Taxpayers are Spending $60 For Every Cannabis Plant the DEA Eradicates in Oregon
(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Taxpayers spent nearly a million dollars in 2014 eradicating just over 16,000 cannabis plants in Oregon. This comes to $60 per plant.
According to DEA data, a total of 16,067 cannabis plants were removed from Oregon land in 2014 as part of the administration’s Cannabis Eradication Program. This cost taxpayers $960,000.
For 2015, over $750,000 has been budgeted for cannabis eradication, a lower number than the year prior, but still incredibly high for a state that legalized the possession, cultivation and distribution of cannabis this past November. This $750,000 represents about 4% of the total budget for the DEA’s Cannabis Eradication Program, which costs around $18 million.
“I think the DEA’s marijuana eradication program is a huge waste of federal taxpayer dollars,” Representative Ted Lieu (D-CA), told KGW. “We have states like Oregon, Washington and Colorado that have legalized marijuana and then you’ve got the federal government trying to eradicate it… that doesn’t make any sense.”
– TheJointBlog
2buds4me
Even worse is realizing how much the DEA has cost the Oregon economy. Assuming each plant reached maturity of about a pound and weed was $1000.00 a pound that would be $16 million stolen from the Oregon economy!
Shameful