land Management are making drug enforcement a bigger priority, which he said should make next year a record year for fighting drug activity on public lands. Improved intelligence is the greatest need, he said. The Mexican government under President Vicente Fox is targeting drug cartels that pose that nation's greatest risk of domestic terrorism and corruption, and has improved its drug operations to the point that U.S. and Mexican authorities now share sensitive information they wouldn't have dreamed of disclosing a few years ago. "We've had a greater cooperation in the last several years than we'd had the last 20," Walters said. "These groups have been using the border as a shield. We're increasingly taking away that shield." Squeezing the balloon in Mexico pushes more of it into the United States. The size of marijuana plots discovered in California has grown, as has the potency of the drug, Walters said. Twelve California raids netted seizures of at least 10,000 plants this year, and one plantation had more than 70,000 plants. The average raid resulted in a seizure of 2,500 plants. The CAMP program seized a record 466,054 plants this year -- up 100,000 plants from last year with a street value law enforcement officials estimated at $1.9 billion. They also seized 50 weapons. State and federal agents said growers are using a higher grade sinsemilla marijuana with much more of the active component tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. Marijuana that had a 1 percent concentration of THC in the 1980s and perhaps 4 percent in the 1990s now has a national average of 7 percent to 9 percent. The potency can reach 13 percent to 15 percent in marijuana grown outdoors, and near 30 percent indoors, Walters said. Those high concentrations mean more profit per pound as well. Marijuana that went for $2,000 a pound in 1983 sells for $4,000 to $10,000 per pound 20 years later. Complete Title: AP Interview: Drug Czar Says Pot Guards Endanger Public Lands On the Net: http://www.ag.ca.gov/   Source: Associated Press Author: Don Thompson, Associated Press WriterPublished:  Monday, December 15, 2003 Copyright: 2003 Associated Press Related Articles:AG Lockyer Celebrate Record Marijuana Harvest http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17705.shtmlIllegal Crops on Forest Land Go Up In Smoke http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17701.shtmlMarijuana is County's No. 2 Crophttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17699.shtml
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Comment #5 posted by jose melendez on December 16, 2003 at 06:52:25 PT
go figure: prohibition increases costs
28 grams times $25 times 16 ounces = $11,200Cost to W.A.M.M. to produse 1 gram of marijuana: 94 cents
illegal laws 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #4 posted by Petard on December 15, 2003 at 23:01:18 PT
New King of Pot Comedy???
Maybe with Chong in jail Johnny Pee is auditioning to replace him in the next Cheech and Chong movie? How else can anyone think of him when he makes statements like, "marijuana of 1980's that had 1% THC", and, "worth $10,000 per pound"?? I was smoking in the 80's and it wasn't rope that's for sure. And I have no earthly idea what the going price for a single joint is today, but even if applying the per joint price to the concept of rolling an entire pound for sale, I still can't reasonably come up with $10k per pound. (assuming "pin" joints of 1/4 gram each, it comes out to $5.50 per joint with liberal rounding of #'s, and that's gonna be over 1800 joints. Ouch, my fingers hurt just thinking of rolling that many, that small, at one time.Not to mention the paper cuts on my tongue from licking the gummed edges 1800+ times.)Got any other one liners for us Johnny Pee?Now let's see, if I'm a small, family farmer in America today, relying upon Federal Subsidies, and even getting paid for not planting portions of my acreage, what other commodities will gross me $10,000 per pound? Hmmm, taters? nah. carrots? nope. cotton? not hardly. corn, peas, beans, soybeans, grapes, lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, onions? nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, and nope again. Gee, not one single other crop will gross such high prices. If I were a farmer, I'd demand the Fed declare war on all my produce!! I'd want profits like these guys get. Hell, if I was the CEO of ConAgra, or some other corpo-rat farm operation, I'd buy me some politicians to declare war on the company's products for profits like this!!! Talk about FarmAid, the fed declaring War on Plants is THE biggest subsidy program ever for farmers. No wonder Mom and Pop farmers are turning to herb farming. Get the govt. check for not planting peas and plant this hidden subsidized crop instead and all of a sudden the farm is operating in the black again.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #3 posted by SystemGoneDown on December 15, 2003 at 22:23:28 PT:
"The Marijuana Epidemic"...don't trust our go
John Walters is doing 1 of 2 things if not both. He must really think the public is stupid, or he himself must be stupid. The 2nd one is most likely true, but the first is very likely to. He's spitting all these facts that show the growing problem of marijuana(to him it's a problem) and it's increasing street value.......or the REAL problem, marijuana prohibition. I find it obviously clear that all these numbers and statistics are contradicting his precious drug war. There would be no Mexican drug cartels ran in our own land if pot were legal. This would eliminate the violence associated with these guarded weed fields. Legalization would bring down prices so you and I could stop busting our pockets for our stash. These "criminals" are doing a public service, morally right or not. That's what's flawed with this clown Walters and his DEA dictators, weed will always be here, legal or not. Viewing it as an epidemic is the most blatant way the U.S. is dealing with marijuana. DOES ANYONE LISTEN TO SYSTEM OF A DOWN?The U.S. drug war sums up everything you need to know about our government. They KNOW the truth. They know marijuana should be legal... but what do they do? I'll tell you...Coservatives have been spitting BS for so long, that they themselves believe their own BS, while liberals are intimidated by conservatives and are afraid to do the right thing(legalization)... so they decide to 'Play Ball'.Alchol Companies, Petroleum, paper, medicine, and other energy companies will flat out go bankrupt if hemp became the #1 source for energy, medicinal, and recreational needs. If you combine all these major company stocks, you got alot of power. And that's when our System of Democracy falls. When corporations become so rich and powerful that they influence laws(such as marijuana legalization), it will lead to unconstitutional and fascist ways of enforcing laws, including; federal gov't overrulling state, censored facts and media, and cover-ups left and right.The JFK assasination is very similar to the War on marijuana... it's a conspiracy to protect and enhance major corporate gains... all this in a System where Democracy has reached ultimate emperial glory, to a point where MONEY RULES ALL, by any means necessary... I'm not a communist by any means, but this System has proven to become exploited. It is our responsibility as Americans, as stated by our Founding Fathers, that we maintain the gov't reserved FOR THE PEOPLE.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by FoM on December 15, 2003 at 22:02:52 PT
$10,000 a Pound
I've never heard of prices like that ever. Where do they come up with these figures?
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by Virgil on December 15, 2003 at 22:00:37 PT
Thanks for that report from officialdom
The problem is prohibition. If you want to pretend to be a reporter you should include in in any article that has Walters' words.
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment