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In reply to
Louise Tempelmeirer,
re: How much the big 78 plant pot bust in Baxter County, Arkansas, cost us
taxpayers, we at
ArmchairHoodlum.com and
Gozarks.com went to Shirley High School early in 2004 to
interview
Lt. Col. Moore, head of the Arkansas National Guard Drug
Interdiction Team, to ask that very question.
Since that time, we have remained
interested in the subject and more so recently. Considering the escalation
of the War on Terrorism, spiraling energy costs, and the mire of famine
plaguing parts of our world, we wonder, you know, since we insist on
believing that "money is a limited commodity" (even though "we the people"
are the ones who print it and assign value to it) it seems logical for us
to consider how every public dollar is spent and assign it to the most
worthwhile cause.
In this light, we wish Ms. Tempelmeirer's
figure of 'probably hundreds of dollars per (drug-raid confiscated) plant'
were accurate. It is worse. It is unbelievable in fact.
According to Col. Moore, 2 years ago when fuel costs were about half of
what they are now, a Blackhawk helicopter and the equipment on board cost
$2700 per hour to operate, and that was only the cost of the machine.
In addition you have things like the
vaunted infra red scanner mounted under the whirlybird (used to detect
heat signatures of the marijuana plant). These do not come cheap. One
little bling-bling like this can run half-a-million bucks.
On top of that, interdiction teams
generally use dozens of ground troops to swoop into a pot patch once found
and targeted, so we estimate with the personnel and odds and ends, trucks
and transport fuel costs for the troops as well as food and other material
expenditures, you are looking at at least $4000 per hour, and that's just
for the Guard.
"I myself," explains Kelley, "spent four
years in the Navy and six years in the Navy Reserves and I will attest
these figures and manpower are accurate and probably conservative
considering today's fuel costs."
In light of what
Louise Tempelmeier
reports:
There was 50 personnel from seven law
enforcement agencies (Baxter County Sheriff's officials, Mountain Home
Police, Arkansas State Police, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Civil
Air Patrol, U.S. Forest Service, Drug Enforcement Agency and the 14th
Judicial District Drug Task Force), and four helicopters (two from the
National Guard, one from Baxter County Sheriff's Department and one from
Arkansas State Police).
Kelley continues, "We taxpayers laid out
at least $24,000 (per six hours) for the Blackhawk and crew. Since there
were two of these in service, I peg the cost to us for using the Guard at
a minimum of $40,000 for the Baxter County raid."
Regarding the other eight agencies besides
the Guard and two additional helicopters that rushed in to assist in this
epic war-game, one can only guess but we would say that an additional
$50,000 is not outside the box. Therefore, we calculate that this one day
of pot hunting by 'our' government officials comes to at least $90,000.
Now understand that in the month of July,
the pot plants very well may not yet be sexed. This is important for the
uninitiated as one half of any given pot crop is male and hence useless
and these plants are discarded by the grower. That reduces the 78 plants
seized in Baxter County to a legitimate "market value" of about 40.
Given that some plants are perhaps six or
seven feet tall (rangy ones at that) down to the runts of a foot, the
averaged-out amount of saleable pot at harvest is around two ounces per
plant, and this assumes a "full harvest." However your average pot thieves
(this includes hikers, off-roaders, etc., and the lazy bastards that just
wait to steal a cultivator's hard grown produce) are far more efficient
than our finest constabulary, removing an uncountable number of hidden plants every season!
So, if those 78 plants in had gone
undiscovered by our drug militia, there is a 50/50 likelihood they never
would have made it to market at all.
We note with special interest that the
police and various news outlets seem never to make these facts part of the
public record, preferring to exaggerate claims about the significance of
such conquests with dis-loyal propaganda, such as the recent Bush
administration allegation that each and every seized marijuana plant has a
street value of $6000...!!!
Rubbish.
More accurately, allowing a street value
of roughly $150 per ounce (Note: in more affluent areas such as California
or back East, one ounce of a 'high grade' Indica strain, sometimes
referred to as 'skunk weed,' can readily fetch $300, but remember, we're
talking about Baxter County, Arkansas), an average harvest of 40 female
plants will yield roughly $12,000 (2 ounces per plant X $150 per ounce =
$300 per plant X 40 plants = $12,000). And again, that's IF these
"backwoods" plants actually make it to market.
No matter the market value, the yield per
plant is however the same--way smaller than most government sources and
prohibitionists claim.
Factoring all this in to an answer for Ms.
Tempelmeier's question, by our investigative (and highly conservative)
calculations, it cost us taxpayers $90,000 to harvest 40 marketable
plants. That's a cost of $2250 each; $90,000 spent to destroy $12,000
worth of herb.
And that accounts nothing for the human risk.
"According to a source I had whom was with
the Guard for years doing this 'work'," Kelley informs, "the sensor
devices mounted on the choppers don't function well at altitudes over one
hundred feet. Hence, the choppers fly dangerously low at tree top level --
we have all seen them -- and have human spotters dangling out the door."
Kelley's 'insider' connection also
asserted that the on-the-ground troops that gather and carry-off the sized
contraband are notorious for filling their pockets with loot, knowing that
since they burn it and theoretically it could get into their blood, they
are not drug tested themselves. This also opens the door for a great deal
of 'insider trading.'
"The largest bust in Arkansas history,"
Kelley continued, "was in Benton County where the Guard found five acres
tended by Mexicans about five years ago. This also came to me from the
Guard-whistleblower who was killed a year ago or so, resultant of an
apparent accident."
In light of all these human risks, the
extraordinarily consumptive economic factors and the somewhat pressing
world conditions mentioned earlier on, we at
ACH &
Gozarks suggest that our government outsource the seizing of
marijuana crops to the pot-luckers and prowlers who wander the forests
trampling and pilfering these paltry plants. They are, overall, far better
at depriving the growers of their harvest and they cost us taxpayers not
one red cent.
Better still, we suggest that "we the
people" get out of the pot-plant business altogether, invest our human,
economic and technological resources more appropriately and stick to
waging war against the real bad guys -- which presently our brave leaders
seem to be doing with equal brilliance.
MARIJUANA OPERATION WAS
SERIOUS OVERKILL
04 Aug 2005, The
Baxter Bulletin
Author: Louise Tempelmeier
Media Awareness Project Archive
A week or so ago our county judge, Mr. Hall, announced personnel layoffs
because of a money shortage in county funds. He did say things may
improve though before year's end.
Seventy-eight marijuana plants were pulled
from two plots on Tuesday, July 26. If you read the whole article and not
just the headlines, you were either shocked or amused. Not the fact that
78 plants were confiscated but what it took to complete this large
eradication of this evil menace.
Now keep in mind there were 78 plants. There was 50
personnel from seven law enforcement agencies (Baxter County Sheriff's
officials; Mountain Home Police; Arkansas State Police; Arkansas Game and
Fish Commission (wonder what part they played ); Civil Air Patrol, U.S.
Forest Service; Drug Enforcement Agency and the 14th Judicial District
Drug Task Force ); four helicopters, two from the National Guard, one from
Baxter County Sheriff's Department and one from Arkansas State Police.
At one site they found all of three plants, then later the "Biggie Hit" 75
plants in one spot.
This "official action" reminds me of an episode of the Andy Griffith show
when Barney Fife was after a "bank robber" that turned out to be a goat
that wandered into a warehouse.
We will never know how much taxpayer money
was used for this action. It would be too embarrassing if we were told
that it probably cost hundreds of dollars for each of the 78 plants.
Also, not too long ago, the sheriff said the high cost of fuel was putting
a pinch in their funds. Four helicopters and probably 30-plus other
official vehicles scouring the whole county would use a lot of fuel -- all
for 78 plants. I think the action should have been downplayed instead of
front page news.
Our military are being killed almost daily in Iraq, and we have to look
for this news on pages 12A to 14A, the last pages. A theft of a lawn
ornament in a local yard will at least get page 3.
I want to know how much of my ( and your ) money was spent to pull up 78
marijuana plants, cruise the whole county plus flying over it also.
Serious overkill in my opinion.
Ladies and
gentlemen, it is time for us to take action. This battle has been ongoing for
over 30
years. Its cost, in terms of dollars, has been astronomical. In the
billions. And it has, in the most real sense, wreaked devastation on more
lives than the composite total of all previous battles ever waged on the
face of the Earth.
Read this
INDEPENDENT
REPORT about the ineffectiveness of the anti-drug strategy being
pursued... then WRITE A LETTER to the editor of your local newspaper. (see our
Arkansas
and
National
news-links pages.) Call, write or email your state and federal
legislators. Sponsor a
LEGITIMATE debate in your community, perhaps with the support of the
administrators (whose salaries you pay) at your local high school.
Speak your mind... but before you do, please...
LEARN THE TRUTH. |
