'NO ARRESTS WERE MADE,' BUT WHY?

Letter to the Editor

There have been at least four front page, detailed reports in The Garden
Island over the past two or three years about authorities destroying
marijuana plants.

The reports name as participants virtually every County, State, and Federal
drug enforcement agency: Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA), Kaua'i Police Department (KPD), Department
of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), Hawaii Police Department (HPD), Hawaii
Air National Guard, and more.

The reports describe long hours of investigation, aerial recon, and combined
task forces swooping in. Plants are cut down (does this kill the root?).
Readers can imagine the drama.

And yet every report has these same four words: "No arrests were made." No
arrests? All these law enforcement professionals, hundreds perhaps, combing
the island for marijuana, and NOBODY gets arrested? This may not give the
citizens much hope that these laudable raids by dedicated enforcement
officials are stamping out drugs.

Even as you read this, imagine tiny marijuana sprouts peeking their naughty
shoots above ground from the cut-off stalks. We're BAAACK!

In summary, good for the cops for doing something. Any ideas why no arrests?

Tom Rice

North Shore