Did you ever see that news special on ABC a few years ago where ABC visited a town in rural Georgia and found that even senior citizen farmers were growing it because it was the only way they could keep their farms? I'm talking about 70 - 80 year old church going men.
When the town's police chief (or maybe it was the county sherrif) attempted to crack down, the town forced him out of office and elected a guy that promised to focus on real crime. According to the report, growing and selling pot was the only thing keeping this town afloat, and if the sherrif cracked down as he promised, it would have put local businesses out of business. They interviewed the old sherrif and he had turned into a mobile home salesman. behahahahahahaha. Ya gotta love it. When the fired sherrif whined to the feds and they came down to investigate, they received absolutely no assistance from the local LEO's, and in fact the local LEO's actually thwarted the fed's. I was pleasantly shocked to see that there are LEO's that remember that they work for the citizens and not the feds.
I sure would like to know what happened with those folks. I bet after ABC aired the program, the feds went down their in force and put a stop to a lot of it. Can't have the peasants thumbing their noses at the almighty G*D of government.
I would bet this happens in more rural towns than the one shown on ABC. Politics goes out the door when businessmen need business.
How true. Areas with a moonshine pedigree have taken to growing marijuana, much as there grandfathers ran stills. I'm partial to the Kentucky product myself.
Not that I oppose decriminalization, I just don't think the government should be involved in it through tax, distribution, licensing etc. It's a weed. It can grow anywhere, in almost any soil and any climate, and bloom up to 6 times a year. The only thing that is making it the #1 cash crop (and making the kingpins filthy rich) is that it is illegal and that we are putting billions of dollars to fight it. Decriminalize it, and everyone who wants it will be growing their own. The market prices will tumble within 2 months, so that it won't be any more expensive than parsley.
Now, I don't for a second believe that these illegal immigrants are behind the crop found in this bust. There is a very wealthy, cash flush kingpin who is behind that plot -- and it's probably not his only crop. Those illegal's were probably just working for him -- they are patsies. The kingpin has them harvest it for him (what's so surprising about having illegal aliens harvesting crops -- California's farmers import labor to pick crops it all the time) but he, the farmer, has the connections to sell the crop to the big distributors, who sell it to the dealers, who sell it to the users...