Pubdate: Sun, 11 Jul 2010 Source: Record Searchlight (Redding, CA) Copyright: 2010 Record Searchlight Contact: http://www.redding.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/360 Author: Mike Meno ENDING DRUG WAR THE ONLY WAY TO WIN Few people on either side of the marijuana debate would disagree that outdoor illegal marijuana growing operations are enormous problems for the environment in California and states across the country. But when you phrase the debate by asking whether or not these illegal grows are "worth fighting," you miss the point entirely. Officials have been "fighting" these outdoor grows for nearly 30 years - since the creation of the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) in 1983 - and by every objective standard they have only made the problem worse, squandering millions of precious tax dollars and law enforcement resources in the process. Year after year, officers report record-breaking marijuana seizures, and year after year criminals simply plant more. Officials think that they are helping the environment by removing marijuana from protected lands, but in reality, they're the reason those lands have become such attractive growing sites for drug cartels. Prior to 2002, the majority of CAMP seizures took place on private lands or indoors. As a result, the cartels changed their operations, choosing instead to plant marijuana largely in publicly preserved parklands, much to the detriment of California's environment and wildlife. As officers raid more of these sites, they force the cartels to encroach deeper and deeper into protected lands in order to avoid detection. Such tactics, employed by Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko and countless others, do not "keep an out-of-control problem from growing even worse." They make it worse. After almost three decades, it's clear that another strategy is needed. Let's stop wasting money and misappropriating manpower that only further encourages criminals to plant more marijuana, ruin the environment, and terrorize many of our communities. The only solution is to regulate the state's marijuana industry, rendering both the cartels and CAMP obsolete. Mike Meno, Marijuana Policy Project, Washington, D.C. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom