From: bx461@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Leo J. Mauler)
Subject: Difference in Cultivated/Wild Marijuana (Re: War on Drugs not to
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, (USA)
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 92 16:10:06 GMT


Webbge@che17.ncsu.EDU (Greg Earl Webb), writes:
>In article <62827@cup.portal.com>, patrik@cup.portal.com
>(Patrick M Crumhorn) writes:
>> 
>> (JULY 22) COMTEX - SOME AMERICANS THINK THE WAR ON DRUGS
>> CAN GO TOO FAR. RURAL RESIDENTS SAY MARIJUANA PATROLS ARE
>> MAKING THEIR LIVES UNBEARABLE. THE U-S DRUG ENFORCEMENT
>> AGENCY AND LOCAL POLICE ARE INCREASING THEIR USE OF LOW-
>> FLYING HELICOPTERS TO FIND POT PLANTS.  BUT RURAL RESIDENTS
>> SAY THE NOISE FROM THOSE EFFORTS IS SPOOKING LIVESTOCK AND
>> CAUSING CHICKENS TO STOP LAYING EGGS.  AND CRITICS SAY OF
>> THE 139-MILLION POT PLANTS CONFISCATED LAST YEAR, ALL BUT
>> FIVE-MILLION WERE GROWING WILD. 
>> 
>Now just how can they tell the difference between cultivated
>and wild marijuana!
 
There IS a difference!  Cultivated marijuana looks much
healthier than wild marijuana; cultivated usually has some 
evidence of digging up the ground around the plant, fertilizer 
being used, some weeding being done
 
>Were the 5 million that were cultivated
>lead to arrests.
 
They wouldn't have to for them to be profit-makers for the 
DEA/police.  Remember forfeiture laws?  People can avoid even 
being arrested, but they'll still lose their property and money.
Those 5 million could have all resulted in acquittals, and the 
cops would still be happy, because 5 million plants represents 
a lot of private property going into police department coffers.
As for the other 134-million, wild marijuana growing on your 
property is still grounds for at least civil forfeiture, if 
not bothering with criminal charges too.
 
>How were the other 134-million planted? 
>Naturally or did some hippy run around with a bag of seeds
>and spread the joy to the world????
 
There could be a hippy running around with a bag of seeds, but 
his plants would be NOTHING compared to natural distribution 
of seeds.  Birds eat the things, fail to digest them, and 
deposit them with fertilizer ;-).  Birds and other animals may
also get seeds stuck to them with marijuana resin, which then 
fall off feet to miles away.  Wind carries a good portion of 
seeds away from growing sites.  Seeds don't have to be 
planted; if they do, then where do all those WEEDS I pull out 
of my vegetable garden come from?  Marijuana is literally a 
weed; please treat it like one.
 
Another thing you have to realize is that a good many plants 
may be growing in heavily-forested areas, where animals & wind 
can get to them but humans can't.  So one patch in the middle 
of a forest may spread marijuana all around a state.
 
The point is that the forces of Nature spread marijuana much 
more effectively and widely than humans, and the DEA is
capitalizing on this by claiming that drug dealers are doing
everything Nature does naturally.  In a way, the DEA is thus 
an "unnatural" thing...
 
-- 
Never do this at home.  Look how easily it killed this sig.
/\  ___/\  ___/\  _____________________________________________
  \/     \/     \/  bx461@cleveland.freenet.edu (Leo J. Mauler)
DISCLAIMER: Everything I say is false, including this sentence.