Plane crashes while hunting plants

Not only are these ridiculous eradication efforts costly, they are dangerous. Thankfully no one was killed here. What's bothersome however, is rather than sensibly weigh the risks against the benefits of simply letting the gardeners grow their plants -- after all, if they are determined to bust these people, they could certainly wait until the harvest actually hits the streets. That is if it ever does and is not just for personal use which is often the case in small grows.

Of even more concern is that rather than use common sense, the prohibition profiteers decided to change their methodology in marijuana-spotting operations to include military-style attack techniques -- and military aircraft.

Since the 1980s, the OBN has used faster, more efficient military choppers -- instead of small planes -- to spot marijuana. Now, OBN agents train like soldiers to find the plants and destroy them.

OBN spokesman Mark Woodward said it used to take days for narcotics agents to find a marijuana patch -- and a miles-long hike to reach it.

"We got with the National Guard and said, 'Look, we want to start doing this a lot quicker,'" Woodward said. "We started using their air-assault techniques."
Now, agents spot the plants, rappel from the helicopter and land inside the drug crop in a matter of minutes.

Anybody still think the war on some drugs is not a war on US citizens? And wouldn't you think they would have better things to do with the National Guards' time -- like maybe, oh, I don't know -- looking for actual terrorists?