Marijuana eradication plans may stop soon
www.pulseheadlines.com/marijuana-eradication-plans-stop/51974/
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has worked with marijuana eradication programs all over the United States’ territory, using almost $14 million to operate them. Lawmakers are now considering the elimination of the program.
Already, twelve members of the Congress are pushing to ditch marijuana eradication funds and operations to use the money to fund different programs that may have a more significant impact.
Pulling marijuana is expensive
Last year, the marijuana eradication program in New Hampshire was one of the leading examples of the inadequacy of the programs to control marijuana production. Around $20,000 were used to implement the program that ended pulling a single grow site where 27 plants were found. Utah, on the other hand, used $70,000 and no marijuana plants were removed.
However, the DEA did pull almost 3 million marijuana plants last year, and in those operations, authorities were able to seize nearly 2,000 weapons, only in California. The problem seems to be linked to the particular State, then.
The first action to improve the way marijuana eradication funds are used was to study which states needed funds and how much money was necessary for each program. This led to the elimination of marijuana eradication programs in Alaska, Colorado, and Vermont.
Kentucky, California, Tennessee, Georgia, and Washington are still receiving a considerable amount of money to encourage these programs. The first two are the states were more marijuana plants have been eradicated.
This year, for example, Washington received more than $700,000 to activate the program. These funds are considered alarming by some critics that point out that Washington is the only state where people can not grow their own plants, and recreational marijuana can only be bought in stores, while in the DC happens the contrary.
California’s status
While California is among the states where the eradication programs are effective, voters in the state will once again reconsider the legalization of recreational use of marijuana. The final decision on this issue may significantly affect the way the DEA operates in the state.
The Proposition 64 needs more than half of the voters’ population to pass, but if it does, recreational use of marijuana -and not only medicinal use- will be allowed to residents of the sunny state. So far, the drug remains illegal.
To some people, California’s choice is relevant to the rest of the nation and allowing recreational use of marijuana in this state may open the door to eliminate the federal prohibition, considering the pressure California can put in national politics.
The proposition document is backed by several companies, political actors and health professionals that have raised a significant amount of money to reinforce the campaign. Detractors have failed in trying to raise an equal sum of money for their campaign.
Members of Congress fighting to stop the DEA
“It makes zero sense for the federal government to continue to spend taxpayer dollars on cannabis eradication at a time when states across the country are looking to legalize marijuana. I will continue to fight against DEA’s Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program in Congress and work to redirect these funds to worthwhile programs,” said Rep. Ted Lieuto The Denver Post.
Other 11 representatives in the Congress agree that the Domestic Cannabis Eradication Program must end. The DEA, on the other hand, considers necessary the aggressive strive halt the spread of cannabis cultivation in the country, considering that marijuana is the primary drug of abuse grown within the U.S. borders.
Filed under: General Problems
When will this foolishness end? The failed war against cannabis has been a waste of government resources and tax dollars.It has been a waste of time by authorities that could be spending that time more wisely and efficiently going after the producers and transporters of the dangerous and deadly drugs,heroin,meth,pcp,fake pills filled with deadly amounts of fentanyl,synthetic poisons from China such as spice.But pulling up weeds that will just grow again like,weeds.What is the sense in that?
The idiotic war against a harmless,non-lethal herb needs to end.The following is a documented quote made by a former DEA law judge, Francis Young in 1988,after 2 years of hearings on cannabis rescheduling;”Marijuana in its natural form is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.It has been accepted as capable of relieving distress of great numbers of very ill people and doing so with safety under medical supervision.It would be Unreasonable and capricious for DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of their substance in light of the “evidence” in this record.” That was 26 years ago this statement was made by a respected authority in the very agency that continues to pull weeds.
One of the main architects in the Nixon administration of the current ongoing war against a medicinal herb,was a man name of John Ehrlichman.The following is a quote he made in his later years,;”We understood we couldn’t make it illegal to be young,poor,or black,in the USA,but we could criminalize their common pleasure.We understood that drugs were not the health problem we were making them out to be,but it was such a perfect issue, that we couldn’t resist it.”
A government sponsored report made at the request of President Nixon in March of 1972,was called the Shafer commission.They concluded the following;” Neither marijuana use,or the user,or the drug itself can be said to constitute a danger to public safety.” This was not what Nixon wanted to hear,so he chose to ignore it and continue his war against the people of the USA who smoked a flower!
There is a plethora of other information through the years that can easily refute the insanity of this herb listed as a schedule1 substance.There is a great book that sums up very well the insanity of this war against a a medicinal safe herb called,”Chasing the scream” written by Johann Hari.I would advise anyone interested in this subject to read this book.There is a reason that almost half the states in our country have legalized medical cannabis,and several other states have legalized it for recreational use.That reason is,people enjoy feeling good,and those with medical conditions find relief with this non-addictive safe weed.It is past time for it to be legalized at the federal level,and taken off that inappropriate schedule 1category.
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Typical use of our tax dollars. If I were from Utah I would want to know what they spent $70,000 without one plant being pulled in fact being that they were federal tax dollars I want that answer!