Speaking of marijuana, I think it's high time that we cracked down on huge landowners who know or have reason to know that Mexican drug cartels are growing the stuff on their land.

This sort of outrage is typical:

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Several people have been arrested in a raid on a large marijuana growing operation at national forest in Wisconsin, state officials said Wednesday.

More than 200 federal, state and local agents raided the field in the Nicolet National Forest in northeast Wisconsin overnight, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said.

Those arrested are scheduled to be arraigned later Wednesday in Green Bay. State authorities have not released details about their identities or what charges they may face. They also have not said how many people were arrested.

National forests and parks have become prime targets of Mexican drug gangs setting up expansive marijuana fields in the United States in recent years.

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, drug agents around the country have seized about a millon plants a year more between 2004 and 2008. In 2008, agents seized or destroyed 7.6 million marijuana plants from about 20,000 illicit plots.

...Mexican-based drug cartels have been using Wisconsin's national forests and wildlife-management areas for large-scale marijuana gardens in recent years. This includes an 8,000-plant "grow" in Shawano County's Navarino State Wildlife Area in 2009, and a 9,000-plant grow in 2008 in the Nicolet National Forest in Oconto County.

A bureau report said Mexican drug traffickers have expanded marijuana cultivation in the United States since 2004. As the U.S. government increased its efforts to stop smuggling and illegal immigration along the U.S./Mexico border, cartels found it easier to grow marijuana on our public lands than to transport it in large quantities across the border.

The burden of proof would be on me to prove that I didn't know what was going on. And here the government is fully aware of what is going on, and has been for years.

Think of how much money the government could get if the government treated the government the way it treats private landowners! Sell off all that land that's being used to grow dope, and they'd have billions. Even trillions. Why, the United States government alone has "direct ownership of almost 650 million acres of land (2.63 million square kilometers) - nearly 30% of its total territory." And if someone is growing pot on it, I say seize it and sell it!

No more double standards! It's time to close the government loophole!