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Support Us URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n651/a04.html

Newshawk: Dale Gieringer http://www.canorml.org/

Votes: 0

Pubdate: Tue, 23 Jun 2009

Source: Press Democrat, The (Santa Rosa, CA)

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Copyright: 2009 The Press Democrat

Website: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/

Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/348

Author: Glenda Anderson, The Press Democrat

Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Marijuana - California)



POT RAIDS RAMP UP THIS WEEK



UKIAH - State marijuana eradication teams are arriving on the North Coast today, two weeks earlier than usual.



"They're planting earlier, we might as well get out there and start picking them," said Special Agent Michelle Gregory, a state Department of Justice spokeswoman. She said officers in the state's CAMP, Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, program, today will join pot-fighting efforts in Sonoma and Lake counties and in July in Mendocino County.



The early start is expected to yield yet another record confiscation of pot plants, Gregory said. Local officials already are reporting higher seizures this year.



"Hopefully, we can get some more grow sites," she said. Statewide last year, federal, state and local officers who make up CAMP seized 2.9 million plants worth an estimated $11.6 billion. A separate federal effort last year bumped up the number of plants seized in California to 5.2 million.



The counts do not include local pot eradication efforts conducted during the rest of the year.



Local authorities say they've already pulled more pot plants from the ground this year than last. Sonoma County has ripped out almost 40,000 plants so far this year, more than three times as many as at the same time last year, Sheriff's Sgt. Chris Bertoli said. Lake and Mendocino counties officials said they believe their figures also are up but no numbers were immediately unavailable.



For three years in a row, CAMP agents have pulled more plants out of Lake County than any other county in the state. Mendocino County ranked fourth last year and Sonoma County 14th.



The ever increasing numbers have confounded even marijuana advocates. The price of marijuana has remained stable at about $300 an ounce, indicating there's been little or no change in local supply and demand, said Dale Gieringer, of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.



He said immigration crackdowns along the Mexican border have induced Mexican nationals to grow pot in California for distribution elsewhere in the United States rather than try to smuggle marijuana across the border.



"That's the only thing that makes sense," he said.



It's also what law enforcement officials suspect. The larger gardens discovered on public lands are cultivated largely by Mexicans, they said. Gregory said greed is the driving force behind increased cultivation, which also has been facilitated by genetic alterations.



Growers not only have created more potent pot strains but have developed some plants that can withstand colder temperatures, extending the outdoor growing season, Gregory said. "They have some that grow through the winter," she said. "This is not the same marijuana from the '60s and '70s."



Gieringer said rather than spend money to stop marijuana growing, "taxpayers should be making money off of it."



An April Field Poll indicated a majority of voters think it should be taxed and the money used to balance the state budget. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, introduced a bill in February that would regulate and tax marijuana, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently said it's time to discuss the issue.

MAP posted-by: Richard Lake



