Domestic Cannabis Eradication Program 2

Time to get back to the Garden
State Auditor’s Report on the Domestic Cannabis Eradication
The situation in USA eradicating domestic cannabis:

PURPOSE, SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY

This report is provided in response to the April 18, 1997 request of the House Agriculture Committee. The purpose of this report is to determine the full cost of the Domestic Cannabis Eradication Suppression Program (DCE/SP) funded by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and administered by the Vermont State Police (VTSP) of the Department of Public Safety, and to determine the adequacy of the accounting and reporting of the program costs relative to the distinction between feral hemp and marijuana. In addition, the report reviews the Vermont State Police’s Federal Byrne Memorial Formula Grant (Byrne) applications for 1996 and 1997.

The scope included a review of compliance with and internal controls over statutory, regulatory and administrative requirements for administering the DCE/SP and a review of the Byrne Grant application. This review has been conducted by the State Auditor’s Office under its statutory authority contained in 32 V.S.A. Section 163. This report is not an audit. It does not provide an independent opinion or independent audit reports.

The methodology included a review of the relevant statutes, regulations and administrative rules; acquisition of VTSP, VT National Guard (VTNG) and VT Civil Air Patrol (VTCAP) documents and telephone conversations; Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) documents from its Web site; and telephone conversations with the DEA Burlington Resident Office Coordinator.

BACKGROUND

Program Authority

The Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program (DCE/SP) is administered through the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of the United States Department of Justice under the provisions of the Controlled Substances Act of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 (21 USC 873). The DCE/SP’s objective is to "conduct programs of eradication aimed at destroying wild or illicit growth of plants from which controlled substances may be extracted".

The Plant - Cannabis Sativa

Cannabis sativa is an annual herb plant, distinctly appearing either male or female and growing 3 to 5 feet high. Cannabis can be found in plots that are tended to and are referred to as cultivated marijuana, or it can grow wild in fields and forests and is referred to as ditchweed. One of the more than 400 chemicals in cannabis is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinal (THC). It is this chemical that accounts for most of the mind-altering effects of the plant when the flowering tops and leaves of the plant are collected, trimmed, dried and made into marijuana. The THC levels are measured by taking plant samples and determining the amount of chemical in the sample (potency). Facts about the potency of marijuana from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) a research arm of the National Institute of Health’s U.S. Department of Health and Human Services are as follows:

Most ordinary marijuana has an average of 3% THC.
Sinsemilla, which is made from the buds and flowering tops of the female plants, has an average THC concentration of 7.5 %, although it can be as high as 24 %.
Hashish, a sticky resin obtained from the female plant flowers, has an average of 2 to 8 % THC and can contain as much as 20 % THC.
Hash oil, a tar-like liquid distilled from hashish, generally consists of between 15 and 50 % THC but can have as much as 70 % THC.

The DCE/SP publishes a DCE/SP Monthly Report Terminology list to assist with the grantees’ completion of monthly statistical reports. This list of terms defines cultivated marijuana, sinsemilla, ditchweed and other categories used by DCE/SP for statistical reporting and it is included in Appendix A of this report.

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*Industrial-Hemp has no psychoactive properties following definition of the European Economic Community (EEC); THC content is less than 0.3%. In general, low THC-seed varieties without psychoactive properties are those that have a THC content of less than 1%. (See also No-THC Hemp-seed.) THC= Delta-9 TetraHydroCannabinol.