More ridiculous eradication stories

This search and destroy mission in Indiana is just as stupid as any of them, but here's an article that lists the actual costs involved in having law enforcement essentially doing roadside ground maintenance. At least the state cop admitted the 55 plants they found weren't even mature and qualified that the estimated worth was for a harvested mature plant. Nonetheless, the DEA's Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program, is a model of prohibition profiteering at the taxpayer's expense.

This year, more than $670,000 in federal money is helping to fund the Indiana State Police program -- which includes field searches and a host of other anti-marijuana efforts, records show. Authorities did not have figures on the total cost of Indiana's program.

That's one state and one would guess if they "don't have the figures" this means they are embarrassed (or afraid) to admit just how much of your tax money they are squandering on weed whacking. And although they tout having cut down 31,000 cultivated plants here, the majority of the money goes to eliminating 219 million rope quality hemp plants that grow wild throughout the mid-west.

Now don't you think if those wild plants were worth anything, that cannabis consumers would be flocking to the roadsides themselves and harvesting them?

Even more disturbing in the state police data however is the jump in asset seizures. (Assets seized include money, homes, bank account contents and vehicles.) Keep in mind they seize the assets before anyone is convicted of a crime and the onus is on the property owner to prove his property innocent in order to have it returned which customarily requires big outlays in attorney's fees. They snagged $94,596 in 2000 but only four years later having refined their methods in this legally sanctioned larceny by accusation, Indiana law enforcement seized $925,894 of it's citizen's hard earned assets.

Remember when a badge was an emblem of protection instead of a license to steal?