Pubdate: Sat, 18 Aug 2012
Source: Visalia Times-Delta, The (CA)
Copyright: 2012 The Visalia Times-Delta
Contact: http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/customerservice/contactus.html
Website: http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2759

MARIJUANA GARDENS GROW FEAR, WORRIES IN ALPAUGH

ALPAUGH - Wherever you drive through this small, rural town you see 
them - parcels of land surrounded by plywood fencing.

Some surround yards in residential areas, while others surround an 
acre or more. And in some cases, two or three of the plywood 
enclosures have been put up on a single property.

"There are two right there, and there's one farther back, but you 
can't see it from here," said John Burchard, a nine-year resident of 
Alpaugh, sitting in his pickup parked along a country road on the 
outskirts of this southwest Tulare County town.

Across the road, at least two more large parcels surrounded by 
plywood were visible, and Burchard pointed a thumb back to note 
another - across the road behind his pickup.

The problem for Burchard and others living in and around Alpaugh is 
these fences aren't just eyesores. Many here believe that behind the 
plywood, marijuana is being grown.

"There were some last year, but there are many more this year - like 
mushrooms after a rain," said Burchard, who also is general manager 
of the Alpaugh Joint Powers Authority, which oversees distribution 
and billing of residential water for this community of a little more 
than 1,000 people.

Tulare County Sheriff's Lt. Tom Sigley said his department is aware 
of 18 or 19 large and small marijuana gardens in the Alpaugh area, 
but some residents here say the number is significantly higher.

"It started as 17 medical marijuana farms last year, and this year 
it's 80-plus," based on the counts of people he has spoken with, said 
Ben Anderson, an Alpaugh resident and chairman of the Alpaugh Joint 
Powers Authority board of directors.

"They're in backyards. They're a block away from the school. They're 
everywhere. It's ridiculous," he said.

In recent months, plywood fencing was erected around a property about 
a half a block from Alpaugh Elementary School, as well as behind a 
home across the street from Alpaugh Park - the town's only park.

"I'm frustrated. I don't like it at all. I've got grandkids walking 
up and down the street here," said Mary Lou Sims, who lives near the 
kindergarten-through-12th-grade school.

Although there hasn't been any major violence in town related 
directly to the marijuana gardens, Sims, like many here, worries it 
will come - probably the result of somebody trying to steal marijuana 
and the thieves or the growers or both pulling out guns.

And when the violence happens, Sims said residents or children 
playing or walking by one of the grow operations could get caught up in it.

And that's not the only fear here because of the marijuana gardens.

Several residents contacted declined to be interviewed about the 
gardens because they fear if they speak against the growers, they'll 
be victims of retaliation.

"I think everybody's going to be wary about going on the record," 
Burchard said. "I may not be wary enough."

"It's taking over the town, is what's it's doing," said Ranveig 
Magden, who lives outside of town.

She said people here "keep their heads down and kind of ignore it, 
because what are we going to do?

"And the thing about keeping your head down, it just gets worse. And 
you ask for help, and nobody does anything."

Adding to the problems is that some of the growers are believed to be 
using large amounts of residential and agricultural water to irrigate 
marijuana gardens, and some are suspected of stealing water, Burchard said.

"People used to walk along the [irrigation] canal banks here," but 
they rarely do so at night anymore because of concerns they may come 
across people stealing water and siphoning it into industrial water 
tanks to haul back to their grow sites, Anderson said.

"They don't know if it's safe anymore."

Anderson added that he will not send workers to suspected grow sites 
to see how they are getting their water because of concerns for their 
safety. "We're keeping our employees away from those places."

Alma Lopez, who recently moved from Alpaugh but still has two 
children attending school there, said the grow sites are becoming so 
common that children here are starting to accept them as part of the landscape.

"We have one right here on the corner. It's ridiculous," she said, 
pointing to the plywood fence that went up in May a half block from 
the school and is clearly visible from the main gate.

"The little ones, kindergarten through 1st grade, they don't even ask 
about it. They already know. They say, 'Look, they're bringing in 
another marijuana garden here,' " said Lopez, who also is an early 
childhood coordinator at Alpaugh Elementary.

And older students talk about how much people who operate these sites 
are making, she said.

"My 16-year-old, he said, 'Mom, we should buy a lot around here and 
rent it out [to a grower] and get lots of money.' "

"We have tremendous concern about it, and when we have concern, we 
turn it over to the Sheriff's Department," said Alpaugh Unified 
School Superintendent Robert Hudson, who declined to comment further.

Many here would like the Tulare County Sheriff's Department or some 
other agency to swoop in, raid these fenced areas and - if pot 
actually is being grown behind them - put the growers in jail or at 
least force them to leave.

But it isn't that simple, authorities say. Growers are raising 
marijuana out in the open under the provisions of the Compassionate 
Use Act, passed by California voters in 1996, that allows people with 
doctors' recommendations to grow, smoke and ingest marijuana to treat 
medical conditions.

But law enforcement and many residents here say they believe a large 
number of the grow sites here are using the law as a front to grow 
marijuana for sale, which remains illegal.

In fact, in May the Sheriff's Department raided a 20-acre property 
less than a half-mile outside of Alpaugh where deputies reported 
finding 10 large, fenced-off marijuana gardens. Deputies reported 
finding processed marijuana and 4,011 marijuana plants on the site, 
the latter of which had an estimated street value of up to $12 
million, Sigley said.

A criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court against eight 
people states that copies of medical marijuana recommendations at the 
property were duplicates of recommendations found at other medical 
marijuana grow sites and they came from several 18-year-old people in 
the Alpaugh area.

The group also is suspected of operating a "stash house" in the area, 
where some of the marijuana was sold.

"A lot of the marijuana is going out of state, where it sells for 
more per pound," said Sigley, adding that the county is actively 
targeting marijuana grow sites for criminal violations as well as for 
violating the ordinance on where and the conditions under which 
medical marijuana can be grown in the unincorporated part of the county.

As for why deputies or county code enforcement officers aren't 
sweeping in and removing illegal marijuana grow sites in and around 
Alpaugh, Sigley said, "We've got them all over the county, to be 
honest with you. I mean, they're everywhere."

And Alpaugh's problems with marijuana gardens are "about average to 
below" compared to what's going on in some other parts of the county, 
he said. "Terra Bella has quite a few, the Visalia area, the Lindsay area."

Currently, the Sheriff's Department is aware of 304 suspected sites, 
and each requires an investigation to determine if it's violating the 
law or the county medical marijuana ordinance or both before any 
arrests, civil lawsuits or county administrative actions can begin, he said.

Sigley noted that the raid on the property near Alpaugh didn't occur 
until after a three-week investigation.

He said deputies regularly visit sites with the county Resource 
Management Agency's medical marijuana code enforcement officer to 
inspect sites, "and this year they have 150 sites they contacted, and 
84 of them are still outstanding as far as abstaining from their 
marijuana [growing]," he said.

Sigley said he's heard from people throughout the county wanting 
swifter action to shut down marijuana grow sites, and he tells them, 
"eventually we'll get to it.

"And I hate to say it like that, but there are 300 of these. We try 
to target the ones that we think have the biggest impact," which can 
be based on the amount of pot they appear to be generating and 
whether investigators believe weapons are on the site, he said.

Location is also a consideration, such as if the grow site is near a 
"sensitive area," such as a school or daycare center, said Kathleen 
Bales-Lange, the Tulare County counsel.

She said she didn't know if the suspected marijuana grow sites near 
Alpaugh's school and park are slated to receive notices from the 
county to stop their activities or if the Sheriff's Department is 
investigating them.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom