Pubdate: Sun, 26 Aug 2012
Source: Times-Standard (Eureka, CA)
Copyright: 2012 Times-Standard
Contact: http://www.times-standard.com/writeus
Website: http://www.times-standard.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1051
Author: Thadeus Greenson

'WE CAN'T TURN A BLIND EYE ANYMORE'; FEDS, LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT 
PROMISE 'HOT AND HEAVY' SEASON OF POT BUSTS

Editor's note: This is the first story in a three part series looking 
at marijuana issues on the North Coast.

The proliferation of large scale, outdoor marijuana grows in Humboldt 
County has law enforcement agencies sometimes feeling like they're 
fighting a forest fire with squirt guns.

Consequently, agencies are trending toward collaboration as this 
growing season hits full swing, with federal and local police looking 
to work together to take out some of the most egregious operations.

"It's one of the most beautiful parts of this country, but it's just 
being destroyed by marijuana cultivation," said Randy Wagner, the U.S 
Drug Enforcement Agency's special agent in charge of Northern 
California operations. "I can tell you, we're going to be hot and 
heavy in Humboldt County from here on out."

The push to crack down on pot grows seems to be due to a confluence 
of factors that came to a head last summer.

The federal government has been increasingly frustrated with the 
proliferation of medical marijuana dispensaries, and grow operations 
in general, throughout California. Further, because the state's 
Department of Justice's Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement's budget was 
essentially gutted -- in the midst of an ongoing fiscal crisis last 
summer -- the feds seem intent on picking up the slack.

It seems to have been two events late last summer that really pushed 
things over the tipping point.

In late August, Fort Bragg City Councilman Jere Melo was shot and 
killed by a mentally ill man at the scene of an opium poppy grow on 
timber land in Mendocino County. The shooting -- and subsequent 
month-long manhunt for Melo's killer -- drew new attention to the 
dangers surrounding what officials see as increasing lawlessness on 
park and timber lands throughout the region.

In the wake of Melo's death, the League of California Cities Redwood 
Division pledged to make cracking down on illegal grow operations a 
major focal point of its efforts this year, according to Division 
Director and Arcata City Councilman Mark Wheetley.

Just days after Melo was killed, Humboldt County Sheriff Mike Downey 
and Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos took to the air 
and did some flyovers of Southern Humboldt County. Downey said he got 
off the plane that day knowing he had to make going after some of the 
county's largest grows his chief priority this summer.

"We just saw large commercial grow after large commercial grow," 
Downey said, adding that the scope of the marijuana production is 
staggering. "When I saw that and realized that the state of 
California is broke, I realized we have to do something."

marijuana culture in the county has changed, morphing from the 
largely locally raised operators who kept a low profile, to being 
made up of growers who come from outside the area and cultivate on a 
massive scale with no regard for the environment or the community.

"They've come in like the gold rush days trying to make a buck, 
leaving in their wake environmental devastation that Humboldt County 
has to deal with," Downey said, pointing to a recent bust near Hoopa 
that saw more than 26,000 plants eradicated. "That's not a mom and 
pop trying to make a little smoke to help pay their taxes."

So, Downey reached out to the feds. Wagner said they were happy to 
get the call.

"Those guys need help, and we're going to provide it," Wagner said.

Everyone realizes prioritization must be the name of the game, as 
uprooting every plant in the county -- or even a majority of them -- 
is a impossible.

"By no means do I have the time or the resources to go after every 
marijuana grow in Humboldt County," Downey said. "I can't bite the 
whole apple here in Humboldt County, so I'm deciding to try to take 
the most egregious chunk out of it."

Downey said the priority will be large scale operations on park and 
timber lands that cause the most environmental damage -- the kinds of 
grows that are typically protected by men with guns and necessitate 
heavy soil grading, large water diversions and generally use high 
powered insecticides, rodenticides and fertilizers.

Pointing to a recent study by UC Davis researchers that found high 
powered rodenticides at illegal marijuana grows were the likely cause 
of a high number of deaths of pacific fishers -- a member of the 
weasel family and a candidate for federal protection -- Wagner and 
Downey said they believe public support for a crack down is growing.

Wagner said he attended a recent California League of Cities Redwood 
Division meeting on the subject in Arcata and walked away with a clear message.

"What I was hearing from the council people and the locals there is 
that culturally this has always been there in Humboldt County, but 
now people realize this has gotten out of hand," Wagner said. "Not 
being from California, you hear the Pacific Northwest referred to as 
a 'tree-hugger' area. Well, these are tree-hugger issues that are 
affecting the land right now. I think people up there realize, 'We 
can't turn a blind eye anymore.'"
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom