Pubdate: Sat, 03 Mar 2012
Source: Hanford Sentinel, The (CA)
Copyright: 2012 Lee Newspapers
Contact:  http://www.hanfordsentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2338
Author: Seth Nidever

FEDS TARGET FARMLAND POT GROWS

The Kings County Sheriff's Department and the Kings County Farm Bureau
will take part in stepped-up enforcement against marijuana grows on
private farmland in the San Joaquin Valley, according to the U.S.
Department of Justice.

The push, anticipating the summer harvest season, targets large grows
from Stanislaus County south to Kern County. In 2011, there were 110
grows sites in Fresno County and 60 in Madera County.

Some of the pot plots are 30-50 acres, said Kings County Sheriff Dave
Robinson. Grow sites in Kings County have been smaller -- the largest
nearing 100 plants on one-acre fields.

Robinson said commercial growers are exploiting a loophole in
California's 1996 medical marijuana law that allows individual
patients to grow up to 12 plants on their property. The loophole
allows them to grow more plants with a doctor's permission. Illegal
operators have used that exception to grow 100 plants or more at a
time.

"It's being bought and sold over and over again," Robinson said.
"There's no way that's going for medicinal uses."

The sheriff's department reported more grows last year, frustrating
law enforcement officials as they tried to determine if the sites were
legal under California law or not.

Then, in October, Kings County supervisors voted to adopt a strict
medical marijuana ban, outlawing dispensaries and limiting personal
plots to a few plants grown indoors.

Robinson said sheriff's deputies will be enforcing the
ordinance.

"We are coming after you, and we are coming after you hot and heavy if
you are abusing medical marijuana laws, because that's what's
happening," he said.

Typically, illegal grows take place under thick brush or forest cover
in the Sierra Nevada foothills, in national forests or even national
parks like Sequoia and Yosemite. But tougher enforcement may have
pushed growers into agricultural areas, according to the Department of
Justice.

Cultivation and distribution of marijuana are felony offenses under
federal law.

"Much of the marijuana cultivated in the Central Valley is being
shipped to other states," said U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner. "We will
use our investigative and prosecutorial resources to bring criminal
and civil sanctions against those who choose to violate the law."

Kings County sheriff's deputies will report local grows to the Justice
Department, which could seize the land from the property owner,
Robinson said.

"We're trying to take it on now, versus waiting until midsummer when
there is an epidemic," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Matt