cc6774f7   
   XPost: ca.politics, alt.society.liberalism, alt.drugs   
   XPost: rec.drugs.cannabis   
   From: tim.howard@suddenlink.net   
      
   Phlip wrote:   
   > On Aug 16, 10:58 pm, Tim Howard  wrote:   
   >> The fire in the Los Padres National Forest, near Santa Maria, CA, has,   
   >> as of this writing, burned almost 87,000 acres.  According to InciWeb (a   
   >> federal government website that tracks fires in national forests,   
   >> wildernesses, etc.) website, there are over 2,000 fire personnel   
   >> fighting the fires.  Of course there are many other government officials   
   >> involved indirectly in fighting fires like this as well.  The LA Times   
   >> broke the story that the fire was started on in illegal marijuana grow   
   >> operating in the forest.  Eventually InciWeb will put up the cost to   
   >> fight this fire, and surely it will total in the millions, possibly   
   >> eight figures.  Most everyone agrees that marijuana farms in state and   
   >> national forests/parks is wrong, but they don't want to provide the   
   >> solution to that problem.  If marijuana were legalized or even   
   >> decriminalized, people wouldn't be growing it in secret in our forests   
   >> and parks.  They could openly grow it on their own property.  The   
   >> opponents of this idea talk about the "costs to society" of   
   >> legalization/decriminalization being more than the cost of "fighting the   
   >> drug war" or the benefit from taxing drugs.  While it is debatable if   
   >> there is any significant "cost to society" from marijuana, this fire is   
   >> another example of the cost of keeping it illegal.  If it was legal,   
   >> there would have been no grow in Los Padres.   
   >   
   > Thanks for stating the obvious! But...   
   >   
   > The cryptic nature of the grow will make determining the cause rather   
   > hard. Maybe it was innocent, natural, or an accident, but maybe the   
   > anti-pot crusade will attempt to blame "stoners sparking up".   
   >   
   Wrong.  The authorities have already determined that it was due to a   
   cooking accident on the grow.  Whether or not someone was stoned while   
   operating whatever cooker he/she was using, I don't know.  The point is   
   they would not have been up there if it were legal.   
      
   > Next, the plants themselves won't catch fire more easily than, say,   
   > dead underbrush (_right_?), but the crusade will try to blame that,   
   > too.   
   >   
   > And if neither situations occurred, why would the fire starting in a   
   > pot farm be any worse than starting anywhere else? Or is the pro-pot   
   > side dabbling in the blame game here?   
   >   
   Who said anything about it being better or worse?  I said it would not   
   have started had that pot farm not been there, and it would not have   
   been there if marijuana were legalized.   
   > --   
   >   Phlip   
   >   http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?ZeekLand   
      
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