cannabisnews.com: U.S. Battles Marijuana Growers U.S. Battles Marijuana Growers Posted by FoM on January 29, 2000 at 08:14:09 PT By Mark Fineman, Los Angeles Times Source: Detroit News As they tended their little plots in the marijuana fields that blanket the mountainside in full view of this nation's capital, Tornado, Moon and Stump-i lamented their miserable Christmas. First came the Colombians, dumping huge quantities of marijuana at deflated prices throughout the region in a bid to take control of the Caribbean "ganja" marijuana market. Then the U.S. Marines landed. Three Marine combat helicopters packed with Caribbean troops, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents and St. Vincentian police descended on marijuana fields in this remote southeastern corner of the Caribbean just before Christmas. During a weeklong operation dubbed Weedeater, they slashed and burned more than 5 million marijuana plants, seven tons of cured pot and 250 drying huts, arresting 13 farmers and killing one. All this on a small island that per capita is one of the world's largest producers of the drug. "This thing is way overbearing, man," said Stump-i, a fisherman-turned-farmer whose 300-pound harvest went up in smoke. As he spoke, he tended a new crop that will be market-ready in three months. Added Tornado, whose adjacent plot overlooking Kingstown survived: "If the Americans destroy all the marijuana in St. Vincent, they'll destroy St. Vincent. It's the backbone of the economy. It's our livelihood. And now that the Americans have killed us on bananas, we have no other choice." Welcome to St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a nation of 32 islands and about 120,000 people where, according to anthropologists, sociologists and counternarcotics agents, ganja rules. By their estimates, illegal marijuana sales and exports account for close to a fifth of St. Vincent's gross domestic product; as many as a fifth of adults smoke it regularly; and local politicians and business leaders privately concede that the drug is the driving force in the island's economy -- even bigger than its traditional banana crop, which has fallen victim to U.S. trade policy. Most island merchants, in fact, attributed slumping Christmas-season sales of all goods to incomes lost due to the U.S.-led eradication operation. The net effect: Weedeater has inflamed anti-American sentiment and rekindled a movement to decriminalize the drug here, even as it failed to destroy the bulk of the crop. What is more, the State Department concedes that little of St. Vincent's marijuana ends up in the United States. Most is sold along a wide swath of the Caribbean, from the U.S. Virgin Islands to Aruba. So why bother? The annual Operation Weedeater is a training mission for the U.S. Marines and the Barbados-based Regional Security Service, an anti-drug unit staffed by Caribbean nations. Ganja may rule here, but local political leaders assert -- and U.S. officials agree -- that it does not govern. This nation, in fact, is far better known for the largely ganja-free Grenadines, an island chain of white-sand beaches where Rolling Stones rocker Mick Jagger has a winter retreat, the world's rich and famous berth multimillion-dollar yachts and Prime Minister James F. Mitchell makes his home. For Mitchell, the marijuana eradication exercise, financed each year by U.S. taxpayers, is a show of strength, a reminder that politicians are more powerful than planters and that his is a responsible and peace-loving country. Indeed, despite marijuana's economic dominance, St. Vincent has seen little of the soaring crime and violence that is mushrooming in the Caribbean largely as a result of the region's role as a conduit for Colombian cocaine en route to the United States and Europe. "The ganja industry here has not been accompanied by much violence," said Ralph Gonsalves, a lawyer and member of parliament who heads the political opposition. "You've had instances where people will fight over a particular marijuana crop, but you also have violent land disputes over other crops. "It's simply amazing for an industry that generates so much money to have been so free of violence." But local police officials and outside analysts worry that the phenomenon may not last. Rens Lee, a Virginia author and consultant on the drug trade who recently studied St. Vincent, called it and other Caribbean islands involved in trafficking "tinder boxes." "In St. Vincent, this dependence on marijuana is unhealthy," he said. "As long as this is an illegal drug, it's going to be a source of tension." YORKE MOUNTAIN, St. Vincent Copyright 2000, The Detroit NewsRelated Articles:St. Vincent Worries Its Future's Going to Pot - 1/16/2000http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread4336.shtmlThat Wacky Tobaccy - 10/12/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3257.shtmlJamaica Mulls Legalizing Marijuana - 8/25/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread2612.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #1 posted by gonzo on April 16, 2001 at 12:32:43 PT marijuana I think that part of the reason for their policy of illegality is part of an underlying international subterfuge to keep other low economic countries down so that the united nations have more control over potentialy developmental contries that could get ahead of the polital world iron fist of control [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: