Pubdate: Sun, 05 Aug 2012
Source: Idaho Press-Tribune (ID)
Copyright: 2012 The Idaho Press-Tribune
Contact:  http://www.idahopress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/203
Author: Randy Stapilus
Note: Randy Stapilus is a former Idaho newspaper reporter and editor, 
author of The Idaho Political Field Guide

BORDERING STATES' MARIJUANA LAWS COULD AFFECT IDAHO

In remote mountains at about 7,000 feet, above the small southeast 
Idaho farm town of Grace, developed one of the largest and more 
sophisticated criminal enterprises Idaho has recently seen. There 
must have been some crooked smiles among purveyors of the illicit as 
they passed through.

A mass coalition of law enforcement agencies, including even the 
state National Guard, swept into the Caribou County backcountry last 
week and found an estimated 40,000 marijuana plants. Street value 
estimates in such cases often are inflated, but it had to have been 
large. There was law enforcement talk of possible connections to a 
Mexican cartel; the size of the operation would argue in favor of that theory.

That was not the only big pot bust recently. Southwest of Jerome, 
1,100 marijuana plants were found in an aerial recon, also last week. 
The week before, they found another 6,500 plants in a Gooding County field.

The fact of these big recent grow finds isn't proof of major recent 
growth of an Idaho marijuana industry. But it feels like evidence.

Could even be some cause and effect. Barring coincidence, if large 
organizations really are behind these big grow operations, what's 
happening in neighboring states may have something to do with it.

Eight states may have marijuana-related measures, all aimed at 
liberalizing pot law, on their ballots this fall. In Oregon and 
Washington, measures to legalize, tax and regulate have hit the 
ballot and have a fair chance of passing. Colorado voters will 
consider a similar option.

In these states, if the measures pass, there'll be a big tussle with 
the federal government, whose anti-pot laws will not have changed at 
all. But there will also be further growth - probably a ballooning - 
of above-the-table grow operations. In Oregon there already are a 
number of large farming businesses openly growing marijuana under the 
state's medical marijuana law. Their formal status is pretty 
gray-area, even apart from the federal law, but passage of the state 
ballot issue almost certainly would mean an expansion.

Is it coincidence that more hidden grow operations are turning up in 
Idaho? Nationally, the Drug Enforcement Agency reports seizures 
overall fell 35 percent from 2010 to 2011.

It may be that more of the pot traffic in Oregon and Washington, and 
some other states, is becoming internalized as it becomes available 
through near-conventional means. In Idaho, where even a modest 
proposal to legalize hemp (which has no psychotropic effect but does 
have many other marketable uses) has gone nowhere, the underground 
is, well, deeper underground. There may be less of an Oregon 
marketplace for traditional criminal lines of traffic, but these 
connections are relatively unchanged in Idaho.

State laws matter. When Washington liquor sales moved, some weeks 
ago, from state stores to private retail sales, prices bounced up. 
That's probably a short-term phenomenon, but for the moment at least 
it has led to heavy traffic in lower-priced Idaho state liquor 
stores, presumably from Washington residents. (The same thing has 
happened on the Washington-Oregon border.)

What sort of ongoing effects might Idaho see if there's a sorta-kinda 
pot legalization, and marketplace, west of the Idaho line, and none to the east?
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom