Marijuana Policy Project

On the surface, it seems reasonable: Looking to highlight the recent explosion of illegal marijuana farms sprouting up in national parks, wilderness areas, and other public lands, the nation's top drug warrior visits a Northern California grow site "eradicated" by local and federal law enforcement.

Such sites are arguably a menace, destroying sensitive public property and encouraging violence as illegal growers use guns and traps to protect their crops from poachers and law enforcement officials.

The scope of the problem is staggering, especially in California, where the attorney general's office reports that 1,675,681 marijuana plants were seized in 2006 - 80 percent on public lands. And law enforcement officials will tell you they've only scratched the surface of what's out there.

So when John Walters, the Office of National Drug Control Policy's director and the White House's "drug czar," came to Shasta County last week to tout the success of outdoor marijuana raids, local newspapers and TV outlets dutifully reported the drug czar's boast that these eradication programs would eventually put the marijuana industry into "recession, depression and put its leaders into jail."

There's one problem with these operations, though: They don't work. In fact, they're making the problem worse.

Marijuana plant seizures in California have increased 1,200 percent in the past decade, but the problem of clandestine grows hidden in national parks and forests has mushroomed, and the illegal growing industry has never been healthier

At nearly $36 billion a year, according to a report last year by policy analyst Jon Gettman, marijuana is the top cash crop in the United States, exceeding both wheat and corn combined. In California alone, marijuana is a $14 billion a year cash crop worth nearly twice the combined value of the state's number two and three crops - vegetables and grapes.

With that much money at stake, illegal growers - often affiliated with organized crime - have all the incentive they need to find more creative and dangerous ways to evade law enforcement.

It would be one thing if marijuana eradication were just an expensive failure, but it's worse than that. Growers don't give up simply because a site got raided; there's too much money involved. Instead, they move farther into the very places we're trying to protect, like national parks and forests.

The Justice Department's National Drug Intelligence Center acknowledges eradication programs' unintended effects in its 2007 Domestic Cannabis Cultivation Assessment, saying, "Rising law enforcement pressure - although clearly a concern to cultivators as evidenced by increasing violence and weapons - has not yet stemmed the increase in domestic cannabis cultivation, either outdoors or indoors. Rather, (growers) are simply adapting their methods ... in order to continue operating in the United States while maintaining their profits."

So eradication programs, in addition to failing to slow down marijuana production, also bring increasing violence and weapons. Great.

Eradication has probably had another undesired effect: artificially inflating the value of marijuana, which is a hearty plant and relatively easy to grow. Its high price stems mainly from its illegality. Though eradication has done almost nothing to hinder growers, it surely has helped boost the street value of their product.

After decades of these impotent raids, we don't just tolerate this lack of progress - we celebrate it. Instead of being held accountable for demonstrably ineffective anti-marijuana tactics, drug warriors like Walters try to convince us the programs simply need more money.

And it works. The Senate is currently considering adding an extra $20 million to the Forest Service's $115 million law enforcement budget, with more than half that windfall devoted to drug interdiction.

And these outdoor raids have a certain sex appeal: The image of police officers armed and decked out in military-style fatigues, bulletproof vests and Kevlar helmets makes a pretty impressive spectacle on television. It's a compelling image for proponents of the "drug war."

Walters and his ilk would have you believe there's no other choice than to continue pouring tax dollars into eradication despite its ineffectiveness. If we don't, the argument goes, we're simply letting the drug dealers win without even putting up a fight. But contrary to Walters' claims, there's a very simple alternative that will cause the problem to disappear virtually overnight.

Treat marijuana like we do beer, wine, and liquor. By removing marijuana from the criminal market and taxing and regulating it in a manner similar to alcohol or tobacco, we would remove any incentive for illegal marijuana production. Sneaking into national parks to grow marijuana would make as little sense as using public lands to grow wine grapes.

Better still, organized criminals and drug dealers would no longer be the sole beneficiaries of this lucrative industry. According to a 2005 report by visiting Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron, we could collect about $6.2 billion a year in marijuana taxes and licensing revenues, not to mention the $7.7 billion we would save in law enforcement costs like those eradication programs.

Instead of flashy images of law enforcement officers hauling out hundreds or even thousands of marijuana plants from a public park, let's start demanding results. And since the drug warriors can't provide them, it's time to reconsider the wisdom of marijuana prohibition in the first place.