Prohibition poisons the land

This SF Gate article is making the rounds today. I picked it up
at the newly revamped DRCNet. Just another eradication story in a way but here's the really irritating quotes:

One dilemma "that is really throwing us," Ferry said, is the wide-scale acceptance of medical marijuana and the perception that casual marijuana use hurts nothing.

But if marijuana smokers saw the carcasses of deer, squirrels, songbirds, owls and other wildlife shot or poisoned at the illegal groves, as Ferry has, perhaps they would understand the price wildlife pays for their next toke.

Sounds suspiciously like the argument that marijuana funds terrorists. Why don't these guys get it? It's the prohibition that causes the damage. As David Borden points out in his blog, if they were growing tomatoes instead, the damage would be the same. If we had legally sanctioned grows, they wouldn't be tearing up the national forests to cultivate it. They would be leasing farm land. And generating tax income instead of costing us billions of tax dollars in eradication costs.