Federal Campaign Drives Growers Indoors

No doubt without intending to, a U.S. Justice Department report on the ambitious federal marijuana plant eradication program (called Campaign Against Marijuana Planting or CAMP in California), documents that the campaign has not only failed to make much of a dent in the marijuana marketplace, it has had the perverse effect of driving producers to indoor sites, notably to suburban homes.

In other words, if one of your neighbors (probably in a rented house) has converted the place to an indoor marijuana plantation, guarded by somewhat unsavory-looking characters who look as if they might be packing heat and attracting a number of disreputable-looking hangers-on, you can thank the state and federal governments. Your tax dollars at work.

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Although the ban on medical marijuana dispensaries in Salinas is a foregone conclusion, if last week's debate on the topic is any indication, the City Council is in for another lively discussion.

For the sixth time this year, the council will debate the pros and cons of allowing medical pot shops to be set up in the city, an issue that's strongly opposed by three council members and Mayor Dennis Donohue, and has been consistently backed by the rest of the council.

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But They Say Claim Denied by Insurance

A gunman stole 3 pounds of marijuana from the garden of several medical marijuana users at a southwest Modesto home last week.

The growers valued the prime buds, which they'd tended from seeds for nine months in a greenhouse full of bell peppers, tomatoes, corn and sunflowers, at $12,000 to $16,000.

No one has been arrested.

The four men each had medical clearance to use marijuana, which allowed them to grow cannabis for personal use, Modesto police reported.

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Say what you will about his policies, but we have a pretty interesting governor. While most states suffer with their stodgy career politicians, Arnold Schwarzenegger is a unique character, one who is unafraid of making controversial statements. We've gotten used to it, frankly.

Maybe that's why there was little public backlash concerning Schwarzenegger's recent comments to the British edition of "GQ." In an interview, Schwarzenegger told the magazine that "marijuana is not drug."

"It's a leaf," he said. "My drug was pumping iron."

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Recommendation Sent to Supes

A controversial medical marijuana dispensary was cautiously approved by the Sonoma Valley Citizens Advisory Committee Wednesday before a standing-room-only crowd of about 80 people in the Sonoma Fire Station meeting room.

The SVCAC is an advisory body and will send its nonbinding recommendations to the Board of Supervisors. The facility is proposed for 19445 Riverside Drive. The vote was 6-1 with Clarence Jenkins opposing it.

"This is a tough issue," he said. "But we have to make decisions that are in the best interest of the community we represent." Jenkins represents Verano West where the facility will be located.

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Re "Saying yes to DARE": The Long Beach Unified School District works closely with the Long Beach Police Department to make certain that our students remain safe. The Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program is an important extension of that work. Today's youngsters must be well-equipped with specific knowledge and skills to avoid the pitfalls of a popular culture that in many ways glamorizes substance abuse.

DARE officers reinforce many of the concepts that our schools teach in our health and safety curriculum. And the importance of positive interaction between students and police officers in the classroom cannot be overstated. We deeply appreciate DARE's work in our schools.

Christopher J. Steinhauser

Superintendent of Schools

Long Beach Unified School District

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The Campaign Against Marijuana Planters announced on Nov. 13 it had a record year of marijuana plants seized. But the high numbers of seizures may be forcing growers to move from outdoor locations in public lands into suburban homes and neighborhoods.

A total of 2.9 million plants were seized statewide. Butte County ranked 24th out of 38 counties with CAMP records. Seventy-five percent of the plants taken by CAMP were from public lands. Mexican drug traffickers have been attributed to 80 percent of the marijuana gardens, CAMP Special Agent Holly Swartz said. The Butte County Sheriff's Department has recorded more than 43,000 seized plants, 85 pounds of the seized marijuana and 22 arrests, Sgt. Stephen Collins said. According to the National Drug Intelligence Center Web site, the outdoor raids have caused the Caucasian growers to move to indoor planting.

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Mexican drug trafficking organizations considered by the US Department of Justice to be responsible for the large marijuana grows on public lands in Mendocino County are now the main supplier of illegal drugs in the United States.

These organizations do not limit themselves to the cultivation and distribution of marijuana; they are leaders in nearly every form of illegal drug distribution, especially in the Western states. The biggest Mexican drug cartels continue to be run by four main families and are known as the Tijuana, Gulf and Juarez cartels and the Federation. These groups have their roots in the early days of prohibition and the heroin trade. For many years, growing opium poppies was legal within Mexico although illegal in the United States.

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Supervisors will consider a new, more restrictive medical marijuana ordinance at their December 5 meeting. The measure was returned to County Counsel Jeanine Nadel for review following the board's November 6 meeting after Supervisor John Pinches, father of the main concept behind the ordinance, said he would not support it, and Nadel said she needed to take a second look before the proposed ordinance came to a vote.

The ordinance is the work of the board's Criminal Justice Committee, supervisors Jim Wattenburger and Michael Delbar. The two have been meeting monthly since January.

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Re "The real drug war," editorial, Nov. 10

Funding drug treatment for Americans, rather than guns for Mexico, is good, provided it is focused. The drug war has failed because it defines any use of an illegal drug as abuse in need of treatment, forced if necessary. We must not force treatment on users who don't want it.

Casual users don't need it; hard-core users won't respond to it unless they are tired of their life with drugs.

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Council Votes 6-1 To Examine Funding, Including Possible Surcharges On Alcohol Sale, Abuse

LONG BEACH - The City Council voted Tuesday to find a way to restart the police department's DARE program for children, possibly through new surcharges that would affect some businesses and drug and alcohol abusers.

Under Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske's proposal, two surcharges would be established: one on towing services when a vehicle owner has been cited for alcohol or drug use, and another on business licenses for businesses that sell alcohol, tobacco or spray paint. The towing surcharge could range from $10 to $25, while the business license surcharge would be $1 to $2, according to a report from Schipske's office.

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A Program That Puts Cops And Kids Together Isn't Easy To Oppose.

Just Say No to drugs? It's harder to just say no to DARE, which stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education.

Long Beach City Council members fussed among themselves this week about changing this or that detail, but ended up voting 6-1 to find some way to pay for restarting the somewhat controversial program in local schools.

We say somewhat controversial because there is little clear evidence that DARE gets results. Studies have showed it doesn't, but DARE revised its curriculum and disputes the negative findings.

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Before 1967, ubiquitous teen drug use hardly existed. But after the Beatles, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and The Doors released their seminal albums later that year, the pharmaceutical floodgates opened wide. For the past 40 years, parents coast to coast have struggled with their sons and daughters smoking pot, popping pills, snorting coke and more.

Since the war on drugs officially began in 1970, tens of thousands of teens have been busted for using drugs. For those unlucky enough to have been caught while in high school, most were expelled in the early days of the drug war. If that wasn't bad enough, hundreds of teenagers every year for decades have been shipped off to juvenile hall or sentenced to prison for drug possession.

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I was on yet another road trip a couple of weeks back. Went through central Oregon on a beautiful fall weekend when the colors were resplendent and near their peak. We took the Cave Junction cutoff, which takes you right to the redwood forests of the Northern California coast. Stopped on the Smith River late at night and were reminded what the Milky Way really looks like when you have a clear sky. WOW, I bet there is a lot of life up there in those star clusters!

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Attorney General Jerry Brown on Tuesday touted a record haul of illegal marijuana pulled from secluded fields in rural California, but legalization advocates say the crackdown has only helped push growers indoors.

Citing a U.S. Justice Department report released Nov. 8, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project said vigorous eradication efforts by state and federal officials have caused growers to adapt by moving into suburban homes.

Police in Elk Grove have unraveled two marijuana-growing networks in the past two years. In both operations, the criminals established indoor groves in half-million-dollar new homes.

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GLENDALE, Calif. -- Mayor Giuliani is adding his voice to a chorus of prosecutors and police groups warning against a proposal that could allow about 20,000 convicted crack cocaine dealers and users to win release from prison before their sentences are complete.

"I would not want to let people out of jail who are in there for crack cocaine," Mr. Giuliani said yesterday after touring the California headquarters for his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. "I would not think we would want a major movement in letting crack cocaine dealers out of jail. It doesn't sound like a good thing to do."

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Tulare County ranks fifth in the state in terms of illegal marijuana plants confiscated during the growing season that ended in October, according to the state Attorney General's Office.

Of the more than 2.9 million plants seized in the state as part of the Attorney General's Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, 160,591 were found in Tulare County.

At an estimated street value of $4,000 a plant, that's more than $642 million worth of marijuana destroyed by law enforcement here, based on information provide by the Tulare County Sheriff's Department.

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Riverside residents could soon have a much shorter drive to get a doctor's recommendation for medical marijuana.

Palm Springs resident and marijuana activist Lanny Swerdlow said he plans to open a clinic in December in an office building at 647 N. Main St. in northern Riverside.

"It's kind of a good central location for the entire Inland," said Swerdlow, a registered nurse who heads the Marijuana Anti-Prohibition Project.

Ingrid Wyatt, a spokeswoman for the Riverside County district attorney's office, has said in previous interviews that such a clinic would not be against the law provided no marijuana was dispensed there. She could not be reached for comment Monday.

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While San Francisco's Behavioral Health Court has many supporters, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger remains skeptical the model should be expanded around the state.

Last month, he vetoed a bill introduced by State Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, which would have formally authorized Superior Courts around California to develop mental health courts and would have created minimum standards for them.

Several mental health courts exist around California, but Steinberg hoped the law would encourage more counties to consider developing their own. He told The Chronicle addressing mental health is one of the keys to reducing recidivism and reforming the state's troubled, crowded prison system.

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Retroactively Shortening Sentences Would Make The System More Equitable.

Congress probably didn't set out to pass racially discriminatory laws 20 years ago when it first began clamping down on crack cocaine. The intention was to stem a drug epidemic that was rapidly tearing inner-city neighborhoodsapart -- driving gang warfare, splitting families and, it was feared, creating a generation of "crack babies" too hopelessly damaged to ever become productive members of society. The result was federal sentencing guidelines that imposed much harsher terms on dealers in crack than in powder cocaine.

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