Radley Balko pulls the quote above from recent news on Kentucky drug warriors going on a federal-funding-inspired slash and burn mission through the state.

As Radley points out, this wasn’t done to protect the people, rather it was meant to protect the budgets of federally funded Byrne Grants.

I would be really interested to know why none of those labs were busted before or why they were able to shut them down now rather than at any point prior to the grant-induced mission. Furthermore, it is even more interesting that these “labs” were shut down but you don’t see any mention of the size or scope of the seized meth. Admittedly, I’m sure that the meth doesn’t stay at the lab. However in 23 busts, you could expect to find at least a sizable amount worth mentioning.

As someone who lives on the “I80″ pipeline, getting that much weed is quite a few traffic stops. But as the article also points out – these were also missions to do slash and burns on growers as well. While I’m not familiar with the growing culture in Kentucky, if the weather permits – a ton of growing weed is much heavier than a ton of salable weed. By time the weed is dehydrated and de-stemmed, you’re throwing out half the weight of the plant if not 3/4. Think of it like this: You grow roses and but assume your roses are only sold for the bud which is dehydrated and sold to a potpourri maker. With much care, when it comes time to clip the plant, you don’t keep the stem and take only the bud itself, you cut the flower off and then dehydrate it removing all of the water weight. Now if you are selling these dehydrated rose buds to the potpourri maker by the pound, do you think the potpourri make cares how much it weighed while growing? No, the salable weight of the drugs are far different. So is this the case in Kentucky? I don’t know. But I think there is more to this story than meets the eye.

What really gets me is the numbers game being played. Radley is more than right, again, in pointing this area out. How many of those guns (80 were seized) were legally owned and not used in the commission of a crime?

Better yet, why were there 565 users busted but no mention of how many people involved with the meth operations or responsible for the 1 ton of weed captured? The reporting on this is just plain weird because none of the statistics are really associated and appear as random numbers being thrown out to get good press.

Better yet – in the parade of justice, there is even one more important piece missing: where’s the money? In nearly all notable drug raids there is bound to be gobs of money involved. Where is it?

Do reporters not ask these questions? Or was this announcement covered at the slow-pitch softball school of journalism?