VLVL CAMP (was the war on drugs)

[davemarc]

From: jbor <jbor at bigpond.com>
>
> The Domestic Cannabis Eradication and Suppression Program, which I assume
is
> the real-world analog for CAMP, was set up by the DEA in Hawaii and
> California in 1979, which would make it an initiative of the Democratic
> government of James Earl (Jimmy) Carter (1976-1980), wouldn't it?
>
and
>
> It's strange that Bopp could appear in "the full regalia of his old
> profession" as a German WWII pilot, and in "Nazi drag" on tv (221-2), and
> not cause controversy and outrage. His dress and demeanour, his name, and
> the acronym CAMP itself, are all pretty cartoonish imo.
>
In the real world* CAMP was established in 1983.

At the time, James Earl (Jimmy) Carter was not the governor of California.
(Nor was he the President of the United States.)

I agree that CAMP is a cartoonish acronym. Not nearly as campy as CREEP,
though!

CHiPS(!) and CAMP
http://www.chp.ca.gov/html/task_forces_and_campaigns.html

CAMP Program History (to 2000)
http://caag.state.ca.us/newsalerts/2001/01-120.htm

"Since the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) was started by the
California Department of Justice in 1983...."
http://www.newsreview.com/issues/chico/2003-11-27/sifter.asp

"CAMP was set up in the early 1980s with a mission of eradicating marijuana
cultivation in California. These were the Reagan years, and the program was
essentially a propaganda tool for foreign policy in South America. Leaders
there asked why they should destroy their societies and environments to
fight drugs when the US was tolerating marijuana cultivation. To prove we
were not hypocritical, the US started CAMP.

"CAMP came in with a very strong military-like presence and a wartime
mentality. Helicopter loads of camo-clad 'troops' invaded the rural counties
of California, and the troops acted like warriors. Property was destroyed,
family pets killed, children's schools seized, and the usual restrictions on
search and seizure were forgotten. Hundreds of incidents of civil rights
violations occurred each year. At the same time, cultivation continued and
prices for marijuana rose to record heights."
http://www.civilliberties.org/spr97nocamp.html

"Vineland is set in 1984 partly to make the Orwell connection, but also
because that was one of the heaviest years of the CAMP anti-marijuana
campaign in northern California: a small-scale version of Vietnam with
helicopters and soldiers invading Humboldt and Mendocino Counties. Pynchon
sees CAMP as a paradigm of how bad things have gotten, how far fascist
forces have dragged us from the American ideal of personal liberty."
http://www.mindspring.com/~shadow88/intro.htm

d.

PS: Speaking of CHiPS, Erik Estrada is on the telly as I type this.
Coincidence? I think so. What a surreal life this is!

* Granted, not everyone considers California to be part of the real world.
In fact, many New Yorkers are said to be in that camp.