The Nation : Forest Service Asks Wider Drug Hunts

U.S. Forest Service officials asked Congress for authority to conduct investigations, searches, seizures and arrests outside national forests where drug crimes occur. William L. Rice, deputy chief of the Agriculture Department agency that oversees 191 million acres of national forests and grasslands, said his law enforcement agents are severely hampered by a legal prohibition against “hot pursuit” of marijuana growers beyond the boundaries of federal lands. Rice told a Senate Agriculture subcommittee hearing that heavily armed marijuana growers forced the Forest Service to close 886,000 acres of national forest lands last year as unsafe for visitors, commercial interests and federal employees.