Well, of course it is. You’re looking for a plant from a helicopter. The article makes the hunt for marijuana gardens seem like a Jackie Chan movie, but of course it doesn’t mention the millions of dollars such an endeavor requires: the salaries of “special agents” not to mention the use of choppers to spot the plants.

“I’ve got dope,” Plantaric’s voice crackles through the headsets. The pilot banks, hesitates, and settles lower, as treetops thrash beneath the beating rotors.

A powerful smell fills the helicopter cabin — musk and mint and lemongrass and freshly mowed lawn, all mixed together with a touch of sweetness. Below, what seemed to be a solid forest canopy is suddenly full of fissures. Under the trees, bright green cannabis plants are everywhere:

It goes into information mode a bit later, but only to point the finger at the growers, at the Mexicans, at the marijuana smokers or whoever else is handy. The real issue is prohibition, which drives up prices to entice farmers to grow pot instead of food, inspire organized crime, and encourage deadly and radical methods of defending their livelihoods outside the law.

Two more dead in Acapulco, reports the LA Times, bringing the number of “narco-violence” deaths to 200. Police officer Raymundo Leyva was shot 11 times during the gang-like battle.

“I thought after the first funerals that would be it, but there’s been so many more,” said Alberto Lopez Rosas, Acapulco’s mayor.

Nine police officers have been killed this year in the city. Only one was killed last year.

“We don’t have an elite police force here,” the mayor said. “Our officers are from the common people.”

Across Mexico, more than 2,000 people have been killed as two cartels battle over drug production areas and points of sale, known here as “plazas”: the Gulf cartel based in the border state of Tamaulipas and the Sinaloa cartel based in the Pacific state of the same name.

You can learn more about the drug war raging in Acapulco and across Mexico here.

Two were arrested on Wednesday for the farming of a hyper-potent, and extremely valuable strain of cannabis.

Two people were in custody Wednesday after officers from the Agriplex Drug Task Force raided a home in the 2500 block of Washington Avenue in Waco and seized about 65 marijuana plants that were growing in sophisticated hydroponics system.

The operation was designed to grow marijuana that’s more potent than conventionally grown pot.

Officers estimated the plants would produce pot with a street value of about $4,000 a pound.

Charges were pending Wednesday against the 20-year-old man and 21-year-old woman officers arrested during the raid Tuesday.

But more will take their place. When a plant that costs next to nothing to grow can be sold for over $4,000 a pound, the payout will always be worth the risk to some people. Busts like these ones only raise the street value of marijuana and open up more illicit sales opportunities for dealers still on the streets. Legalizing marijuana would completely end the illicit growth and sale of marijuana, because the incentive to grow it would be eliminated.

In a symbolic move, the city of Denver, CO today voted to make the possession of one ounce or less of marijuana unpunishable by the law. The downside is, it’s still illegal in Colorado, and thus users will still be prosecuted. Here’s a question: if every city in CO voted to legalize marijuana one by one until it was legal in every city and town, would it still be legal in the state?

Naturally, the vote didn’t come easy. A hot button topic like pot doesn’t make it to the ballot without a little debate. Marijuana trumps alcahol?

The Denver proposal seemed to draw at least as much attention for supporters’ campaign tactics as it did for the question of legalizing the drug.

Tvert argued that legalizing marijuana would reduce consumption of alcohol, which he said leads to higher rates of car accidents, domestic and street violence and crime.

The group criticized Mayor John Hickenlooper for opposing the proposal, noting his ownership of a popular brewpub. It also said recent violent crimes - including the shootings of four people last weekend - as a reason to legalize marijuana to steer people away from alcohol use.

Of course, even if it was legalized in Colorado, we know what little good that would do. A precedent was set months ago that feds could still seize marijuana and prosecute possessors, even if it violates the state’s constitution, as it did in California.

UPDATE: Here’s an article about the 23 year old behind the Marijuana-beats-booze camapaign.

Hey everybody. Russ Belville, the mad genius behind RadicalRuss.net, was kind enough to serve up a guest editorial for Legalize.org. The piece, called “Marijuana Prohibition - Impossible to imagine, if it weren’t a reality already,” appears bellow, unedited, in its entirety.

As marijuana activists, we often find ourselves in arguments with drug warriors and other prohibitionists about our government’s drug policies. We arm ourselves with every fact and study we can download from the Schaffer Library and other sources. We stride forth secure in the feeling that we’ve got the logic and science on our side. We just know that if only they knew that marijuana never killed anyone, if they knew that arrests for simple possession are fueling our world record prison population, if they knew cannabis was an effective medicine for so many ailments, if they knew you could make houses, paper, food, engine fuel, and so many other items out of hemp — if they only knew the facts, they’d see why marijuana should be legal.

This is the critical mistake we make: assuming that prohibition has anything to do with facts, science, or logic. Marijuana prohibition is all about emotion, fear, and control. It began as racist fears about weed-smoking Mexicans taking our jobs in the Depression. It continued to flourish because of fearmongering and mania about Negro jazz musicians seducing the white women and teenagers gone mad on reefer. It exists to this day as a method of controlling a certain segment of the population, insuring a steady stream of cheap prison labor, and protecting entrenched big business interests.

To argue with a prohibitionist with facts, science, and logic to explain why marijuana should be legal is to cede the notion that there should be a debate as to which plants should be forbidden. The first thing I do when arguing with a drug warrior is to shift the topic to arguing about why marijuana should remain illegal. Force them to defend the indefensible position. To so many, it is just a given that “marijuana is bad so it is illegal”, then we are forced to explain why marijuana is not bad. Make them defend the status quo. Their attempt to do so puts the topic in the frame of criminalizing a plant rather than defending a policy.

Just ask this: “why is marijuana illegal?” Maybe you’ll get the response of “because it is a Schedule I drug.” Be persistent — “no, that’s the statute that describes the crime… I’m wondering why we have that statute?” Maybe they go toward the “it’s a dangerous drug” route — now you hit them with the “no one dies from marijuana” fact. Maybe they go toward the “we must protect the children” cliche — so hit ‘em with how we protect kids from tobacco and alcohol. Maybe they go for “it’s a gateway drug” — show them how nearly every heroin addict cites tobacco or alcohol as the first drug they ever tried.

The main point is that to the mainstream, marijuana prohibition is a fact of life and those of us trying to change that are presenting the mainstream with what they’ll see as a radical, absurd, dangerous change. By forcing the prohibitionist to answer very simple, specific questions in defense of the status quo, their own statements will appear to most people as radical, absurd, and dangerous. Most people know the kid who smokes a joint isn’t likely to go on a murderous “reefer madness” rampage. Remember, 90 million Americans have tried marijuana at least once in their life - force the prohibitionist into statements that run counter to people’s own experiences and the prohibitionist will undercut his own arguments.

I have two nuggets of wisdom that I constantly impart to people outside of the movement. One is a quote from the late comedian Bill Hicks, who said, “Why is marijuana against the law? It grows naturally on our planet! Doesn’t the idea of making nature against the law seem to you a bit… unnatural?” I follow that up with a mental picture: “Imagine walking through the forest. It’s a hot summer day and you’ve got a sunburn. You see an aloe vera plant. You break off a stalk and rub some of the gel on your shoulders to ease the sunburn pain. Two policemen jump out from behind a bush and arrest you, charging you with possession of aloe vera. You ask them why this is even a crime, and they tell you it is because when people use it, it makes them feel good.” This little vignette brings the listener back to considering how absurd it is to criminalize nature.

The other scenario I use is to ask people, “Suppose time travel is possible and we can send someone back to Colonial America. How would you explain to Thomas Jefferson the reasons behind criminalizing hemp in the 21st century?” It’s really fun listening to a drug warrior run with that one, especially if you have good knowledge of Jefferson’s ideals, his farming of hemp, the colonial mandate to grow hemp, and the fact that the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were written on hemp. Get into character and give them Jefferson’s reaction to their points.

So remember, facts, science, and logic are great, but they get you nowhere until you’ve broken through most people’s cherished fears and ignorance about the plant. Once marijuana is seen as a common flower instead of a dangerous drug, the rest of the prohibitionist’s arguments are toast.

“Radical” Russ Belville
Webmaster, Boardmember
Oregon NORML

Another major victory in the war on drugs: Pot confiscated in Kentucky. From WFMY via Fark:

Pikeville, KY — While Kentucky is the “Bluegrass” state, authorities are finding plenty of another kind of grass, the illegal variety.

State police say they’ve confiscated more than $1 billion worth of marijuana this year.

Kentucky traditionally ranks among the top five states in illegal marijuana production.

Troopers say they would have found even more pot farms if not for Hurricane Katrina.

National Guard helicopters used to search Kentucky hills for pot were sent to the Gulf Coast for hurricane relief.

One official says there’s so much pot grown in Kentucky that if every Kentuckian were to smoke a joint an hour, they couldn’t use it all.

Now that’s what I call six decades of prohibition in action! That war on drugs works like the mother of all get out, I’m tellin’ ya.

I’m sorry, but I just had to post this article on drug testing for the winter Olympics. The centerpiece of the article is Bode Miller, world champion in the downhill ski category. He’s against a zero tolerance policy on performance enhancing drugs because EPO is not particularly harmful and can save a skier’s life.

“… in our sport [there] would be pretty minimal health risks and it would actually make it safer for the athletes, because you’d have less chance of making a mistake at the bottom and killing yourself. You have to make four or five decisions every second in skiing, every turn…And when your brain starts to slow down, as if you’re holding your breath for two minutes, it makes it damn hard to make those decisions.”

Sounds reasonable, but the author of the article laughs at Miller’s “sense of entitlement.” Here’s something to laugh at: a quote from the last paragraph of his stunning editorial:

Like their urine, their testimony is often tainted.

The fight must go on.

Fight on urine warrior! Fight on!

Yet another good reason to cut the drug war from our bloated budget: NOLA hurricane victims could make much better use of the money we spend! (Link goes to the Radical Writ)

Ironic in a way, since most of those hit hardest by Katrina were the same demographic hit hardest by the drug war: impoverished blacks.

We can start with those stupid anti-marijuana TV ads that cost taxpayers $120 million a year. You know, the ones that claim that drug users are terrorists, and that smoking marijuana will make you crazy, get you pregnant, and cause you to shoot your neighbor. Give me - and taxpayers - a break! The Republican Study Committee is right to suggest eliminating the program. They’re also right to suggest curtailing recent spending increases on the counter-productive Andean Counter-Drug Initiative (formerly called “Plan Colombia”). Completely eliminating the program, as drug policy reformers and human rights groups recommend, would save $725 million this year alone. I bet Katrina’s victims would be grateful.

This article in the Boston Herald shows the gross misspending of seized drug money by police. According to the law, monies seized in the war on drugs are used to fund the war on drugs, but some police seem to take a liberal view of this charge. Instead of using the money for drug treatment, most of the cash seized in Boston went to paying prosecuting attorneys and helping to ensure that those caught with drugs serve out the maximum sentences allowable. The rest was spent on frivolities.

The BPD spent the bulk of its drug forfeiture money on a contract with Ron Smith & Associates, which has been paid more than $250,000 to clear a backlog of unprocessed fingerprint evidence. The cost includes hotels, airfare and food for experts who have flown in from Mississippi. Other expenditures included nearly $10,000 on crime scene cones and $34,000 on 33 digital cameras.

Only $7,000 was allotted to the Gavin Foundation’s Cushing House, a residential treatment center for teen boys.

Conley’s chief of staff John Towle defended the salaries as a legitimate use of drug forfeiture funds, saying: “Under the law it’s allowable.”

Richard Paely, a paraplegic and sufferer of chronic pain is behind bars for possession of pain killers that were prescribed to him. What a world.

The larger issue, of course, is why a man who is clearly not an addict (he wasn’t taking the medication to get high) and had a legitimate use for the medication wasn’t given access to what he needed in the first place. State prosecutors concede there’s no evidence Paey ever sold or gave his medication away. Nevertheless, under draconian drug war statutes, they were permitted to pursue distribution charges against him solely based on the amount of the medication in his possession (the unauthorized possession of as few as 60 tablets of some pain medications can qualify one as a “drug trafficker”).

Lock up a few more cripples and we might finally be safe from the scourge of drugs.