How Can We Prevent Pot Growing in Our National Forests?

There is some seriously messed up stuff going down in the woods:

LOS ANGELES — A juvenile arrested for tending marijuana crops in California told investigators he had been forced to work for illegal pot growers to pay off his debt to an immigrant smuggler, authorities said Monday.

Ventura County sheriff's Sgt. Mike Horne said he was concerned such forced labor of young migrants could become a trend on marijuana plantations.
…
[Detective] Wagner said suspected growers often tell him they were picked up outside a day labor center or from a street corner and whisked into the forest with no idea where they were headed.

When they get to the grow site, usually in a remote location, they are unable to make their way back into town and have little choice except to look after the crop in hopes of getting paid at the end of the season, Wagner said.

"They are kind of stuck," he said. "They kind of are just dumped out there." [AP]

This is ridiculous. Just think for a second how crazy it is that people are being stranded in remote forests and forced to cultivate marijuana, and yet the people who actually want to grow marijuana on their own property aren't allowed to.

I just continue to be amazed that there remain so many among us who actually think we're handling the marijuana situation correctly. I mean, really, just look at what's going on here and tell me what it is about any of this that makes sense to you. The gangs are getting rich, the stoners are getting stoned, the cops are off in the woods with weed-whackers instead of solving crimes in our communities, and all of this persists despite the billions we've spent and the decades we've been fighting this war.

It's a lesson some people won't learn until after legalization takes effect and the hundreds of stupid prohibition problems that surround us finally begin to come unraveled for all to see.