Marijuana Blog

According to statistics provided by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), drug seizures dropped by 35% between 2010 and 2011.

Data for the year 2011 shows that about 6.7 million cannabis plants were eradicated nationwide under the DEA’s Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program, which is active in all 50 states. This represents the lowest total of plants eradicated since 2006, and is a 35% decrease from 2010, when the DEA reported eradicating roughly 10.3 million marijuana plants.

Most of the drop comes from California, where 7.4 million plants were destroyed in 2010 and only 4 million were destroyed in 2011. About 60% of all plants eradicated come from CA.

According to a July 2012 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, the Justice Department’s asset forfeiture fund under President Barack Obama is the largest on record, going from $500 million in 2003 to $1.8 billion in 2011. The fund paid out about $79 million to California law enforcement agencies alone for their participation in federal raids and seizures.

And this is what it all comes down to: money. The DEA needs these seizures to justify their budget, and they need money with which to bribe locals to cooperate.

So what accounts for the drop? Is less marijuana being grown? Prices are not rising noticeably, so probably not. The only other answer is that the DEA is getting worse at its job – or corrupt agents are keeping more for themselves and not reporting it.

Either way, less cannabis plants being destroyed is a good thing. It means there is more medicine out there for those who need it, whatever reason they use it for. It means more people are learning the art of growing as well as the art of concealment.

It means cannabis cannot be completely eradicated, no matter how much money is spent.

Source: http://blog.norml.org