2008 Woodie Awards
Emerald Triangle
Daryl Pauline
Issue date: 3/5/08 Section: Opinion
"It is just like Vietnam," implored Sgt. Wayne Hanson to the lecture hall of mostly under-20 Humboldt State students. The slide show on the big screen made manifest our memories of jungly "Platoon" and "Apocalypse Now." The CAMP (Campaign Against Marijuana Planting) team grinned through the branches of cannabis. They were glowing with accomplishment under the fluorescents of an indoor grow. Officer Hanson was speaking before a one-credit class on Saturday morning. What is CAMP up against?
Hillsides of weed loom before the helicopter-mounted camera. Just one raid on Green Diamond timber land netted an estimated $400,000,000 worth! At a generous, and easy to divide by, value of $4,000 per pound, isn't that a massive 100,000 pounds of dried crop? "It is like a military operation," Wayne reiterated, "for these growers to get it out of the hills."
One student wondered aloud whether they were using pack animals. Officer Hanson doesn't believe so. He told us the MEXICAN CARTEL runs the operations, and he has evidence. "The bean cans in the campfire have Spanish written on them!" With a smile, Officer Hanson paused to enjoy the laughter. I saw a sheriff in a Western who figured out that same clue.
Surprisingly, we also learned that the established growers in the Garberville area don't mind the CAMP operations against the newcomers. The shock rippled through the audience as Wayne told us of their connection to terrorism and Al-Qaeda. However, he didn't explain the connection to my satisfaction. His assistant clarified that they aren't telling us everything that they know.
The audience needed reassurance now; our world had been turned upside down. The CAMP director relaxed us with a hypothetical story. We imagined a Mom and Pop grow [think American Gothic] with only thirty plants, spotted from a helicopter. They wouldn't bust that, or even notify the farmers of the surveillance, but if there were more plants next year, and more the next, CAMP might swoop in. I thought pleasantly about how my grandparents looked just like American Gothic, and they didn't grow marijuana. Officer Hanson seemed focused on arresting Hispanics involved in military operations connected to Al-Qaeda. I felt relaxed.
However, I have a message for our county officials. Don't start the railroad back up! Pablo Escobar will only use it to haul hundreds of thousands of pounds of drugs to help suicide bombers. The return trip by rail will be full of canned beans that I won't be able to read well.
Sincerely,
Darryl Pauline
Hillsides of weed loom before the helicopter-mounted camera. Just one raid on Green Diamond timber land netted an estimated $400,000,000 worth! At a generous, and easy to divide by, value of $4,000 per pound, isn't that a massive 100,000 pounds of dried crop? "It is like a military operation," Wayne reiterated, "for these growers to get it out of the hills."
One student wondered aloud whether they were using pack animals. Officer Hanson doesn't believe so. He told us the MEXICAN CARTEL runs the operations, and he has evidence. "The bean cans in the campfire have Spanish written on them!" With a smile, Officer Hanson paused to enjoy the laughter. I saw a sheriff in a Western who figured out that same clue.
Surprisingly, we also learned that the established growers in the Garberville area don't mind the CAMP operations against the newcomers. The shock rippled through the audience as Wayne told us of their connection to terrorism and Al-Qaeda. However, he didn't explain the connection to my satisfaction. His assistant clarified that they aren't telling us everything that they know.
The audience needed reassurance now; our world had been turned upside down. The CAMP director relaxed us with a hypothetical story. We imagined a Mom and Pop grow [think American Gothic] with only thirty plants, spotted from a helicopter. They wouldn't bust that, or even notify the farmers of the surveillance, but if there were more plants next year, and more the next, CAMP might swoop in. I thought pleasantly about how my grandparents looked just like American Gothic, and they didn't grow marijuana. Officer Hanson seemed focused on arresting Hispanics involved in military operations connected to Al-Qaeda. I felt relaxed.
However, I have a message for our county officials. Don't start the railroad back up! Pablo Escobar will only use it to haul hundreds of thousands of pounds of drugs to help suicide bombers. The return trip by rail will be full of canned beans that I won't be able to read well.
Sincerely,
Darryl Pauline
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