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 veggie
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 Billions of Wild Drug-Free Hemp Plants Eradicated by DEA 
#6402881 - 12/27/06 04:26 PM (5 years, 4 months ago) |
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Billions of Wild Drug-Free Hemp Plants Eradicated by DEA in Effort to Confiscate Cultivated Marijuana Since 1984
December 26, 2006 - earthtimes.org
WASHINGTON, -- According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) data it has funded the destruction of 4.7 billion non-psychoactive industrial hemp plants also called "ditchweed" since 1984. This massive annual eradication effort stands in sharp contrast to farmers across the globe that continue to legally produce industrial hemp for export to the United States.
According to data collected by the DEA's Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program (DCE/SP) 218.6 million ditchweed plants were eradicated in 2005 versus only 4.2 million marijuana plants nationwide. This means that 98.1% of all cannabis plants eradicated in 2005 were actually the non-drug variety of cannabis otherwise known as industrial hemp. Although the ditchweed is primarily being eradicated in mid-western states where it was once grown to support WW II efforts with the encouragement of the government, these plants would have little or no psychoactive effect on people who might smoke them because they contain very low levels of THC, the drug component in marijuana. Furthermore, George Weiblen, a researcher at the University of Minnesota showed that marijuana and industrial hemp have distinct and non- overlapping DNA fingerprints. He published his findings in the March 2006 issue (volume 51, No. 2) of the Journal of Forensic Science.
The massive ditchweed eradication has cost federal and state governments at least $175 million since 1984, the earliest year data is available on ditchweed. DEA spent $11 Million in 2005 on DCE/SP grants to state police alone.
"It's Orwellian that the biggest target of the DEA's Eradication Program is actually not a drug but instead a useful plant for everything from food, clothing and even auto parts and currently must be imported to supply a $270 million industry," says Eric Steenstra, President of Vote Hemp. "While Vote Hemp has urged the DEA to recognize the difference between hemp and marijuana so farmers could grow it here, the federal agency is spending millions of dollars to destroy hundreds of millions of harmless hemp plants."
How the DEA collects their own data on ditchweed, which is sometimes referred to as feral hemp is puzzling because officials at the DEA regularly state there is no difference between hemp and marijuana. Nevertheless, their own statistics clearly differentiate between ditchweed and "cultivated marijuana" plants that are destroyed. Other questions loom over exactly what is happening to all these plants once they are eradicated.
"Much of the ditchweed eradicated is believed to be burned, turning a carbon consuming plant into a contributor of Greenhouse gasses," says Tom Murphy, Vote Hemp National Outreach Coordinator. "For all the effort to find and destroy these harmless wild hemp plants they are coming back year after year. It is likely that the eradication programs help re-seed the locations were "ditchweed" is found. The late summer timing and removal method causes countless ripe seeds to fall to the ground where they will sprout again the following year."
A nationwide leader, Indiana has eradicated, on average, 65 million wild hemp plants per year from 1984 through 2005, compared to the eradication of 114,699 cultivated marijuana plants annually in the same time period. Marijuana eradication requires that state police work overtime during the summer and required nearly 31,000 hours of officer's time in each of 2003 and 2004, for example, and accounted for 8.9% of the criminal related hours for the state police during those years. Ironically, FlexForm, an Indiana manufacturer whose hemp-content materials are found in an estimated 3 million vehicles in North America today uses approximately 250,000 pounds of hemp fiber per year must import industrial hemp from Canada and Europe. The company says industrial hemp could easily take a greater share of the 4 million pounds of natural fiber it uses yearly, as "hemp fiber possesses physical properties beneficial to our natural fiber based composites." In addition, FlexForm says it would "gladly expand our domestic purchases."
"The potential value of legal industrial hemp in rural economic development should be targeted for investment by the Department of Agriculture," says Dr. Jon Gettman, a researcher in Public Policy and author of a new comprehensive report that highlighted that marijuana valued at $35.8 billion is America's number one cash crop. "The multiple uses of industrial hemp in manufacturing and product innovation worldwide are consistent with current US agricultural policies and a natural fit into many local economies around the nation."
Numerous states are working to allow farmers to grow industrial hemp. Starting in January North Dakota will accept applications from farmers to grow hemp. The race is on to bring the crop back due to increasing evidence hemp foods are becoming very popular. Sales of hemp foods in 2004/2005 grew by 50% over the previous 12-month period. U.S. retail sales of hemp products are estimated to now be $250 to $300 million per year. European farmers now grow more than 40,000 acres and Canadian farmers grew more than 50,000 acres in 2006.
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 Leanin
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Re: Billions of Wild Drug-Free Hemp Plants Eradicated by DEA [Re: veggie]
#6403366 - 12/27/06 07:50 PM (5 years, 4 months ago) |
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fuck the dea
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K1wI
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Re: Billions of Wild Drug-Free Hemp Plants Eradicated by DEA [Re: Leanin]
#6403636 - 12/27/06 09:28 PM (5 years, 4 months ago) |
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dumbasses waisting tax dollars, I remember ditchweed growing all over the place in my hometown (shit all over the state) in the north-west, even from an anti-drug point of view there is not much reason to burn it down, it's little more then a weed that looks like 'weed'. Smoking it is no better then smoking sage (that also smells quite close to pot) In fact when I was younger I used to burn little tuffs of it for the smell, I don't smoke pot but I've always liked the smell.
There is absolutely no reason to burn it from any point of view.
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dedjam
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Re: Billions of Wild Drug-Free Hemp Plants Eradicated by DEA [Re: K1wI]
#6404066 - 12/28/06 06:15 AM (5 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
K1wI said:There is absolutely no reason to burn it from any point of view.
DEA is lazy. If they didnt burn the ditchweed, people could easily hide pot producing plants around the ditchweed. I don't see the logic in this, but thats the official excuse anyways.
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RoosterCogburn
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Re: Billions of Wild Drug-Free Hemp Plants Eradicated by DEA [Re: dedjam]
#6404098 - 12/28/06 06:47 AM (5 years, 4 months ago) |
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I think they do it to trump up their "War on Drugs" propaganda machine. They said they consider it the same as weed, so they can say, "Look at us! We destroyed all these tons of drugs!"...
Stupid sheeple believe them.
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white_noise
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Re: Billions of Wild Drug-Free Hemp Plants Eradicated by DEA [Re: RoosterCogburn]
#6405854 - 12/28/06 04:27 PM (5 years, 4 months ago) |
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"How the DEA collects their own data on ditchweed, which is sometimes referred to as feral hemp is puzzling because officials at the DEA regularly state there is no difference between hemp and marijuana. Nevertheless, their own statistics clearly differentiate between ditchweed and "cultivated marijuana" plants that are destroyed."
.....wtf..
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rawtoxic
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Re: Billions of Wild Drug-Free Hemp Plants Eradicated by DEA [Re: white_noise]
#6406303 - 12/28/06 07:08 PM (5 years, 4 months ago) |
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Let them waste time burning ditchweed, why fight for it. I'd much rather have the DEA focus on that then well about anything else.
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EquilibriuM
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Re: Billions of Wild Drug-Free Hemp Plants Eradicated by DEA [Re: rawtoxic]
#6407468 - 12/29/06 08:17 AM (5 years, 4 months ago) |
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I'd rather them focus on the methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin problems...
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MustNotBe
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Re: Billions of Wild Drug-Free Hemp Plants Eradicated by DEA [Re: EquilibriuM]
#6407858 - 12/29/06 10:35 AM (5 years, 4 months ago) |
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what is the thc level for ditch weed?
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Junkies United we stand , Devided we're sick as fuck.
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"Hallucinations are something heroin users are not at all accustomed to," said Const. Conor King, Victoria police drug expert. "They react like you or I would react if we took Aspirin and all of a sudden the TV got up and started walking across the room."
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Make drugs legal, or alcohol and tobacco illegal. Either way it's more fair.
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MustNotBe
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Re: Billions of Wild Drug-Free Hemp Plants Eradicated by DEA [Re: white_noise]
#6407871 - 12/29/06 10:39 AM (5 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
violin said:
"How the DEA collects their own data on ditchweed, which is sometimes referred to as feral hemp is puzzling because officials at the DEA regularly state there is no difference between hemp and marijuana. Nevertheless, their own statistics clearly differentiate between ditchweed and "cultivated marijuana" plants that are destroyed."
.....wtf..
The person that wrote the article got confused I think lol
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Junkies United we stand , Devided we're sick as fuck.
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"Hallucinations are something heroin users are not at all accustomed to," said Const. Conor King, Victoria police drug expert. "They react like you or I would react if we took Aspirin and all of a sudden the TV got up and started walking across the room."
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Make drugs legal, or alcohol and tobacco illegal. Either way it's more fair.
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learysprotoge
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Re: Billions of Wild Drug-Free Hemp Plants Eradicated by DEA [Re: RoosterCogburn]
#6461321 - 01/15/07 05:29 AM (5 years, 4 months ago) |
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Lol, WTF..
The DEA is so stupid.
Dont they know that there are MALE ditwchweed plants as well as female?
And sensi buds have been the only way to go since the 70's..
Who the fuck is gonna plant among the ditchweed if theyre just gonna lower the quality of there buds?
Sounds to me ditchweed could be the DEA's ally if they thought about it for a couple minutes 
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EquilibriuM
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Re: Billions of Wild Drug-Free Hemp Plants Eradicated by DEA [Re: learysprotoge]
#6461363 - 01/15/07 06:05 AM (5 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
learysprotoge said:
Sounds to me ditchweed could be the DEA's ally if they thought about it for a couple minutes
Dude, if the DEA thought about it for a couple minutes, they wouldn't be trying to fight a war on cannabis in the first place.
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cybrbeast
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Re: Billions of Wild Drug-Free Hemp Plants Eradicated by DEA [Re: veggie]
#6461640 - 01/15/07 08:40 AM (5 years, 4 months ago) |
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If ditchweed grows all over the place wouldn't it be possible to take some males of a high THC producing strain and place them in the ditchweed fields. This might make the ditchweed a lot more potent 
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learysprotoge
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Re: Billions of Wild Drug-Free Hemp Plants Eradicated by DEA [Re: cybrbeast]
#6466328 - 01/16/07 02:06 PM (5 years, 4 months ago) |
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Theoretically, but I mean there would be so many plants that have the lower THC genetics, that it would take a long time and a lot of males to raise the THC to a substantial amount.
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subconsciousness
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Re: Billions of Wild Drug-Free Hemp Plants Eradicated by DEA [Re: learysprotoge]
#6466918 - 01/16/07 04:51 PM (5 years, 4 months ago) |
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Even if a majority of the plants the DEA eradicated were psychoactive, that would still be a horrendous waste of taxpayer money. Instead of spending our tax money to eradicate it, the government should tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol. The billions of dollars of extra tax revenue would ease the tax burden on everyone. You could tax marijuana two or three times and it would still be cheaper than it is currently. I mean, for god's sake, the marijuana I smoked in Amsterdam was half the price of the reefer I used in America.
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"It's not a war on drugs, it's a war on personal freedom. Keep that in mind at all times."
--Bill Hicks
"Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power."
--P.J. O'Rourke
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learysprotoge
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Re: Billions of Wild Drug-Free Hemp Plants Eradicated by DEA [Re: subconsciousness]
#6467440 - 01/16/07 06:58 PM (5 years, 4 months ago) |
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If they did what you said the DEA would still be operating in a similar manner.
Theyd still be eradicating massive amounts of "unregulated" marijuana.
Meaning illegally grown MJ.
Im sure if and when MJ is legalized we still wont be able to grow it, and there will still be a black market for it.
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subconsciousness
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Re: Billions of Wild Drug-Free Hemp Plants Eradicated by DEA [Re: learysprotoge]
#6468230 - 01/16/07 11:00 PM (5 years, 4 months ago) |
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To be sure, there will still be a black market for "unregulated" marijuana; to this day, there are speakeasies that still produce moonshine. But I think the black market will shrink dramatically if marijuana were legalized, and by "legalized" I mean cultivation, as well as sale and possession. I think the possession of marijuana will be likely legalized or decriminalized in the future, but legalizing the sale and cultivation is an even bigger step that this country probably won't take. Even Holland hasn't fully legalized the cultivation of marijuana, though some politicians have proposed it.
I think if America is going to legalize marijuana, it should create a completely legal market for it, from cultivation all the way to possession. But you're right, it probably won't happen.
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"It's not a war on drugs, it's a war on personal freedom. Keep that in mind at all times."
--Bill Hicks
"Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power."
--P.J. O'Rourke
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