INITIATIVE IS NO PANACEA FOR POT GARDENS' MENACE

Rep. Wally Herger is still far more likely to denounce "environmental
radicals" than to lead them on a ground-truthing mission in the
backcountry of the Shasta-Trinity. But even if he's no born-again
tree hugger, the mess on California's public lands caused by illegal
marijuana growing is too big for him to ignore.

And it's too severe for the federal government not to make a top
priority. The congressman's continued lobbying of his House
colleagues to get behind a resolution calling for a comprehensive
strategy to combat illegal plantations in the national forests is a
welcome crusade. The resolution itself won't solve anything, but
drawing attention to this menace that has erupted over the past
decade is the first step toward marshalling the resources to curb it.

The need is urgent. Without letup in recent years, marijuana gardens
have proliferated in our national forests, parks and recreation
areas. Even as local and federal law enforcement authorities have
stepped up their efforts, the drug cartels believed to be behind the
illegal growing only seem to work harder.

With Proposition 19, the initiative to legalize marijuana in
California, on the Nov. 2 ballot, its boosters argue that it's time
to declare a truce in the war on marijuana. The only solution to
out-of-control growing on public lands, they reason, is to allow
legal growing on private property.

In the long run, they might be right. But even if Proposition 19
passes and state criminal laws against marijuana are voided, it's
hard to imagine the federal government ignoring massive commercial
pot farms that lack even the nominal cover of medicinal use. They
would remain very much against federal law. And the Drug Enforcement
Administration's agents would all but certainly close them down,
arrest their owners and seize the property - thus the cartels would
still have every incentive to take to the backcountry.

And as long as they do, they'll pose deadly risks to innocent hikers
and hunters. They'll continue to wreck the natural environment that
federal agencies spend so much time and treasure protecting. And
they'll very much remain a problem that deserves national attention.