No we Cant? - "Legalization is not in the president's vocabulary, and it's not in min

Drug czar: Feds won't support legalized pot


Published online on Wednesday, Jul. 22, 2009

By Marc Benjamin / The Fresno Bee

The federal government is not going to pull back on its efforts to curtail marijuana farming operations, Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, said Wednesday in Fresno.
The nation's drug czar, who viewed a foothill marijuana farm on U.S. Forest Service land with state and local officials earlier Wednesday, said the federal government will not support legalizing marijuana.
"Legalization is not in the president's vocabulary, and it's not in mine," he said.

Kerlikowske said he can understand why legislators are talking about taxing marijuana cultivation to help cash-strapped government agencies in California. But the federal government views marijuana as a harmful and addictive drug, he said.

"Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit," Kerlikowske said in downtown Fresno while discussing Operation SOS -- Save Our Sierra -- a multiagency effort to eradicate marijuana in eastern Fresno County.
Marijuana plants valued at more than $1.26 billion have been confiscated and 82 people arrested over the past 10 days in Fresno County. The operation started last week and is continuing.
By comparison, Tulare County's leading commodity -- milk -- was valued at about $1.8 billion in 2008.

Officials say the marijuana-eradication operation will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, but the exact amount won't be known until agencies can add up staffing, vehicle and other costs.
In Operation SOS, more than 314,000 plants were uprooted in 70 gardens -- numbers expected to rise as the enforcement action continues. Agents also seized $41,000 in cash, 26 firearms and three vehicles.
Planning for the operation began in February and focused on marijuana crops being backed by Mexican drug cartels, Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims said.

Mims said many cartels are involved, but she would not name any because the investigation is still under way. All but one person arrested was from Mexico, officials said.

One hundred growers may still be on the loose, said Fresno County sheriff's Lt. Rick Ko. Many may have gotten rides out of the area, but some could still be in the Sierra, Ko said.

Last year, Fresno County deputies seized 188,000 marijuana plants.
In just one week, nearly twice as many plants were seized, Mims said, "so you can imagine how many we were missing."

Statewide, more than 5.3 million plants were seized in 2008, or two of every three confiscated in the United States, said Bill Ruzzamenti, director of the Central Valley High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.
"The amount of drugs out there scares most of us," he said.

Volunteers are going into the gardens to clean up trash, dead animals and pesticides to return the land as close to its original condition as possible. But it could take years for the land to recover, because little can be done once fertilizers and pesticides seep into the ground or stream beds.
"For every acre of marijuana grown, 10 acres are damaged," said George Anderson with the California Department of Justice.

The reporter can be reached at [email protected] or (559) 441-6166.

Big P said:

Volunteers are going into the gardens to clean up trash, dead animals and pesticides to return the land as close to its original condition as possible. But it could take years for the land to recover, because little can be done once fertilizers and pesticides seep into the ground or stream beds.
"For every acre of marijuana grown, 10 acres are damaged," said George Anderson with the California Department of Justice.

The reporter can be reached at [email protected] or (559) 441-6166.

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anyone catch the irony of this paragraph?

Some how the cannabis grows there, but once it is gone the earth is toxic?

A good outdoor spot is kept clean to avoid detection and reuse the land. Maybe Mexican drug carels have different logic from most growers.

jeebuscheebus said:

Some how the cannabis grows there, but once it is gone the earth is toxic?

A good outdoor spot is kept clean to avoid detection and reuse the land. Maybe Mexican drug carels have different logic from most growers.

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If the growers think someone is onto their spot, they'll leave it behind. All of it. Also when the cops find a grow spot, they trash it - and they don't clean up the mess, they just leave it. So most of the post-growing "trash" is actually left behind by law enforcement, not the growers themselves.


I wouldn't pay too much attention to what the "drug czar" says. It's his job to oppose ANY efforts to legalize drugs or soften up drug policies, even if he has to lie in the process (which he almost always does) The drug czar doesn't speak for the President, either.

doobnVA said:

If the growers think someone is onto their spot, they'll leave it behind. All of it. Also when the cops find a grow spot, they trash it - and they don't clean up the mess, they just leave it. So most of the post-growing "trash" is actually left behind by law enforcement, not the growers themselves.


I wouldn't pay too much attention to what the "drug czar" says. It's his job to oppose ANY efforts to legalize drugs or soften up drug policies, even if he has to lie in the process (which he almost always does) The drug czar doesn't speak for the President, either.

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ya but the president hired him and the president is his boss. Im pretty sure most people do what thier boss tells them to do or they risk displeasing their boss.

and he went as far as to speak for the president which means he has been authorised to do this.



once the presidents approval ratings start falling in the dumps we will be the first pieces of riff raff he throws under the bus to try to get his numbers up again.


we are pawns as usual

Big P said:

once the presidents approval ratings start falling in the dumps we will be the first pieces of riff raff he throws under the bus to try to get his numbers up again.


we are pawns as usual

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Unfortunately you are accurate about this.

Big P said:

ya but the president hired him and the president is his boss. Im pretty sure most people do what thier boss tells them to do or they risk displeasing their boss.

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Actually, his duties are laid out by Congress and not the President. It's written into law that he should:

take such actions as necessary to oppose any attempt to legalize the use of a substance (in any form) that--

1. is listed in schedule I of section 202 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 812); and
2. has not been approved for use for medical purposes by the Food and Drug Administration;

This is why you've got Obama saying that the DEA won't go after people who are using drugs in accordance with state law (medical marijuana), but you've got Gil saying that mj has "no medical value". He KNOWS it's a lie, but he can't support even the medicinal use of marijuana, because of the statutes that govern his position at the ONDCP.

Now, I think the guy is a schmutz, but I kind of feel sorry for him in a way. I mean, here he is day after day on the TV saying the same old tired lies about cannabis. He's GOT to realize he sounds like an idiot, but he has to keep opposing ANY effort to decriminalize or legalize drugs because the LAW requires him to.

Crappy job, if you ask me.

I think he was the governor that allowed Hempfest to happen in Seattle.

he is the ex police chief for seattle nothing more nothing less he only took the job cause it pays 4x what his old job paid, 1.8 billion man that could have been taxed and sold and pay for some teachers of firefighters or new schools or free health clinics in stead they spend millions to fight a battle they will never win, pot grower unight throw your seeds to the wind farm the USA and make pot the only weed on the side of the road

imagine lushish sativas and indicas all over the sides of the road, they will be so busy trying to kill all the wild pot plants we can grow like crazy in our back yards

Here's a good example of a man who has seen first hand that making marijuana the lowest police priority didn't cause any sort of major upheaval in "addiction" or crime but can stand up and lie repeatedly and lose no sleep over it. There's no way he actually believes that "marijuana is dangerous and has no medical benefit." Just another prohibitionist puppet in law enforcement.