The Sacramento Bee today ran a short report online on "successful" raids on pot grows in two California counties over the past couple of days.
LOS BANOS, Calif. -- Authorities say more than $50 million worth of marijuana has been destroyed in a weekend sweep of western Merced County.
Deputies raided three separate marijuana farms Saturday near Los Banos, seizing more than 35,000 pot plants. They also found encampments where growers apparently had been living, but sheriff's officials say no one was found at the farms.
Meanwhile, Shasta County authorities said Monday that deputies there found about 50,000 plants just north of Lake Shasta on three grow sites. They say no arrests were made.
What is interesting here is not the report itself, but the comments from readers. The times they are a-changing. The commenters almost uniformly attacked the very idea of spending scarce law enforcement money on such activities. Some of the more colorful comments are below the fold.
Reactions to the news that $50 million worth of agricultural product was wantonly destroyed:
"JUST THINK OF HOW MUCH THESE OPERATIONS COSTS TAXPAYERS! - ALL THAT COULD HAVE BEEN TAXED TO HELP CALIFORNIA. INSTEAD THEY CLOSE SCHOOLS & CUT HEALTH CARE SERVICES TO THE MOST NEEDY. SHAME ON ALL OF YOU! YOU WANT TO DO GOOD FOR THE COMMUNITY? HOW ABOUT PICKING UP ALL THE DISCARDED TOXIC CIGARETTE BUTTS THAT LITTER EVERY INCH OF PARKWAY, STREET & SIDEWALK IN THIS STATE!"
Yeah. Just keep destroying money, California. You sure know how to work a budget.
"Keeping marijuana illegal prevents its use like a law against gravity will make us all float. Make it a legal and taxable agricultural product. Our law enforcement resources and correction system can then address more serious matters and consume less of their budget."
Useless reporting of an obsolete program...the drug war. Only still out there to pad cop' overime checks (they don't call 'paid overtime' POT for no reason).
"The bigger the numbers, the greater the value of the job performed by the cops: or at least they’d like us to believe it? What a waste of resources: remember when the government used to report how many barrels of whiskey they destroyed? Now we drink like fish and all those people who died or were imprisoned and all the wasted resources spent for the misguided cause of prohibition have not taught the government anything. California continues to, and has for a long time, eradicate more pot than they consume. What’s the point other than to justify the jobs of those who waste their time eradicating pot without making any arrests? Legalize it, tax it and use those resources where they are truly needed: it’s time to end this part of the long futile war on drugs, especially drugs that are safer than their alternatives of alcohol or tobacco."
Those plants were cleaning up greenhouse gases! Fascists.
"What a waste, I would think the Sheriff's in Merced and Shasta would have busted some meth operations, but I guess Marijuana is easier to find and looks better as a headline with a number so large. Can we please start talking about priorities, I don't think pot should be on the top of the list."
If it were legal these clandestine operations would be done on all of the 'dust bowl' Ag areas along Interstate 5 instead of in our national forests. Creating jobs and filling state and local coffers while easing the burdon on our prison system.
And finally, referencing the plan to put a legalize pot initiative on the ballot in California:
As of November 2010.....Hopefully we don't read any more stories like this one.