News » Forest Service Says Illicit Grow Ops Destroying Ntl Forests – Here’s a Simple Fix: Legalize

As moving marijuana across the Mexico-USA border becomes more and more difficult and as the nation’s economy continues to struggle, growing domestically has become more of a solution to the problem of supplying the marijuana people obviously want despite a government that doesn’t want them to have it. More and more, growers are turning to national forests as a way to both conceal their efforts and their own involvement in growing the (still) illegal plants.

Luckily, there’s a simple solution.. But the federal government isn’t interested in simple solutions, only complex, costly, untenable ones.

The U.S. National Forest Service says that because of their remoteness, relative lack of security, and other aspects, polluting growers (meaning those who don’t care about anything but growing plants for profit for the short-term – aka “non-farmers”) are choosing national forest lands more and more often for their illicit grow ops.

The growers destroy native plants to create growing beds, adversely affecting ecosystems, and pour polluting chemicals and leave trashy campsites behind as well. The U.S. Forest Service has found 67 major grow ops in 20 different states.

So what’s the solution? For the federal government, of course, it’s to throw more money at it. Requests for larger budgets to increase patrols and personnel are already being filed. That, of course, is always the prohibitionist’s solution.

The real solution is simple: legalize marijuana. If anyone and everyone (or at least many more people) can legally and easily grow the plants in their own home gardens or commercially for sale, then illicit and polluting grow ops will disappear. Plus, drug gangs and cartels will go out of business in weeks. Sadly, so will several police and federal agency jobs. A sacrifice that we, the people, are gladly willing to make in favor of increasing liberty and freedom. Sorry coppers.

Yet another example of legalization being the obvious answer that nobody inside the federal government wants to acknowledge.

[source NY Daily News]

Tags: legalization, marijuana, national forest