Bud Business

what a sad waste of American tax dollars.

If you're just totally sickened by the senseless slaughter of poor marijuana plants this might cheer you up: http://bit.ly/mEIdQ

http://current.com/groups/make-marijuana-matter/

Make Marijuana Matter Group
Hemp Helpers please join this Group
Stand Up for your Rights
Lets Get Cannabis on current....
Lets get our voice Heard !!!

America needs Money!

They fricken better take some buds off that shit and smoke it for all their effort. How could you just cut down such a defenseless plant. It was causing NO harm. =[

Ask the Supreme Court,not a contraband.............anymore!

interesting.
An argument for the legalisation of marijuana in my view. The American tax payer must be paying a fortune for those helicopters, trucks, employees etc. and still pot is everywhere. If they legalised it they could stop wasting money on the expense of chopping it and make money from taxes instead.

dude thats terrible stop the deforrestation of such an amazing species

this is just sad. really sad.

a mass extinction of a plant species.

awesome clip, kudos as always to laura ling! how is it possibe that current is permitted to interview and document such coverage?

this could possibly be an incredible source of government tax revenue. if marijuana was made legal for certain purposes (e.g. treatment for terminally patients) and all these money trees were actually taxed to maybe hospital/clinics, the US government could be making at 10% of 4 billion dollars, 4 million dollars in revenue for what they may be throwing away in a single day's work of shutting down 2 farms.

why is our government using tax dollars and manpower to shut down these farms? why not use it to focus more on real issues like increase policeforce to eliminate crack in low income areas where the vicious cycle sucks out more of our tax dollars (e.g. methadone clinics)?

PLEASE let's get our priorities straightened out.

Hey at least they are not wasting their tax money on unimportant things like education, healthcare, and I am sure that there isn't anyone in that state who is going hungry today because they can't afford to eat. It is just always so uplifting to see how far we are from the "government" and the "people" being one.

While I am in favour of legalisation, let's not forget who the people that are destroying our state and national parks and endangering the lives of the hapless American hikers or campers that stumble upon these "farms". Coming across one of these plots is extremely dangerous, and people out for a weekend suddenly find themselves risking injury or death from either the booby traps or the armed guards that patrol these farms. People who are citizens and pay taxes are suddenly under attack by thugs from another country who are taking over many of the remote areas of our parks for their personal gain.
Put simply, this is an invasion by the bastards who are responsible for gunfights in the streets of Mexican villages and towns, who murder policemen and judges and their families, and who kidnap American tourists for ransom, so do not make the mistake of seeing these farms as harmless enterprises set up by a few well meaning potheads looking for a cheap high. While the subject is an important and timely one, the catchy, 60's style music on the pod downplays who the forces behind these illegal, extremely dangerous and ecologically ruinuous farms are.

And check this out while your here too

http://current.com/items/89054403_man_gets_life_sentence_for_smoking_a_joint

Oh the horror : ( now I need some glaucoma medication to ease my pain : )

Drugs are bad kids, but keep taking your prescriptions, the side effects may be worse, but its ok as long as we can track where the money is going

I immediately sgned up after watching this. I have heard aboud feds using marijuana to help them make more money for the government.

And the part that really annoyed me, is when they said 'they will bury it'.

Seriously. They arent going to bury it they are probably going to stock it and sell it.

If the government really wanted to get rid of the problem they would outright burn it. They would also spend more time looking for it and burning it.

I watched this and was rediculed when they said that, it really sickens me that 'burying it' is the best they can do.

those guys waste so much of their time chopping down such a small part of all the illegal growth in the US. they arent even putting a dent in the sales of marijuana so just stop wasting your time and legalize it.

awe!! such a waste!!

I see so many people here in San Francisco smoking marijuana. Since the medical kind is legal here the police really dont crack down on the use. Ive even seen people smoking the drug in front of the police but they dont do anything.

Tax dollars hard at work. Please mention something about this! This war is a useless and harmful as the one in Iraq. Prohibition DOES NOT WORK!!!
Its good to know that some single mother is busting her chops working two jobs in st.louis to put food in her kids mouth and to pay for this. Good work reporting that.

so why doesn't that 4 billion dollars be turned towards education and health care. Is it impossible? What's the worse that could happen? We could solve alot of issues if that could be done, including putting a dent in drug wars and the loss of innocent lives caught in the cross fire.

laura, did they let you take some for yourself?

Legalize it ...
Don't criticize it ...
Cause i will advertise it...

What a shame killing all those plants...I wonder how much those officers took home before they burried it...They're just gonna keep on growing...decriminalize weed

Let the trimming begin.

Fantastic job once again! The only thing I was left wanting to hear more about was the negative environmental impact of growing marijuana in national forests and people who use this to argue for the legalization of pot. But wonderful reporting on an important topic!

Vanguard once again tracking trends that impacts our lives. The trafficking of illicit drugs is one of the subject areas Vanguard has been pretty robust in covering. From a whole series on the methamphetamine epidemic to our coverage of opium production in Afghanistan, Vanguard journalists have been delving deep into the drug cultures that permeate all borders.

For half a dozen years or so, starting in the late '90s, as meth use swept the U.S., California was the methamphetamine manufacturing capital of the world. Then the U.S. government made it tougher to get psuedoephedrine, the common cold medicine that is used to make meth. Now America's meth is made in Mexico. But the Mexican national trafficking organizations that were originally making meth in California decided to stay there and grow high-value marijuana in the Golden State's vast forests. Even as this is happening, the news is California this year is full of stories of police finding indoor marijuana grows in suburban homes... So maybe Vanguard will look into that trend...