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Program To Be Transferred From DEA To OJP

     Earlier this evening one of my new alert pages open automatically in my browser window with the Haleakala Times story "DEA spends big $$$ to eradicate feral hemp." This is not news for regular readers of The Hemp Report. We covered this over two years ago in our story on "Wild Marijuana."

     Not one to leave well enough alone I went and did some Google searches on key phrases in the Haleakala Times story and discovered some really interesting documents on the U.S. Department of Justice web site. In a pair of PDF documents FY 2006 Budget and Performance Summary and 2006 Budget and Performance Summary as well as an Excel spreadsheet Component Summary Worksheets there was the text:

4. Cannabis Eradication Program
To halt the spread of marijuana cultivation in the United States, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) initiated the Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program (DCE/SP), which is the only nationwide law enforcement program that exclusively targets marijuana. The Controlled Substance Act of 1970 authorizes the Attorney General to "conduct programs of eradication aimed at destroying wild or illicit growth of plant species from which controlled substances may be extracted." In response to this directive, the DCE/SP was established in 1979. Initially, the DCE/SP consisted of two statewide multi-agency marijuana eradication operations, in Hawaii and California. As the stature of the program grew, additional states began to participate, and by 1985 state and local agencies from all 50 states were participating in the DCE/SP. This program is being transferred from DEA ($11,600,000 from base funds) to OJP in FY 2006 and expanded, and will be renamed the Cannabis Eradication Discretionary Grant Program (CEGP).

     So, there it is DEA is going to loose DCE/SP and it's going to be transferred to OJP, the U.S. Department of Justice - Office of Justice Programs. Of course, the program is going to be expanded.