Emerald Triangle CAMP pot raids starting two weeks early

(Press-Democrat)UKIAH — State marijuana eradication teams are arriving on the North Coast today, two weeks earlier than usual.

The early start is expected to yield yet another record confiscation of pot plants, Gregory said. Local officials already are reporting higher seizures this year.

Statewide last year, federal, state and local officers who make up CAMP seized 2.9 million plants worth an estimated $11.6 billion. A separate federal effort last year bumped up the number of plants seized in California to 5.2 million.

The ever increasing numbers have confounded even marijuana advocates.

The price of marijuana has remained stable at about $300 an ounce, indicating there’s been little or no change in local supply and demand, said Dale Gieringer, of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

He said immigration crackdowns along the Mexican border have induced Mexican nationals to grow pot in California for distribution elsewhere in the United States rather than try to smuggle marijuana across the border.

Yet another waste of effort paid for by the taxpayers of California while tens of thousands of prisoners will be set free because there isn’t enough money in the budget to house them all.  If you are eliminating $11.6 billion worth of marijuana from the market and it doesn’t cause the market price to budge one cent, that should tell you that your efforts are futile.

However, don’t let the 2.9 million plants = $11.6 billion fool you.  Most – 96%-98%, depending on year – of the marijuana eradicated by the government is feral hemp, a ditchweed with such low THC content it won’t get you high.

Cannabis Culture called US NORML Executive Director Allen St Pierre and discovered the unthinkable: the US federal government is responsible for growing more outdoor weed than even the most green-thumbed gang of ganja lovers.

“In past years, hemp stock makes up almost 96% of the cannabis eradicated,” explained St Pierre. “It’s actually ditch-weed left over from the World War II crop that the US government grew for the war effort. They often claim it’s recreational, but it isn’t.”

Ironically, says St Pierre, the government is still hemp’s best farmer today.

“They will come for these crops with two or three helicopters, hauling large, rubber mesh bags with two and half to four tons of material that has largely gone to seed. On the way to the burn pit, 10 or 20 miles away, thousands of seeds drop out of the bags, and police literally seed their own jobs for the next year. Then they burn the hemp and take pictures for the media, claiming to have taken millions of joints off the streets. It’s a big dog and pony show.”