Global Ganja Report

The number of cannabis plants eradicated by law enforcement has dropped over the past years from a record high of over 10 million plants in 2009 and 2010 to under 4 million in 2012, according to newly released statistics. DEA figures put the 2012 total at 3,933,950. DEA officials attribute the decline in part to the budget cutbacks in California, which resulted in "the decreased availability of local law enforcement personnel to assist in eradication efforts."

The DEA also stated that big grow operations are moving from public lands to private agricultural areas, and that those remaining on public lands are in "vast mountainous regions, which are more difficult for law enforcement to detect and reach." Some of the private grow sites have "operated under the guise of its state's medicinal marijuana laws," the DEA stated, asserting that plants cultivated on agricultural grows are "super-sized and more robust."

The DEA budget request also opined that the legalization of cannabis "would increase accessibility and encourage promotion and acceptance of drug use," and said that federal prosecutors "continue a letter writing campaign to encourage property owners to voluntarily close dispensaries/grows."

Separately, cannabis seizures have also decreased along the nation's borders. The US Border Patrol said in its budget report that cannabis captures were down 9% from 2011 to 2012, to 2,999,000 pounds. That decrease came even as the Border Patrol apprehended 7% more people attempting to cross the border illegally. (Huffington Post, April 10)

Photo by Barbara Doduk

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