ENDING DRUG WAR THE ONLY WAY TO WIN

Few people on either side of the marijuana debate would disagree that
outdoor illegal marijuana growing operations are enormous problems
for the environment in California and states across the country. But
when you phrase the debate by asking whether or not these illegal
grows are "worth fighting," you miss the point entirely.

Officials have been "fighting" these outdoor grows for nearly 30
years - since the creation of the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting
(CAMP) in 1983 - and by every objective standard they have only made
the problem worse, squandering millions of precious tax dollars and
law enforcement resources in the process.

Year after year, officers report record-breaking marijuana seizures,
and year after year criminals simply plant more. Officials think that
they are helping the environment by removing marijuana from protected
lands, but in reality, they're the reason those lands have become
such attractive growing sites for drug cartels. Prior to 2002, the
majority of CAMP seizures took place on private lands or indoors. As
a result, the cartels changed their operations, choosing instead to
plant marijuana largely in publicly preserved parklands, much to the
detriment of California's environment and wildlife. As officers raid
more of these sites, they force the cartels to encroach deeper and
deeper into protected lands in order to avoid detection.

Such tactics, employed by Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko and
countless others, do not "keep an out-of-control problem from growing
even worse." They make it worse. After almost three decades, it's
clear that another strategy is needed.

Let's stop wasting money and misappropriating manpower that only
further encourages criminals to plant more marijuana, ruin the
environment, and terrorize many of our communities. The only solution
is to regulate the state's marijuana industry, rendering both the
cartels and CAMP obsolete.

Mike Meno, Marijuana Policy Project, Washington, D.C.