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Offlineleon trout
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Humboldt County Sherrif Calls for Pot Legalization * 1
    #18765122 - 08/27/13 05:55 PM (10 years, 5 months ago)

Calls for legalization: Huffman, Downey agree pot legalization is logical path forward

Humboldt County Sheriff Mike Downey has been on the front lines of the war on drugs for the better part of three decades but he said this morning that it might be time for part of that war to end.

”I was never a big fan of legalization (of marijuana), but right now I think that's the most logical way to end this drug war,” Downey said. “We are not winning.”

Downey's comments came during a meeting he organized with local stakeholders and North Coast Congressman Jared Huffman to discuss marijuana enforcement issues in Humboldt County -- specifically, the widespread environmental damage illicit marijuana grow operations are causing.

While much of the meeting was spent lamenting the proliferation of growing operations and the lack of resources and funding various agencies have to eradicate illegal crops and clean up the damage left in their wake, Huffman and Downey seemed to point to legalization as the path forward.

Huffman said he's seen first-hand the environmental devastation caused by some marijuana grow operations, with stream diversions, heavy pesticide and fertilizer use, clear cutting and soil grading all having large cumulative impacts. He drew a parallel to what was seen in the hills of Kentucky during the Prohibition Era, when illegal stills and violence were rampant.

”That's what prohibition brought,” he said. “Eventually, we got rid of prohibition and with that went the campfires and stills in the woods. We need to re-learn that lesson.”

The congressman said he is part of a growing coalition in Washington of legislators who now believe rethinking drug enforcement policies at the federal level is the best path forward. Huffman said that coalition includes some unusual bed fellows, including liberal Democrats and Tea Party Republicans, all of whom are moved by the environmental degradation aspect of the issue.

”The one thing I think everyone can agree on is that the people who are trespassing on public lands and committing these kinds of environmental atrocities -- we need to throw the book at them,” said Huffman, who recently introduced bipartisan legislation to stiffen penalties for people caught at trespass grow operations with illegal water diversions, timber harvests or that use high-powered pesticides.

In opening the meeting -- which was attended by folks from local timber companies, local biologists, and representatives from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Hoopa Valley Tribe -- Downey offered a brief overview of the issue in Humboldt County.

In recent years, Downey said his department has noticed an increase in cultivation activity and a decrease in grow operations that would be considered valid under state medical marijuana laws. Sheriff's Office Sgt. Brian Quennell spent some time last year with Google Earth, Downey said, and was able to identify more than 4,100 marijuana gardens in the county.

The answers, Downey said, are increased funding and an increased commitment. Or, he said, the federal government needs to choose a new path forward.

”We have to have some kind of national referendum on what we're going to do with this issue or increase enforcement,” Downey said. “This middle of the road isn't working.”

Local ecologist Mourad Gabriel, who has studied the impacts of pesticides from illicit marijuana grows on local animal populations, said the incredible amounts of rodenticides and pesticides being found at these growing operations is an issue that needs attention and warrants further studies, noting he is very concerned about the prospect of the rodenticides wiping out prey species that are a crucial part of the food chain.

Gabriel advocated what he called the “trident approach” to tackling grow operations. The approach, he said, would see a garden site eradicated, then thoroughly documented to record and study what was found on the land and, finally, reclaimed and reforested.

”But all three of these apparatus, in my opinion, are underfunded,” Gabriel said.

Huffman said he agrees “100 percent,” but warned that fiscal spigots aren't likely to flow open in the near future.

”I'll try (to get additional funding) but you know the fiscal climate I'm going to go back to in Washington in about a week,” Huffman said, noting that the U.S. Forest Service recently announced it has run out of money to fight wildfires. “We have to work on a broader policy.”

Eric Mann, who handles security for Humboldt Redwood Company, said biologists, foresters and watershed experts working on timber lands remain in harm's way in the mean time.

”They're on the ground by themselves working in these areas -- we ask these folks to be out there,” he said, adding that the people manning large, trespass growing operations are increasingly heavily armed. “It's not your idiot brother who is out there growing pot. It's dangerous people with guns.”

Huffman said he understand that, noting that employees of state and federal environmental agencies have expressed safety concerns associated with investigating the issues surrounding grow sites. He said he'll work on increased funding to provide scientists the security they need to do the important research needed to document the environmental issues.

”We can't just withdraw and retreat,” Huffman said.

Scott Bauer of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said he's received word of 25 creeks in the county that have been diverted to irrigate marijuana crops. That's 25 dry creeks that once provided important habitat for salmon and steelhead, he said.

Huffman agreed that grows don't have to be on public lands to impact public resources.

After this morning's meeting, Huffman was scheduled to take an aerial tour of the county with iconic newsman Dan Rather and sheriff's office personnel to see the proliferation of illicit grow operations. The congressman said national media attention on the issue will be a key component to any push for a federal policy change on the issue.

Downey made clear that the current situation of environmental damage caused by large outdoor grows -- imperiling the forests, streams and watersheds so many Humboldt residents cherish -- is untenable.

”It's being destroyed right in front of out eyes,” he said.


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I read somewhere that 77 per cent of all the mentally ill live in poverty. Actually, I’m more intrigued by the 23 per cent who are apparently doing quite well for themselves.” 
  ~ St. Jerome of Marin
:gd_icon:the bus come by & i got on, that's when it all began:gd_icon:



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OfflineOld Pokey
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Registered: 09/04/12
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Re: Humboldt County Sherrif Calls for Pot Legalization [Re: leon trout]
    #18765428 - 08/27/13 07:17 PM (10 years, 5 months ago)

Interesting how other agribusiness isn't impacting the environment.  Seems like one kind of monoculture would be as bad a another from that stand point; re: diverting water resources and chemical pollutants.


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It's all mythology...


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Invisiblegreencrush420
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Registered: 04/14/13
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Re: Humboldt County Sherrif Calls for Pot Legalization [Re: leon trout]
    #18766215 - 08/27/13 10:02 PM (10 years, 5 months ago)

Quote:

"I was never a big fan of legalization (of marijuana), but right now I think that's the most logical way to end this drug war,” Downey said. “We are not winning"



Kicking ass and taking names.  :dancer:
Quote:

Huffman said he's seen first-hand the environmental devastation caused by some marijuana grow operations, with stream diversions, heavy pesticide and fertilizer use, clear cutting and soil grading all having large cumulative impacts. He drew a parallel to what was seen in the hills of Kentucky during the Prohibition Era, when illegal stills and violence were rampant.

”That's what prohibition brought,” he said. “Eventually, we got rid of prohibition and with that went the campfires and stills in the woods. We need to re-learn that lesson.”



:bigyesnod: Exactly, now they're starting to get it. The people won't take the nanny state telling them what to do; they will just circumvent the law, like always. Eventually, they will have to give us our way. this country is by the people, for the people, and nobody will oppress our will for long.  :rabble:


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Offlinedark3st
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Registered: 08/02/13
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Re: Humboldt County Sherrif Calls for Pot Legalization [Re: greencrush420] * 1
    #18767576 - 08/28/13 08:30 AM (10 years, 5 months ago)

The sherrif did shrooms the other night. This is what opened his mind.



Speculation but something profound probably happened to change his mind.


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Back.. I'm going to do it...I'm getting sober from opiates ... I got weed, gabapentin, propranolol, and GHB, I have 100mg tramadol left. I can do this. I can do this.

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OfflineAbsent Minded
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Registered: 04/13/12
Posts: 3,300
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Re: Humboldt County Sherrif Calls for Pot Legalization [Re: dark3st]
    #18772509 - 08/29/13 10:51 AM (10 years, 5 months ago)

I think the decades of failed policy is enough to change your mind :lol:


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Beats
More Beats

sheekle: fuck peace love and unity
sheekle: death despair and misery
sheekle: is where it's at


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Offlinedark3st
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Re: Humboldt County Sherrif Calls for Pot Legalization [Re: Absent Minded]
    #18776290 - 08/30/13 07:12 AM (10 years, 4 months ago)

Tru.


--------------------
Back.. I'm going to do it...I'm getting sober from opiates ... I got weed, gabapentin, propranolol, and GHB, I have 100mg tramadol left. I can do this. I can do this.

OFINTQWGVGAKGCYKBUBX
free dark P. Tampanensis prints to ODD members.

no stamps atm

FREE SEEDS for ODD WCA  members ONLY

I have these seeds:
Orange, red, and yellow sweet peppers, Purple poppies, White Habanero, Yellow Thai, Bolivian rainbow peppers, milk thistle, red chilly pepper, HBWR.


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