Marijuana Eradication Data 'Misleading' | United States

Marijuana Eradication Data 'Misleading'

The Californian cannabis eradication program has gotten off to a brisk start in 2008, with news reports out of Lake County reporting seizures of 53,000 plants, worth an estimated $240 million dollars on the street.

With such a start to the season, officials believe 2008 could match or surpass 2007, which proved a record-breaking year for illegal marijuana eradications both in Lake County and across the state.

The sheriffs marijuana eradication program, which is funded by grants from federal government, kicked off its annual effort to eradicate illegal marijuana grows on July 7.

more 'marijuana' successfully eradicated..

Lt. Dave Garzoli of the Lake County Sheriff's Office said in the first three days of eradication approximately 53,472 marijuana plants were found and destroyed in areas around Highland Springs Reservoir, the Glen Eden Trail head and White Rock Mountain.

Estimated street value of the marijuana seized is more than $240 million, said Garzoli, a figure calculated at $4,500 per pound at a 1-pound-per-plant yield.

Which at face value is quite a siezure. But is it really..?

Back in November 2007, at the end of the previous summer's cannabis growing season and the news reports read quite differently as according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, "More than 98 percent of all of the marijuana plants seized by law enforcement in the United States is feral hemp, not cultivated cannabis."

According to the official DEA data, available online at: http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/pdf/t4382005.pdf , of the estimated 223 million marijuana plants destroyed by law enforcement in 2005, approximately 219 million were classified as “ditchweed,” a term the agency uses to define “wild, scattered marijuana plants with no evidence of planting, fertilizing, or tending.”

Unlike cultivated marijuana, feral hemp contains virtually no detectable levels of THC, the psychoactive component in cannabis, and does not contribute to the black market marijuana trade.

Previous DEA reports have indicated that between 98 and 99 percent of all the marijuana plants eradicated by US law enforcement is ditchweed.

According to DEA figures, Indiana reported seizing over 212 million ditchweed plants - far more than any other state. Missouri law enforcement confiscated some 4.5 million plants, and Kansas reported eradicating approximately 1.2 million plants. More than half of all states failed to report their ditchweed totals.

California led all 50 states in the number of cultivated cannabis plants eradicated in 2005, with the DEA reporting that more than 2 million plants had been destroyed.

The Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program is a joint federal and state effort funded, in part, by the DEA.

STATE LEADERS:
DITCHWEED ERADICATED (2005)
Indiana (212,441,768 plants confiscated)
Missouri (4,529,695 plants confiscated
Kansas (1,177,976 plants confiscated)
Wisconsin (272,650 plants confiscated)
Oklahoma (100,736 plants confiscated)

STATE LEADERS:
CULTIVATED CANNABIS** ERADICATED (2005)
California (2,011,277 plants confiscated)
Kentucky (510,502 plants confiscated)
Tennessee (440,362 plants confiscated)
Hawaii (255,113 plants eradicated)
Washington (136,165 plants confiscated)

Billions of dollars are spent nationwide every single year, in what can only be described as a government orchestrated publicity stunt, as law enforcement dresses up in camo gear and heads out into the wilds in search of nothing more dangerous than strawberry plants.

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