Posted on 09/10/2006 10:57:05 AM PDT by Sir Gawain
98 Percent Of All Domestically Eradicated Marijuana Is "Ditchweed," DEA Admits
September 7, 2006 - Washington, DC, USA
Washington, DC: 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 newly released data by the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program and the Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics.
According to the 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.
NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre criticized the DEA program for spending millions of taxpayers' dollars to predominantly eradicate wild hemp. "The irony, of course, is that industrial hemp is grown legally throughout most the Western world as a commercial crop for its fiber content," he said. "Yet the US government is spending taxpayers' money to target and eradicate this same agricultural commodity."
According to a 2005 Congressional Research Service report, "The United States is the only developed nation in which industrial hemp is not an established crop."
St. Pierre said that most of the hemp plants eradicated by law enforcement are remnants of US-government subsidized crops that existed prior to World War II. "Virtually all wild hemp goes unharvested and presents no legitimate threat to public safety," he said. "As such, it should be of no concern to the federal government or law enforcement."
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)
**DEA footnote: "May include 'tended' ditchweed."
For more information, please contact NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre or NORML Senior Policy Analyst Paul Armentano at (202) 483-5500.
updated: Sep 07, 2006
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Why don't we just throw Mother Nature in jail and be done with it?
That'll teach the pot-heads! WOSD money well spent....
I certainly believe it. I grew up where the ditches were full of the stuff...not that anyone really cared all that much.
After that they're gonna build a tower to Heaven.
At not with.
Good to know the endless tax dollars we dump into the failed war on some drugs are going to eliminate a natural growing crop that we should be growing on a large scale anyway.
Give Harry Ainslinger some credit. The man was an empire builder.
Isn't NORML the long discredited marijuana pushing group?
THAT is your "source" ?
I know you dig threads like these, so I thought I'd ping you.
The reason for establishing colonies in the US was to obtain "naval stores", which means hemp, used for rope as well as pitch derived from trees.
Another case where the war on drugs has ruined an entire industry.
The DEA is the source. If you had read the article you'd have known that.
You could always dispute it with another source that proves it's not true rather than just an ad hominem attack on the source.
Pull it up. Then smoke it.
Gen 1:29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which [is] upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which [is] the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
Gen 1:30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein [there is] life, [I have given] every green herb for meat: and it was so.
Gen 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, [it was] very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
AHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhh - ditchweed!
Happy to be of use.
Another example of American tax dollars at work.
Yes.
These guys are funny here. They are like time warp hippies. They push stuff from hippie propaganda that came out when I was a kid.
Emperor's New Clothes and the like.
They seem 100% sincere and convinced, though. That's what's so funny.
Why is Bill Clinton discredited?
Why is Jesse Jackson discredited?
Why is the Nobel "Peace" prize discredited?
The Answer---They are not descredited---in the minds of those who agree with their agendas.
Guess you didn't see the source for the links. Thanks for letting us know you don't believe the official government statistics.
Is the federal government report it references discredited as well?
I think you're confused. You're arguing that a government report is false?
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--Should I pull it up or smoke it?
Smoke it I guess. You can smoke it all day long and not get any THC out of it so I doubt it's illegal.
Many years ago, back in the early 1970's, I was visiting relatives in Iowa. Driving around the small farm community, I saw a lot of ditchweed. In fact, it was almost everywhere.
It's reputation was that it had no effects when smoked, so I left it there.
But...I found myself driving down a back road, and there, at the roadside, on the corner of a cornfield, was the largest marijuana plant I had ever seen. Apparently the cornfield was irrigated and fertilized, and this plant had grown where water drained from the field. It was right on the edge of a ditch.
It was at least 12 feet tall, and was topped by enormous purple buds, some over a foot long. These had little beads of resin on them...enough so they glistened in the sunlight.
Well...I took it upon myself to remove a couple of those buds and wrapped them very carefully in foil and plastic, then shipped them back to my home in a box full of other stuff, via UPS.
Dried and groomed, I ended up with about 6 ounces of the most kick-butt weed I had ever smoked. It was literally amazing.
Just a tale from the long-distant past. I gave up smoking dope not too long after that, and haven't had as much as a toke since then.
My source is all the messed up potheads I have seen over the years.
1. Legalize it to be sold as alcohol is legalized, with all the strictures and taxes involved, allowing it to be sold only to those over 18.
2. The following penalties would apply to illegal distribution:
(a) 10 years prison for any who supply or sell it to minors.
(b) 20 years prison for second violation
(c) Death by hanging/life in prison for 3rd violation
3. The following penalties would apply to any intoxicated person operating a motor vehicle:
(a) 5 years prison for first offense
(b) 10 years prison for second offense
(c) Death by hanging or life in prison for operating a public vehicle (school bus, police vehicle, etc) first offense. Same for 3rd offense private vehicle
4. The following would be the penalty of public THC intoxication:
(a) 180 days in jail, first offense
(b) 50 lashes with horsewhip, 2 years in prison 2nd offense.
(c) 30 years in prison, 3rd and subsequent offenses.
That should be sufficient, I would think.
Death by hanging/life in prison for 3rd violation Death by hanging or life in prison for operating a public vehicle (school bus, police vehicle, etc) first offense. Same for 3rd offense private vehicle 50 lashes with horsewhip, 2 years in prison 2nd offense.
Ok - one the one hand you say legalize it like alcohol but yet the penalties are to be greater than doing the same thing with weed as for alcohol?
Why don't we apply your solution to alcohol so we can all gather round as you are horsewhipped. Nice to watch rascally totalitarians get their comeuppance.
This is funny. It used to grow along railroad tracks, too. My grandmother told me that it was everywhere but nobody was interested in it.
By my understanding, plants grown as "marijuana" are the same species as ditchweed, but are selectively bred so as to enhance THC production. Wouldn't having large quantities of ditchweed in the wild tend to cause cross-polination of "marijuana" plants, thus degrading them?
The criminal statute is probably written against Marijuana, not THC or both. And even if is written against THC, the burden of proof that you were smoking Marijuana that didn't contain THC would be on you, since most people expect weed to contain it.
Definitely. I know pot is bad, it might not cause death, although since it has not been adequately studied, the long term effects are vague, though logically sucking chemical smoke into your lungs is a very bad idea. But I have seen the mental effects, it can really screw you up. I have seen people it has made barely able to function, and have seen it become an obsession, it becomes their life. People claim it is not addictive, but I have seen people that have become completely reliant on it. Pot is bad stuff, maybe not overly lethal, but death is not the only bad thing that can happen to you. For all you pro-pot people out their, use logic. Ingesting mind altering chemicals without medical necessity or any set dosage is a very bad idea. Might as well start using hardcore pain killers without prescription or you doctors approval, and take as many as you want. I do not think you will argue that will mess you up.
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