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Drug czar gives warning

Federal official calls marijuana growers dangerous terrorists

By Dylan Darling (Contact)
Friday, July 13, 2007
Story Highlights

The news: The nation’s drug czar says pot garden growers in the north state are terrorists.
What’s next: Anti-drug agencies plan to continue the blitz on gardens next week.



Shasta-Trinity National Forest Service

Shasta-Trinity National Forest Service

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The nation's top anti-drug official said people need to overcome their "reefer blindness" and see that illicit marijuana gardens are a terrorist threat to the public's health and safety, as well as to the environment.
John P. Walters, President Bush's drug czar, said the people who plant and tend the gardens are terrorists who wouldn't hesitate to help other terrorists get into the country with the aim of causing mass casualties. Walters made the comments at a Thursday press conference that provided an update on the "Operation Alesia" marijuana-eradication effort.
"Don't buy drugs. They fund violence and terror," he said.
After touring gardens raided this week in Shasta County, Walters said the officers who are destroying the gardens are performing hard, dangerous work in rough terrain. He said growers have been known to have weapons, including assault rifles.
"These people are armed; they're dangerous," he said. He called them "violent criminal terrorists."
Walters, whose official title is director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said too many people write off marijuana as harmless. "We have kind of a 'reefer blindness,' " he said.
No arrests have been made so far in the four days of raids, the opening leg of what Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko has promised will be at least two straight weeks of daily raids.
He said suspects have been hard to find because their familiarity with their terrain makes it easy for them to flee quickly.
Although crews doing the raids are using Black Hawk and other helicopters to drop in on some of the gardens, Bosenko said they don't want to give the growers any warning of a raid.
"We try to move in under stealth," he said.
As of Thursday morning, Operation Alesia raids had resulted in the yanking of 68,237 young marijuana plants from public lands in Shasta County. Raids already have been conducted in Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, as well as on land managed by the U.S. Forest Service north of Lake Shasta and other public land near Manton.
The operation is being led by the sheriff's office and has involved 17 agencies, including the California National Guard and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. It's believed to be the largest campaign of its kind in the state, Bosenko said.
The operation is named after the last major battle between the Roman Empire and the Gauls in 52 B.C. That battle was won by the Romans.
With the blitz of marijuana gardens around Shasta County, Bosenko said officials hope to not only get rid of the pot, but also win back the land for the public that owns it.
"These organizations are destroying our lands and wildlife," he said.
Bernie Weingardt, regional forester for the Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Region, said the 28,000 acres believed to house illegal marijuana grows on national forest land throughout the state would cost more than $300 million to revive.
"These lands must be cleaned and restored," he said.
His estimate is based on a National Park Service study that found it costs $11,000 per acre to pull the plants, clear irrigation systems, reshape any terracing and replant native vegetation, said Mike Odle, Forest Service spokesman.
While Walters didn't give specific goals for Operation Alesia, he said anti-drug agencies aim to cripple the organized crime groups that he said are behind the marijuana cultivation.
"This business we intend to put into recession, depression and put its leaders into jail," Walters said.
Reporter Dylan Darling can be reached at 225-8266 or at ddarling@redding.com.

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

What a bunch of fools.
They really think they are doing something.

Pot growing terrorists, what a joke.
Someone aught to blow his ass up for sure.

What really pisses me off is that there are actually people out there who believe this dribble.

Well, I agree that large grow ops on federal land is bad for the environment.

Only a federal bureaucrat would be stupid enough to equate pot growers with actual terrorists. It undermines the true war in terrorism.

I also believe that anyone who grows pot, especially large operations on federal land, is a fool just asking for 20+ years in a federal prison. Nope, I don't agree with the law, but the law is what it is.

If I printed up some bumper stickers, would you guys like one? Here's what it'll say:


Vi

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

Love the bumber sticker Idea.
Seems like it would implicate some of us though.

Yeah if you think about it home grown weed could all but stop the war on drugs.

IF there was no need for importing marijuana that would really throw a wrench into money going to these supposed terrorists.

Legalizing marijuana is the only way our beloved government will win the war on drugs.

u kno what i think... them crooked fucks are gonna steal our weed and illegally sell it back to us.... its a vicious cycle of our hard earned tax payers money and i for one am PISSED

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A friend with weed is a friend indeed.
Keep your thumb green and your closet greener
Jack Grass

Hear, Hear. the problem is whenever you bring up the "legalize marijuana" debate people just assume you're a hippie pothead who wants to get high legally. make the shit legal, and tax it. fuck! its a win win situation

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Lets Play a Game of Russian Roulette and Have a Blast!

thats just it, because it grows so easily they will never do it... it will grow just about anywhere with the rite sunlight. and they kno that... if they legalized it, they would have to tax it and it would be like 20 bucks a gram so you would go to your dealer or grow your own anyways...i just dont understand how theyre gonna go and make a plant illegal...bullshit

__________________
A friend with weed is a friend indeed.
Keep your thumb green and your closet greener
Jack Grass

When are you people gonna get it, its not about pot or even money, its about controll, mind control even to certain extent, I belive I am not the only one who belives that pot makes you analise and question the authority and reality in general, those who run this contry do not wish you to do that ,hence since the resent declaration of war on terror it is just to convinient to throw all your old opposition (pot growers,artists and anty goverment activists, ultra left or right) with your new one (terrorists,Al Queada, hesboullah, taliban)...Since anyone that is labeled a terrorist can be detained without due process or prosecuted without a trial...This reaks of Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia.

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any images or information presented by krime 13 are fictional, and should not be taken seriously, if the person reading them is employed by a law enforcing agency, they are not authorized to read or use them in any way.

I used to believe that pot made you question authority and government. It certainly made me do that, But how do you account for those on this and many pot sites that still believe Bush speak? It is rather disturbing to me, that a thinking individual can believe in the republican smokescreen without puking. The dems arent much better, they talk shit but have no action.

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.