[Jimbo]

July 9, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO - With both the state and federal budgets awash in debt, reform advocates are urging California to rethink its annual Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) as the annual CAMP season prepares to launch.
"Record-setting busts each year have done nothing to reduce the marijuana supply or keep marijuana out of the hands of kids, but they have succeeded brilliantly in driving the growers to more dangerous locations, putting national parks and residential communities at risk," said Bruce Mirken, the Marijuana Policy Project's San Francisco-based director of communications.
Last year, Attorney General Jerry Brown announced that CAMP -- funded by federal, state and local dollars -- had seized an all-time record 2.9 million marijuana plants, nearly tripling 2004 seizures and a 2,200 percent increase since 1997. With no apparent effect on marijuana availability, the U.S. Justice Department's National Drug Threat Assessment 2008 cited such outdoor raids as a force pushing growers into indoor sites in residential neighborhoods. "Federal, state, and local law enforcement reporting indicates that vigorous outdoor cannabis eradication efforts have caused major marijuana producers, particularly Caucasian groups, to relocate indoors, even in leading outdoor grow states such as California and Tennessee." Citing suburban homes as one type of site used for such operations, the Justice Department predicted, "DTOs [drug trafficking organizations] and criminal groups ... will adapt to the increasing law enforcement pressure and improved detection capabilities associated with outdoor grow sites and will most likely shift operations indoors ... [T]he groups will produce higher-potency marijuana year-round, allowing for an exponential increase in profits derived."
Last year, the Marijuana Policy Project wrote to Brown asking him to supply evidence that CAMP had reduced the marijuana supply, environmental damage from illicit marijuana growing or teen access to marijuana. Brown did not reply.
"If you want marijuana to be more potent and produced in the most dangerous way possible, CAMP is a roaring success," Mirken said. "If you want to solve these problems, it's time to put aside the fantasy of 'eradication' and regulate California's marijuana industry like we regulate our wine industry."
Campaign Against Marijuana Planting: Another Record Failure in 2008?