The Tennessee Governor's Task Force on Marijuana Eradication (GTFME), a multi-agency law enforcement task force founded in 1983, is managed by the Office of the Governor of Tennessee composed of local, state agencies organized expressly to eradicate illegal

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...

cultivation and trafficking in

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

. The Governor's Task Force is operated by the

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) is the state bureau of investigation of the state of Tennessee. It has statutory authority to conduct criminal investigations and make arrests of crimes occurring throughout the state. The bureau is ...

's Tennessee Dangerous Drugs Task Force. The eradication season lasts from May through September in Tennessee, where outdoor marijuana cultivation ranks second in the United States, behind California. The task force, divided into three regional teams, East, Middle and West, centralized marijuana eradication in the state into a coordinated multi-agency program. The task force, created by then Tennessee Governor

Lamar Alexander Andrew Lamar Alexander Jr. (born July 3, 1940) is an American politician and attorney who served as a United States senator from Tennessee from 2003 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, he also was the 45th governor of Tennessee from 1 ...

's Executive Order #51 in April 1983, originally included the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission, the

, the

Tennessee Highway Patrol The Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) is the State Patrol organization for the U.S. state of Tennessee, responsible for enforcing all federal and state laws relating to traffic on the state's federal and state highways. The agency was created to pr ...

Tennessee National Guard The Tennessee Military Department is a department within the Executive Branch of Tennessee State Government with four major components. The Tennessee Army National Guard and the Tennessee Air National Guard constitute the National Guard in Tenn ...

, and the

Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) is an independent state agency of the state of Tennessee with the mission of managing the state's fish and wildlife and their habitats, as well as responsibility for all wildlife-related law enforce ...

. A 2018 law removed the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission from the task force. The task force often uses helicopters, flown by the Tennessee Highway Patrol and Tennessee National Guard, for aerial surveillance of outdoor marijuana grow sites in rural eastern Tennessee.{{Cite news, url= https://www.dvidshub.net/news/114703/tennessee-national-guard-teams-with-drug-law-enforcement-marijuana-eradication, title=Tennessee National Guard teams with drug law enforcement for marijuana eradication, author= Kendra Owenby, date=August 20, 2013, work=Defense Visual Information Distribution Service , access-date=2022-01-09, language=en

References

External links

TBI Drug Investigation Division
Cannabis cultivation Tennessee law 1983 in cannabis Organizations established in 1983 1983 establishments in Tennessee Anti-cannabis operations Cannabis eradication

See also

References

External links