Sheriff Clears $87 Million in Pot from Los Padres

Cue the anti-immigration comments in
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Dam immigrants are stealing our jobs ...man!

mesa dude: explain the anti immigration comments..

I think I got mesamike's reference:

"the unholy abundance of wordy Minutemen types who have chimed in on this website with dicey, Manechaen commentary on local gangs and crime are going to show up any minute!"

mesamike said it much better. (But where are those Minutemen?)

Much of the illegal agricultural use of our National Forest lands are the work of Mexican cartels and their employees - sent across the border to tend for (and guard with their lives) a plot of land for 6 months.

Running across an illegal marijuana patch in the wild is a far more frightening proposition than encountering a bear or cougar. Neither of those species carry rifles.

While I love to rage *against* the "War on Drugs," I certainly believe that these plantations are harmful to our National Forests - fertilizers, runoff, and the danger posed to recreational users of this land, are all factors that need to be appreciated here.

Please, grow your cannabis on private property.

fearbeneath,

No property owner in their right mind would allow large amounts of these plants to be grown on their property in fear that their property would be seized.

I'm glad you recognize the WOsD as being a bad thing, but just chalk this up to another problem created by it.

"mesa dude: explain the anti immigration comments.."

I was just expecting the usual suspects to get on their soapbox and begin ranting.

http://www.independent.com/news/2008/jul...

The last comment was removed....

http://www.independent.com/news/2008/jul...

The first comment is a prime example.

If I had more time I could find plenty more references. Just look at any of the articles regarding the recent high profile crimes.

I'm with fearbeneath and Barney Frank. Pot should be leagalized for personal use and grown on private property. The jailings, ecological damage, and the vast amounts of money spent on the eradification of this Divine plant would all go away. Stay tuned to the Rep. Barney Frank proposal.

I worked with the Forest Service, once upon a time. Let's talk about the total nonsense that these statistics represent:

35000 plants - we will *generously* estimate that they produce 8 quality ounces per plant of re-sellable female cannabis flowers. A somewhat low figure, but given the area and conditions of the farms, not unreasonable. That gives us roughly 17000 pounds of cannabis.

The VERY BEST cannabis in Santa Barbara clubs goes for $9000/ pound, resale. The clubs buy it for closer to $4000/ pound. Again, this is for the very best in California (and henceforth, the world.) Cannabis grown outdoors by Mexican cartels is not going to possess tremendous quality. Access to sophisticated growing equipment simply isn't feasible in the National Forest. So we'll guess they can offload their crop for about $2000/ pound.

17000 pounds of medium-grade cannabis for $2000/ pound (generous figures) would be about 34 million dollars. Optimistically, about 30% of what is claimed. I'd call that a significant margin of error. Historically, the entire plant has even been weighed for "street value" - rootball, vegetative material, and all. Not very truthful.

Just another way the war on drugs is propagandizing the American taxpayer.

A wise teacher once told me:

"There are three types of lies: Lies, Damn Lies...

and Statistics."

Read 7/28 article by David Samuels in the New Yorker Magazine on pot in California; very interesting read and nothing to do with immigration. But it seems to me that the capitalist a.k.a. "republican" society we live in now reflects the truth of the matter; we want it now and we want it cheap, no matter what the human cost. Go China!

livedinsb and rose,

I urge you to see who the Republican co-sponsor of the bill livedinsb referred to.

He is still running for President.

Hey Doc: Can we cut through the mustard here?

"Again, this is for the very best in California (and henceforth, the world.) Cannabis grown outdoors by Mexican cartels is not going to possess tremendous quality."

Does the term *quality* mean you ain't gonna get so stoned as the good **it?

I thought we were talking about the cure aspects of ingesting smoke....Oh yeah, smoke....go figure..Carbon footprint...But that is an OK carbon footprint, huh?

Just like Mayor Gavin Newsom and his war on plastic bottles and shopping bags....Well...all plastic except for the thousands of plastic drug syringes he doles out to the dopers in his berg...Then there's the bio-hazard when the addicts toss their slammers into the sand next to the swing sets that kids play in. But hey...Maybe he used a plastic condom when he cheated on his ol' lady...just a paw print in the grand scheme of things.

Back to the subject: I agree if someone is so sick that they need pain relief--GIVE THEM WHAT THEY NEED. If I was dyin', I would want whatever, but to be frank, my niece , who has been a pot head since her teens, walked in, **tched about menstrual cramps--got a freakin Rx...WHY?

Unless someone tells me different, I'm throwing down the BS card and saying that the large agenda behind "Compassionate Care" is just an increment toward a high society.

Sure there are some legit patients, and God love em, but refer back to my first sentence.

I now splay myself for ideological dissection. Yes I was snotty about Newsome, but call me a liar...

Azure, obviously the "boozed" society in your mind is better that a "high" society? Maybe we should burn all the vineyards in SYV then? Ask Fess and Firestone what they think about that.

Ok to abuse oxycotin but not pot, right? Just ask Rush Limbaugh, the shining intellect of the Republican party.

How does CAMP spend every year? Ask the laid off state workers where they think the budget money should be going...

Well, maybe I'm not saying keep it illegal. Maybe I'm saying that Compassonate Care should just fess up if that is what they are seeking.

It's like the guy at the Carrillo off ramp who holds up the "Homeless Vet" sign versus the other guy who holds up the "Why Lie...I need a drink" sign..That's where I was heading..

maybe the rash of immigration comments is warranted and some people need to stop being so delicate about the problem here.

CNN reports on the illegal immigration problem: "Mexican cartels running pot farms in U.S. national forest."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/08/08/pot....

"Illegal immigrants connected to Mexico's drug cartels are growing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of marijuana in the heart of one of America's national treasures, authorities say. It's a booming business that, federal officials say, feeds Mexico's most violent drug traffickers."