Enviroment next victim of U.S. Drug War

From the Oregonian:

Police discovered at least 200,000 marijuana plants in raids during the busy Oregon growing and harvest season that just ended.

They also came upon jury-rigged irrigation pools filled with chemical fertilizers, causing worry among officials and environmentalists that already-threatened steelhead runs could be at risk.

In Grant County, for example, dams and chemical-laden pools were discovered along crystal-clear tributaries of the John Day River. Pot-growing operations, most run by Mexican cartels, pour fertilizer into the pools and run irrigation lines to their plants.

“They dump it by the 50-pound sack right into the water supply,” said Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer, whose department seized 60,000 pot plants at nine operations this summer in raids with the Oregon State Police, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and other agencies.

“It’s a really concentrated level,” he said. “You know it’s got to be harmful for the environment.”

Interestingly enough, Portland opened its first pot dispensary. The disconnect between marijuana laws, the added confusion of the DEA’s hands off policy and how to handle growers is starting to take its toll.

Moving Towards Legal Marijuana

This just in from the NYT:

People who use marijuana for medical purposes and those who distribute it should not face federal prosecution, provided they act according to state law, the Justice Department said on Monday in a directive with political and legal implications.

And so Obama has held up his end of the bargain.  Earlier, he said that he would make sure medicinal marijuana will not be pursued by the DEA and left towards state jurisdiction.  In an almost ironic parallel, Obama is exercising political rhetoric of state’s rights, one that Reagan championed during his campaign platform regarding civil rights — which devastated the Democrats chances for presidential office for several terms.  Since Obama is African American, it is pretty much a smack in the face.  In addition to attempts to legalize industrial hemp in KY, (here) and protests to keep the DEA off of farmers backs for legal industrial hemp, (here) this marks an iconic period for the legitimacy of marijuana.  Let’s see how long it will last.

UPDATE (10/20): Slate weighs in stating “States could take the new policy as a tacit nod from Uncle Sam to go ahead and allow medical marijuana back home.”