CASH CROP

In my opinion it's indefensible that our Sheriff's department is
spending hundreds of thousands of dollars every year chasing down
marijuana patches and pulling plants, about 40,000 recently. The
Mexican cartel will only plant more somewhere else.

Why are we letting these criminals run Nevada County's largest cash
crop? Our own farmers should be earning money raising and selling
marijuana. Unfortunately, it's illegal, so the hard liquor industry
continues to sell its dangerous drug when a much cheaper (when
legal), and healthier alternative is denied.

A front page article in Wednesday's The Union about the recent
marijuana raids quotes Michelle Gregory of the California Bureau of
Narcotic Enforcement, "... [Marijuana farming] is all about
generating the money. And that money is used to fund the rest of the
cartel's criminal activities."

This has a familiar, but inverted, ring of statements by Sheriff
Keith Royal to the effect that marijuana is the drug that starts
young people on their way to stronger drugs, so we have to outlaw marijuana.

It's the other way around; illegal marijuana is the drug that
supports criminals in selling stronger drugs to our youth.

Herb Lindberg

Penn Valley