CA Counties Raid Growers with Federal Funding
May 13th, 2009 by Russ
Despite the promises of administration officials, county governments are still filling their drug prosecutorial coffers with federal money. According to the Wall Street Journal, the DEA provides hundreds of thousands of dollars to county governments through the Domestic Cannibis Eradication/Suppression Program.
According to the DEA’s website, the federal agency:
…is aggressively striving to halt the spread of cannabis cultivation in the United States.
Apparently it doesn’t matter whether this halting of cultivation violates state law, or contradicts the orders of President Barack Obama and US Attorney General, Eric Holder. Some of the grants given are as high as $275,000, and for the sole purpose of prosecuting a group of predominantly non-violent weed growers.
It seems clear that general directives and non-binding resolutions are not going to slow down law enforcement cowboys hell bent on filling arrest quotas and seizing harmless plants. Many of these police divisions know little other police work than the old smash and grab tactics that have perpetuated the failed “War on Drugs” for decades.
Weed arrests still represent almost half of all drug arrests. They are the bread and butter of police agencies looking to impress budget-committees and local government sugar daddies. Until the flow of funds is stopped, the pointless arrests will continue to persist.
