VLVL2 CAMP

[pynchonoid]

davemarc:
>there's a good chance a
>lot of CAMP info has already been covered in
>discussions on this list. 
>Doug
>might've made a substantial contribution, >actually.

Yes there should be much in the archives. 

I spent fall and wnter '79-'80 in the heart of the
marijuana growing activity in Humboldt County, outside
of Garberville, a period when marijuana cultivation
was increasing rapidly, just a couple of years before
really big plantations started appering, often with
links to organized crime -- at that point, the scene
became dangerous, growers started taking steps to
protect their plants (which represented considerable
investments of time, sweat, and money) from thieves
(local and federal law enforcement officers among the
thieves, of course, looking for booty they could sell
for profit on th side).

Pynchon's description of the scene in Vineland is,
generaly, accurate. The Feds added the self-righteous,
neo-fascist element (Pynchon plays with this with the
Nazi Bopp)  that was largely absent from local law
enforcement organizations who were forced to
participate; many of the latter would have preferred
to ignore the whole thing, given the financial
contribution that pot made to a poor rural area (rural
California remains an empoverished region, by the
way), although the odd local sherrif or deputy may
have used CAMP as a pretext for settling old and often
personal scores.  

It's also important to see CAMP in the larger contxt
of US government manipulation of illegal drugs
trfficking around the world throughout the post-WWII
era -- under both Democrat and Republican
administration -- when CIA operations and other
military interventions have included actions and
programs that reward some illegal drug operators (who
lend support, often quite brutal, to US policy
objectives) while punishing others. Pynchon's text is
aware of this, of course, with a direct reference to
Bush and the CIA's involvement in the illegal drugs
trade. 

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