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Government plans large-scale marijuana raids in six California counties

July 7, 2011

Marijuana growers in the Mendocino National Forest will be the targets of the largest series of law enforcement raids ever conducted in Northern California. [California Watch]

Later this summer, as illegal grow operations start winding up for the surge in blooms and gearing up for harvest, Operation Full Court Press will unleash hundreds of local, state and federal agents into six counties.

The raids will target illegal growers who set up huge plantations of the crop, with some grows numbering in the tens of thousands.

Law enforcement agents contend that many of the operations have links to large Mexican drug trafficking rings.

Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman says the operation will help investigators target the organized criminal groups behind the illegal pot trade.

“The operation this year is going to have an impact on drug-trafficking organizations, marijuana supply that affects the rest of the nation,” he said.

Bruce Anderson, publisher of the Anderson Valley Advertiser, has his doubts.

“You are not going to catch Mr. Big in the pot patch with $100,000 in cash,” he said. The expensive, large-scale force will, as has happened in the past, find few, if any, growers when they get there, he added. The growers, with access to modern technology and cell phones, will be well alerted and long gone.

For more information behind the explosion in illegal pot growing on public lands in California, listen to KQED’s The California Report, which has been airing the series, “The Republic of Cannabis.”


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Thanks for citing Bruce Anderson & the AVA, one of a very few local papers left with muchos huevos. On it’s print edition masthead these words were prominent:


“War on the Palaces, Peace to the Cottages”


along with Joseph Pulitzer’s:


“Newspapers should have no friends”


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The so-called “War on Drugs” is nothing more than a self feeding cycle; the government (under the direction of President Nixon) announces back in the ’70s that drugs are a huge problem and that a “War on Drugs” is going to protect the citizens. The police forces all across the nation are militarized to the point that some of the larger cities actually have tank like vehicles for use in approaching suspected drug houses. Any time an arrest is made, the agency in charge confiscates ALL of the property and monies associated with those who were arrested, the confiscated vehicles are either then used by those agencies or sold and the monies raised along with the monies confiscated is used for further funding of those law enforcement agencies and all of the confiscated material is displayed to show how “effective” that agency was in going after the supposed drug ring. The agencies HAVE TO continue with these raids to fulfill their mission, so it keeps going on and on, around and around, a vicious circle, and nobody is “safer” due to these raids on marijuana growers, ever. Make it legal, go after the meth dealers and makers who actually do pose a safety threat to general population. Let’s grow up about this “herb” that grows so easily that that is why it was eventually called “weed”. Sheesh.


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Yep, just a vicious circle. Legalize it, get the feds out of it. It’s all about the money. Gotta keep it illegal in order to keep the price up. The feds don’t want any competition when they go about their business. AND THE FEDS ARE THE BIGGEST DRUG PUSHERS AND TRAFFICKERS ON EARTH!


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I say make it legal across the board. Get the Feds out of it and leave us alone. The Feds are in enough trouble. Gustapo methods to stop people from smoking medicine. Stupid laws. I’ll stick to home grown. I don’t grow it but I know where to buy it if I want it.

We didn’t have it when we were in high school but I wish we did. Might have cut way back on drinking.


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“We didn’t have it when we were in high school”.


Oh my you are old!! Just kidding but I’m pretty old and there was a lot of pot when I was in HS. If my grandfather was alive he would about a 100 years old now. Many years ago he told me that people smoked pot when he was younger although he didn’t say that it was in his high school he said it was quite popular with young people during the liquor prohibition era. You must have been about 30 years old then,,,,(JK). My Grandfather told me that later on all those guys like the Rat Pack crew smoked pot fairly openly. My point is that although not as popular as now it’s been fairly popular for a long time but it used to be more behind closed doors then in the recent 30 years.

.


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In high school I was living on Catalina Island. Graduated in 1962 from Avalon High. First time I heard about pot was when my buddy came back from college for a visit after we had graduated. He offered it to me but I regretfully declined his offer. I was afraid I’d get hooked. I smoked a little in my 20s but quit when my wife and I had kids.

My grandkids talked me into trying it when I turned 65. I loved it. When I stopped smoking I stopped all smoking. But I didn’t stop eating. MJ is still my close friend thanks to the grandkids.


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You are too funny, grandpa wants me to pick up a few brownies at the pharma. again. Not like the old days when gramps only wanted grand kids to pick up a bottle of Geritol at the pharma. Gramps doesn’t need Geritol now that he’s eating brownies,,,one reason that big corp pharma doesn’t want pot legal but Betty Crocker does..


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take two tokes with one aspirin see if it does not work better than two aspirin alone for pain .


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Who needs aspirin. Actually a lot of people get an upset stomach from aspirin and the evil weed can also help in some cases alleviate that issue.


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I must have it enter without knowing it…cont. Zap you are the answer man, you are like the person that writes those books everyone has laying around that we use to look up interesting little facts or trivia except you usually use links instead of books.


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Get on YouTube and type this in:


U.S. soldiers Grow Opium/Heroin Poppy in Afghanistan


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Mexican drug cartels predict higher profits after these raids. I personally do not think any American lives will be better off by busting some pot growers. LE should go after meth, gangs and corrupt politicians.


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The biggest meth game in town is Teva Pharmaceuticals, Barr Pharmaceuticals, and Shire, and they market DIRECTLY to children.. So if that’s going to be the policy, let’s at least be consistent about the enforcement.


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The problem is two-fold. First, if you were in law enforcement, what would you rather be doing, dealing with meth and gang issues or flying around in the helicopter looking at the scenery? Plants don’t shoot back, I guess. Second, most of the public is so stupid, they think that they’ll be safer knowing there are less plants growing in the forest. Let’s face it, killing pot plants in the back woods does not improve the quality of anyone’s life.


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We have to get the drug cartels out of our forests. They are destroying and contaminating the land, they are dumping insecticides and fertilizers in our rivers and creeks, and polluting the ground water. The best way to avoid the destruction, however, is to seal the border and prevent the take over of US forest land by Mexican drug cartels.


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The only way to get the drug cartels out of the drug business is to end the war on drugs. YOU CANNOT SEAL a 3,200 mile long border. It has NEVER been done ANYWHERE in the world, and what you would have to do to attempt it is simply not worth the expense or the resulting militarization. ALL borders are porous to some degree. If people cannot cross easily, they will find another way to establish these business relationships. I hate to break it to you, but you CANNOT control the world. You are NOT God. This will continue on and on and on because, quite simply, people like weed. It is a good product. GOD PUT IT HERE.


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So, you are willing to sacrifice our forests because you think we cannot seal our border. You only have to look to China to see how it defends itself. First, there’s the Great Wall of China built to keep out the barbarians, and then the more recent way they stopped refugees from India by simply announcing that anyone crossing the border would be shot. Look at Israel.


It is worth the expense, and not every area has to be secured. Some remote portions of the border can be controlled from nearby towns.


If you seal the border and prevent drug cartel people from crossing, you also help Mexico by cutting off the profits from drugs. The Mexican government does not profit from drug money and drug cartel violence. If we cut the drug cartels off at the knees–no drugs across the border and no drug money going into Mexico, everyone would be better off.


If people want pot, let them buy American or produce their own. Legalize it if we must, but don’t let drug cartels and gangs take over our country.


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Whoa wait a minute Mr. Doublespeak. I am not willing to sacrifice our forests for the war on drugs. I am simply explaining that closing the border is not actually possible, and can be worked around by determined people and there is not a MITIGATING solution. See you’ve just accepted the war on drugs as the reality and so you want to go from there. What I’m trying to tell you is that when you try to prohibit something for which there is a strong market, you, people will go around the system, period. In ALL of human history, no one has EVER been able to prevent this. It generally creates a lot of problems and ALWAYS creates crime and violence, because people who operate on the black market do not have the protection of the legal structure.


If you support the war on drugs, that’s your own opinion… but don’t try to suggest that I am the one sacrificing the forests because I will then not agree on the legislation that mitigates the problem your policy creates in the first place


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Right on. The feds have no intention of stopping the flow of drugs. Our banking system COULD NOT FUNCTION WITHOUT THEM. Drugs are an alternate form of money for the entire world. The “Drug War” is a farce, it is theatre meant to confuse the public and keep the price of its alternate money up where they will get the maximum bang for the buck (no pun intended). They use drugs to pay for their “black ops” as well. Money laundering has become one of the chief occupations of our banks. To serve their purposes, the “Drug War” must go on. I don’t think there is any way for us to stop this. All we can do is shout out the truth and publicize what they are doing to as many people as possible.


A key video to watch: Drug Trade – Fletcher Prouty

The drug trade – US spends billions of dollars to have an impenetrable Air Defense system. Col. Prouty was one of the founders of Air Defense Command so he knows exactly what its business is and how it works.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ear75Mo02uU&feature=related


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This problem is multifaceted,

First ILLEGALS have broken our laws just by entering our country illegally, second the cartels that employ and send these illegals are the real problem, third the government is solely at fault for allowing this to continue, forth the way that the cartels grow and guard those cash crops is very dangerous and destructive to both the public and the environment, fifth if our borders had been secured in the first place it would have prevented much drug and human smuggling to a great extent(and yes many countries have secure borders and very strict laws regarding trespassing), sixth those own their own land especially here in CA and grow their own marijuana crops have a vested interest in protecting their land and usually grow a much better product as well as put the profits they earn back into their own local economies.

That all being said, the drug wars so far have not worked, the porous borders have not worked and all of the billions of dollars we as taxpayers have spent on dancing around these issues without success has been a complete waste. Success is measured in results and to my eye there has been little to no success after all these years.

And IMHO, pot should not be even be mentioned in the same breathe as meth, heroin, cocaine or alcohol, all of which have killed thousands of people directly or indirectly.


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Better you legalize drugs and get the feds the hell out of the drug trafficking business. Drugs are the world’s alternate currency and the banks are laundering drug money faster than you can count ten. The feds are the biggest violators of their own drug laws! This is a farce. Stop the madness!


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What is the big deal about pot? Why arent they focused on bringing down the meth and cocaine dealers? Those are the drugs that are a problem. Oh and Oxi Cotton (spelling?) is really bad and it is a prescribed medication!! Hello feds, what are you doing? Just make pot legal and we all win, you dont have to use all your enforcement looking for that little pot sack and you get to make money off the purchasing of it! DUH!!!


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So pathetic.


Next, invade all the bars at happy hour and take down those wine sippers. The ones who are drinking the hard stuff, well just shoot first and ask questions later.


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Keep up the good work yahoos. Is it my imagination or is it true that some members of law enforcement have a smaller brain capacity than the general public. If you wanted the best chance of catching any of these guys, the last thing I would do is announce it all over the press. Now they are waiting very carefully near their crops so in case they are raided, they can escape. There is a simple answer to all this. Legalize it. The cartels would no longer have a profit motive and they would quit polluting our forests. Once again, thank you Randolph Hearst and the Duponts for being instrumental in making it illegal. Rot in hell.


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It does seem a little strange to announce the planned sweeps. I’m all for getting the mj farms off of public land and hope that no one gets injured in the process. And I do wonder how much we’re spending on this effort. (I also wonder how much we spent on LEO pay and court costs regarding the Pozo concert busts and am sure that it wasn’t cost effective.)


I don’t use mj, but I agree the real solution would be to legalize it and step back from all this nonsense.


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The “Drug Wars” actually have a long history. See the vid on YouTube:


A 300 Year History of Government Drug Dealing Exposed!


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