re CAMP in Vineland and Today's Mexican Drug Cartels

[pynchonoid]

To some degree the Times has it right about some of
the pot farming.  Doesn't mean that the Feds have
turned nice guy, though -- they continue a big push to
try to roll back California's attempts to
decriminalize marijuana, and in particular have made
extraordinary efforts to shut down so-called "cannabis
clubs" which legally dispense marijuana to people who
have received a prescription; also, serious efforts to
arrest physicians who write such subscriptions, and to
intimidate them and others. The end result -- a lot of
people whose physicians agree could benefit from using
marijuana (especially HIV/AIDS and other patients with
chemotherapy and other relatively toxic medication
regimens) needlessly suffer.  

At higher levels, of course, Vineland got it right, by
including the folk knowledge of Bush I's drug
involvement -- and this remains true:  Bush II, Slayer
of Evildoers intervened in Afghanistan in a way that
makes it possible for some big drug dealers to profit
from opium and heroin sales, at the expense of others.


-Doug



Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2002 08:00:20 -0800 (PST) 
From: Richard Romeo <romeocheeseburger@[omitted]> 
This weekend's NY Times had an article about marijuana
eradication in California and elsewhere and it got me
to thinking how dated Pynchon's take on CAMP in
Vineland seems now.
Mexican cartels are growing the dope within national
parks and such instead of focusing efforts on
smuggling it into the country.  According to reports,
these are pretty nasty folks and not some group of
nature loving hippies--slave labor, environmental
impacts, and well the threat of violence of course.


=====
<http://www.pynchonoid.blogspot.com/>

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