Pubdate: Sun, 15 Jul 2007 Source: Record Searchlight (Redding, CA) Copyright: 2007 Record Searchlight Contact: http://www.redding.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/360 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California) COUNTY STRIKES OVERDUE BLOW WITH 'ALESIA' Hype about "Operation Alesia" aside, the concentrated effort against backwoods marijuana growing in the north state is overdue, and Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko deserves credit for organizing the campaign. Pot planters have hidden their gardens in California's forests for a generation or two, but the scale of the illegal operations has increased dramatically in the past decade and especially in the past couple of years. Following an old agricultural maxim -- "Get big or get out" -- growers have hidden networks of tens of thousands of plants out in our watersheds. In Shasta County, the Whiskeytown and Lake Shasta areas have become particularly popular. The figures for seizures speak for themselves. In 2006, the statewide Campaign Against Marijuana Planting uprooted nearly 1.7 million plants. That is 18 times larger than the number drug agents found in 1996. Are law enforcement's technology and tactics better? Perhaps, but the growers' are, too. Drug agents say the change in size stems from a change in their management. Mom-and-pop growers, they argue, have lost ground to Mexican cartels that find growing marijuana in the United States is easier than smuggling it across the border. Those cartels are "terrorists" to John Walters, the federal director of anti-drug policy, who visited Redding on Thursday. That language sounds like ridiculous hyperbole until you look at the Mexican gangs' record of killing news reporters, police officers, prosecutors and judges, not to mention their criminal rivals. Has that violence spread to Shasta County? Thankfully no, but if the cartels find a friendly northern climate, it's easy to predict what will sprout in the long run. Not just a criminal problem, industrial-scale marijuana growing in our parks and national forests is also an environmental hazard, and the current campaign is placing a new emphasis on cleaning up lands as well as tearing out pot plants. It was a shock to learn that drug gardens' messes were often left in place -- even irrigation pipes, which let growers replant the same plots the next year. Bosenko and Forest Service officials said tight budgets have made cleanup a low priority in the past, but that the problem has grown serious enough to demand more attention. We hope the focus on reclamation lasts longer than the two-week run of Operation Alesia. Not everyone thinks marijuana deserves all this fuss, and in some of our neighboring counties over on the North Coast, the drug is all but legal. You could debate priorities and root causes all day, but the bottom line is there's no reason to let organized crime take root in our recreational areas. In Roman times, the battle of Alesia was a decisive turning point in Julius Caesar's wars against the Gauls in what is now France. No memorable victory will ever end the war on marijuana, but most north state residents would happily settle for pushing the front lines elsewhere. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom