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Suetaz

Police Get National Guard Help Eradicating Marijuana

Martha Fulkerson | The Times-Frankfort, IN | August 6, 2004

For about an hour Thursday, police and Indiana National Guard members had nothing better to do than wait.

When the call came in at 10:30 a.m., it was the start of a very active day. The four men confiscated numerous marijuana plants in southern Carroll County.

Indiana State Police have been conducting their annual marijuana eradication statewide. It’s not uncommon for other law enforcement departments, such as Frankfort police, to assist in the process. It is, however, the first time in years that National Guard troops have aided.

For the next two months, the Bravo Company 1-152 Infantry, based out of Martinsville, will aid Indiana State Police with eradication of wild and cultivated marijuana. The unit is the only one in the state called to aid in the drug search.

“We won’t have arrest powers, we just help with the foot work,” said Cpl. Ryan Lundy.

The National Guard was called to help because ISP is under-manned, according to Lundy. The Guard also has its own team to combat drugs.

ISP tells the Guardsmen where teams are needed. Currently, other members are helping in Newton, Morgan, Vigo and Kosciusko counties. They typically work eight or more hours a day, waiting for air crews to spot marijuana and then the ground team responds to the area.

The cultivated marijuana would be hard to find without air assistance, Lundy said. Some of the plants are sown in an inconspicuous manner.

“Yesterday, just from being out there for the first time, we realize how good they (the growers) are at it,” Lundy said.

Thursday’s search included the third fly over of Clinton County this summer. On July 26, the team recovered 404 plants from corn fields and wooded areas in the eastern part of the county. Wednesday, they removed more than 100 plants from the northeastern portion.

This year’s searches have been productive thus far, said Trooper Rich Kelly, marijuana eradication coordinator for the Lafayette district.

“We’ve found more this year than in the past,” he said.

The military men aided in Wednesday’s effort.

“Today, hopefully, we’ll find a lot more,” Lundy said Thursday.

Lundy said the National Guard regularly helped ISP in the eradication process. But due to lack of funding, no units have assisted since 1995.

The aid of the National Guard is a tremendous help, Kelly said.

“This is the first time in a number of years we’ve had assistance from the National Guard,” said Kelly. “It makes our job a lot more productive, and it’s safer with more people.”

The Bravo Company unit recently returned after spending more than a year in Iraq. Prior to that, the unit served in Bosnia.

[Suetaznote: More waste of taxpayer money. How many rapes, murders, assaults and drunk drivers are not being caught while all this manpower is out working the fields ripping up harmless plants?]

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melanotaenia

I agree Suetaz, it is a complete waste of money. Not only that, but if they are able to find, say 5% more of the outdoor grown bud, the growers are just going to get smarter for next year; for whatever the law does to try to eradicate it, there is going to be a strategic plan the growers will have to next year make it even harder to find. And thus the cycle will continue. The law will never be able to find all of it, which makes this added manpower a waste, since, like you said, there are so many other important things that should be addressed by law enforcement instead of trying to find some little plants growing outdoors that are grown solely to make people happy who smoke it

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smoking_joe_lee

This is just WRONG! This is NOT the reason that the National Guard exists. The reason we have the National Guard is that in case of war, these units can rapidly be activated to supliment the active duty military forces.

If the gaurd is to be able to fulfill its mission with a minimum of casualties, they need constant training. The guard only trains one weekend a month and for one anual two week period. When we consider that these people are placed in life and death situations when called up for say, Iraq or Afganistan, they need all the MILITARY training we can provide them!

Now, how much training are these citizen-soldiers getting "eradicating marijuana?" NONE! If the state of Indiana is short on police personel they have got to bite the bullet and hire more cops. Sure, it costs money but how much is the lives of our soldiers worth? They must recive proper MILITARY training and pulling "weeds" ain't it!

I'm smoking joe lee and I approved this dang message!!!

Niteshift

How many rapes, murders, assaults and drunk drivers are not being caught while all this manpower is out working the fields ripping up harmless plants?

My guess is not very many.

In the instance they focussed on, We're talking about 4 people, some of which aren't cops. We'll be generous and say 2 were cops. 16 man hours.

For the ENTIRE state of Indiana, they average a murder every 24.9 hours. This of course included metro areas like Indianapolis, whereas Carroll County is a rural county with a population of only 20,000 people, it's fairly doubtful that they had a murder wave during that time.

The ENTIRE state averages a rape every 5 hours. Considering that there are
92 counties in the state, again, statistically, the chances Carroll county missed much in that 8 hour time frame.

I could go on for each crime, but you should be getting the point by now. If you want to complain about the "waste of money", fine. But it is pretty doubtful that ANY murder or rape was missed in this rural county of 20,000 during that 8 hours and probably not much else either.

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xxdr_zombiexx

But they is dee-fending us'ns from the eeeeee-vil weed, and making the Baby Jeeee-sus happy by pulling weeds.

Plus it's a nifty way around the notion of "posse comitatus". Kep lying about the non-existent threat of cannabis as a smokscreen for getting the National Guard to waste resources keeping up Job 1 - marijuana suppression.

I'm from Indiana - defected ages ago - and the law enforcement there is as backwards as any other place you wanna mention.

Never mind that Indiana used to be a majr farm state and grew lots of hemp for the WWII efforts.

They have always been blowing resources eliminating ditchweed.

We are heading into election season and its time to make news to show how much marijuana is being "kept off the streets" justifying the budget requests and being construed as "proof" they are winning the war on druuuuuugs.

In a way, supporting reefer madnes is like elective retardation.....

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Niteshift

Plus it's a nifty way around the notion of "posse comitatus". Kep lying about the non-existent threat of cannabis as a smokscreen for getting the National Guard to waste resources keeping up Job 1 - marijuana suppression.


The reason we have the National Guard is that in case of war, these units can rapidly be activated to supliment the active duty military forces.

Both of you are under a mistaken assumption.

The National Guard is under the command and jurisdiction of the state Governor. They are not under the President unless they are federalized, by order.

There is no violation of Posse comitatus, because that applies to the federal military.

This is why National Guard troops can be brought in during flood, other natural disasters and riots at the behest of the governor.

melanotaenia

well, in any event, I can assure you that the growers are going to find a way around these guys; it may work this year in maybe finding a SMALL portion more of the crop that is out there growing, but chances are this methodology is only going to lead to more stealth growing, and I can bet you that next year they will have an even HARDER time finidng the MJ growing outdoors. The law enforcement is just making their job harder by cracking down; remember, growers are very smart, and will go to great lengths to avoid having their operations found. Trust me, I would know; I grow outdoors and have found some very ingenious methods to hiding MJ; it is not that hard, and it keeps the law enforcement away, indefinately.

smoking_joe_lee

Yes, Niteshift, you are correct when you say that the National Guard is under the control of the gov. of each state. However, in the wake of Vietnam, there has been a huge change in the PRACTICAL mission of the guard. They are, along with the active duty forces, true defenders of our country. During Vietnam, Johnson and Nixon refused to activate the reserve forces. They chose the draft instead. Bad move!

Since then, the Joint Chiefs of Staff have changed the military in such a way that it is damn near impossible to deploy large military forces without activating the reserves. Some jobs are almost entirely taken over by the reserves! These people need to be ready for combat at a moments notice!

Look, if a particular state wishes to call up its National Guard forces, legally it can be done, but it better be for an actual crisis or emergency. I'm talking fire, flood, plague of locusts here. Clearing out some pot plants? NOT!!!

The soldiers in question are infantry. How much INFANTRY training are they receiving taking part in this pot removal thing?!? The men and women of Bravo company deserve better than this. Our country deserves better.

I'm smoking joe, US veteran, and I approved this message!

How 'bout this. If the dang state can't afford more cops to pull pot, why not recruit the unimployed? Make it a temporary job! This ain't no job for the military when we are at war. And yes, we ARE at war!

Niteshift

Since then, the Joint Chiefs of Staff have changed the military in such a way that it is damn near impossible to deploy large military forces without activating the reserves.

That's certainly not true, unless you are referring to the few, almost never used, positions like locomotive engineers or something like that.

Some jobs are almost entirely taken over by the reserves! These people need to be ready for combat at a moments notice!

"At a moments notice" is grossly exaggerating it.

Yes, some jobs are almost entirely reserve filled and SHOULD be. There is no peace time need for railroad working soldiers, no great call for civil affairs personnel. Having soldiers for those tasks sitting on active with nothing to do is a total waste. Unlike combat arms fields, like infantry, support positions should NOT be on active duty if they aren't needed.

Tell you what....... how about if you tell me what job(s) are SOLEY under the reserves that you think should be active duty.


Look, if a particular state wishes to call up its National Guard forces, legally it can be done, but it better be for an actual crisis or emergency. I'm talking fire, flood, plague of locusts here. Clearing out some pot plants? NOT!!!

You make it sound like this was a special call-up. Is there any evidence of that? Or could it quite possibly have been their normal 2 days out of the month?

The soldiers in question are infantry. How much INFANTRY training are they receiving taking part in this pot removal thing?!?

See, this is where you lack either imagination.

I observed the Oregon and Washington National Guard doing these kinds of things and they most definately DID use it as a training opportunity. They practiced land navigation skills (maps and compasses) instead of relying on GPS (because technology can fail). They practiced radio skills in coordination with the helicopters (includiing deployment of the radio and practice in the use of a CEOI). They practiced movement techniques in their approach to the area. And they worked on their skills while checking the area for booby traps (not exactly uncommon among outdoor grow ops).

So I can't say that there was a lack of training opportunites in this. Sorry if your training NCO's lacked imagination, but don't think that they all do.

If the dang state can't afford more cops to pull pot, why not recruit the unimployed? Make it a temporary job!

It would still cost them. The Guard soldiers are "working" 2 days a month anyway.......and their budget is seperate.

This ain't no job for the military when we are at war. And yes, we ARE at war!

True, we are at war, but the military apparatus still functions "normally". There are still dentists filling teeth at Ft. Mommoth. There are soldiers still sweeping floors at Ft. Lewis. There are still soldiers painting things at Ft. Leonard Wood. Still soldiers sorting mail at Ft. Sill. Still soldiers pulling guard duty at Ft. Jackson. Not everyone is directly involved in the war (we're not as "overtaxed" as some would have us believe). All those soldiers still wake up, every day, and go to work much the same as they always did.

gijoe

hello, i am one of the soldiers doing the erad duty with the police and i find it very rewarding, and thank you for providing me with a job. We do this full time not just using this as our one weekend, and also all year around on indoor grows and other drugs as well, we do alot of watching. and we have eradicated millions of plants this year not just a few. They use us to free up the cops so they can be out there busting other bad guys. We just got home from iraq where we were in combat and now that we are home some employers couldnt hire back even though they legally have to, the guard employs us to provide us with an income until we get back on our feet. We do get alot of training value out of this as well i cant begin to tell you how much weed and heroin we eraded in Iraq. because the money funds bad guys over there. yes some growers are good at what they do (some) but the cops are too. even the best get caught eventually like last week. As for we should be doing training, No thanks the training is great before you go but when you have been doing the job for over a year comming home and training some more isnt very well accepted,this is way more fun. Oh and there are no women in bravo company we are infantry. So happy growing - Ill be watching.