'POT' GROWERS FIND NATIONAL FORESTS ROOMY

WELDON, Calif. - A few minutes after 4 a.m., agents in camouflage cluster in a dusty California field in Kern County. "Movement needs to be slow, deliberate and quiet," the team leader whispers. "Lock and load now."

They check their ammunition and assault rifles, not exactly sure who they might meet in the dark: heavily armed Mexican drug traffickers, or just poorly paid field workers camping miserably in the brush.

Twenty minutes later, after a lights-off drive for a mile, the agents climb out of two pickups and sift into the high desert brush.

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Re "Pot farms take dirty toll," Dec. 23

Some years back I purchased a copy of biologist George Wuerthner's guide "California's Wilderness Areas: Mountains and coastal ranges." As a Southern California native, I was not familiar with geographic locales outside my immediate area, so reading the volume and looking at the beautiful color photos instilled an incredible sense of fascination with California's far north and its incredibly rich biodiversity and unspoiled splendor. It made me realize that pristine areas of the state, untouched by humans, still exist.

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California, 17 other states and the District of Columbia have placed their residents in legal jeopardy over the sale and possession of marijuana for medical purposes. Now two of those states - Washington and Colorado - have done the same for recreational use. It's time for Congress to either adopt a more federalist approach to marijuana laws, or to reiterate that the plant is an illegal controlled substance.

Washington and Colorado voters approved pot-possession initiatives in last month's elections. But the marijuana story that created the most election buzz this year was the endorsement of Mitt Romney by the creator of the comic strip "Dilbert," Scott Adams. It was a "firing offense," Adams wrote, for President Obama to put "an American citizen in jail for 10 years to life for operating medical marijuana dispensaries in California where it is legal under state law."

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The county of Mendocino is set to appear in federal court Jan. 4 to address its motion to quash subpoenas from a federal grand jury for records the county keeps on its medical marijuana ordinance, Chapter 9.31 of the Mendocino County Code.

The court date is set for 2 p.m. in Courtroom 3 of the Northern District Court in San Francisco, according to County Counsel Tom Parker.

The county filed a motion with the federal court to argue that the subpoenas are "overbroad and burdensome" in the scope of what they demand, and are an "improper intrusion" on the county's and state's ability to govern its citizens.

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OROVILLE - The Oroville Planning Commission has approved a new medical marijuana growing ordinance that will go before the City Council for final approval.

Earlier this year the council approved an ordinance regarding marijuana dispensaries inside city boundaries. At the July 10 meeting, the council directed the medical marijuana committee and city staff to research and develop an ordinance on cultivating medical marijuana in the city.

The intent is to require medical marijuana be grown in appropriately secured, enclosed and ventilated structures, so it is not visible to the general public, and to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public.

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California Inspired Efforts Elsewhere and Is Now Inspired by Their Success

Many marijuana activists always thought California would be the first state to legalize the drug for recreational use, but their dreams faded in 2010 when the state's voters rejected Proposition 19.

Yet the legalization measure's poor timing, lackluster funding and vague regulatory plan offered vital lessons that allowed activists in Colorado and Washington state to succeed last month where California had failed. Now activists in the Golden State are, in turn, scrutinizing those states' successful campaigns to prepare themselves for another California measure down the road.

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To the Editor:

When Mendocino County sends a letter to the Federal Government demanding full legalization of marijuana, the Board of Supervisors should be the first to hand over the keys to our nation to the power of the Mexican Drug Cartels. Instead of waving the white flag of surrender on the supply side of the drug wars, like the BOS is suggesting, I would suggest an attack on the demand side of drug use.

What if the Mendocino County Sheriff put the asset seizure money in a fund for the school children that maintain a drug clean lifestyle. It would work like this: beginning in 2nd grade the school children could voluntarily agree to be drug tested at school on a weekly basis via hair samples taken from each participant. On Friday morning each child that participated and tested drug free would receive $50. So in one month each could receive $200, and over the course of a school year $1,800. From 2nd grade through 12th grade they could earn up to $20,000.

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Hey, it's the end of the year. You wanna do a recap of the highs and lows? A top 10 list?

- -Softball Sammie

You got it, Sammie. But 10 seems like a lot of work. How about a few top three lists? Let's start with the lows:

1. All these bans on growing medical cannabis in your own backyard. Sacramento may have a workable ordinance, but Fresno and Butte counties and a few other places do not. Prohibiting medical-cannabis users from growing their own medicine in their own backyard is no way to show compassion.

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A growers' association on Monday lauded as "a courageous move" the county of Mendocino's filing of a motion to quash subpoenas from a federal grand jury for records the county keeps on its medical marijuana ordinance, Chapter 9.31 of the Mendocino County Code.

The motion, filed in the Northern District Court in San Francisco, argues that "the scope of the subpoenas is overbroad and burdensome, oppressive and constitutes an improper intrusion into the ability of the state and local government to administer programs for the health and welfare of their residents," Mendocino County Counsel Tom Parker wrote in a Dec. 21 statement.

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More than 200,000 marijuana plants were confiscated and destroyed by local law enforcement this year in Tulare County, an astounding figure, but one that shows the effort to eradicate the illicit growing of the popular weed will not end soon.

Those in law enforcement will tell you that they are only making a small dent in the growing of marijuana locally. While we agree that may be true, it did seem this summer that some progress was made to discourage the illegal growing of marijuana in the county.

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Law enforcement around the country report that illegal marijuana growers are turning to solar panels to power indoor lights. New Mexico state police recently busted a marijuana operation around the Four Corners region that used solar panels to pump water, according to the Associated Press, and authorities in California have stepped up enforcement against solar panel thefts from vineyards that they believe were headed to illegal growers.

On the North Coast, however, authorities say that solar-powered pot grows wouldn't make sense.

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Investigators Find It Difficult to Trace Marijuana Growth on National Forest Land to Mexican Cartels.

WELDON, Calif. - A few minutes after 4 a.m., agents in camouflage cluster in a dusty field in Kern County. "Movement needs to be slow, deliberate and quiet," the team leader whispers. "Lock and load now."

They check their ammunition and assault rifles, not exactly sure whom they might meet in the dark: heavily armed Mexican drug traffickers, or just poorly paid field workers camping miserably in the brush.

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Scientists at California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute have found that a non-psychotropic compound in marijuana - called cannabidiol - that has decreased metastatic breast cancer in early tests has also shown promise in treating a deadly brain cancer.

The research, which was done in mice, builds upon previous findings in cancers that express high levels of a protein called ID-1.

The study, which was published this month in the medical journal Cancer Research, focused on glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer that expresses high levels of ID-1.

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Let's do some math.

In the 1970s, people smoked marijuana with a THC content of 1-2 percent. With today's growing process, the THC content is easily between 8-10 percent, or roughly 10 times stronger.

To me, this says a person only needs to smoke about a 10th of what they used to. An ounce will produce 20-25 cigarettes (joints), or roughly 400 joints per pound. Each plant can produce 1-2 pounds of usable product.

Yuba County is now allowing either 18 or 99 plants, depending on where you live.

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It turns out that last weekend's big Oakland-San Francisco gun buyback - which took more than 600 firearms off the streets - was bankrolled in large part by a $100,000 donation from a medical pot club.

"It's part of the philosophy we practice called capitalism with a conscience," said Keith Stephenson, the low-key executive director of Oakland's Purple Heart Patient Center.

The unique blending of pot and policing began one afternoon outside Oakland police headquarters a few weeks back when Stephenson bumped into Capt. Ersie Joyner.

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The results of an internal affairs investigation on Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Capt. Randy Johnson regarding a federal marijuana raid on property associated with his relatives were released Thursday.

Sheriff Tom Allman announced in mid-October that an outside agency would conduct the investigation after the federal Drug Enforcement Administration served a search warrant on property associated with Johnson's relatives. The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office did the investigation and gave Allman the 80-page report Dec. 13, finding that Johnson didn't know about any illegal activity and didn't participate in it.

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State's Medical Marijuana Boom Is Wreaking Havoc on Some Fragile Habitats.

EUREKA, Calif. - State scientists, grappling with an explosion of marijuana growing on the North Coast, recently studied aerial imagery of a small tributary of the Eel River, spawning grounds for endangered coho salmon and other threatened fish.

In the remote, 37-square-mile patch of forest, they counted 281 outdoor pot farms and 286 greenhouses, containing an estimated 20,000 plants - mostly fed by water diverted from creeks or a fork of the Eel. The scientists determined the farms were siphoning roughly 18 million gallons from the watershed every year, largely at the time when the salmon most need it.

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A tersely worded press release signed by Mendocino County Counsel Thomas Parker advised the county had filed a motion on December 21 to quash the federal grand jury subpoenas.

"The motion is based on the grounds that the scope of the subpoenas is overbroad and burdensone, oppressive and constitutes an improper intrusion into the ability of state and local government to administer programs for the health and welfare of their residents.

No court date has been set to hear the motion in US Federal Court.

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The Agency Refuses to Cooperate With LAPD Investigators in the 'Blunt Force' Death of a Suspect in Custody.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has refused for more than two years to allow its agents to cooperate with a Los Angeles Police Department investigation into the death of a drug suspect shortly after he was arrested in a DEA operation, according to LAPD records.

The LAPD's homicide investigation has effectively stalled, and officials said in documents reviewed by The Times that without assistance from the DEA they cannot determine how the man's fatal injuries were inf licted.

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The federal government faced off against the city of Oakland and the nation's largest medical marijuana dispensary Thursday in a case of dueling lawsuits over whether the dispensary can keep operating while its long-term future is being decided.

After asking a few questions, federal court Magistrate Maria-Elena James took the matter under submission and is expected to rule soon.

At the heart of the case is U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag's efforts to shutter Harborside Health Center in Oakland with a lawsuit to seize the dispensary's building from its landlord, Ana Chretien, and stop operations that violated federal law.

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