Pubdate: Sun, 12 Feb 2012
Source: Record Searchlight (Redding, CA)
Copyright: 2012 Record Searchlight
Contact:  http://www.redding.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/360

HOW TO END FOREST MARIJUANA GROWS? WITH LEGAL FARMS

Sgt. Barry Powell didn't come out and say that Shasta County's new 
marijuana-growing ordinance will make foresters' lives more dangerous.

But that's the clear implication from the outline of trends the head 
of the county's Marijuana Eradication Team gave Thursday to the 
Sierra-Cascade Logging Conference.

After peaking in 2009, seizures of illegal marijuana in Shasta 
County's backcountry have dropped substantially, Powell said.

A great victory against the forces of criminality? Nope. Powell said 
that the same Mexican cartels that have planted huge illegal farms on 
remote north state forests have instead switched to planting them 
openly, under the protections of Proposition 215's allowance for 
medicinal marijuana.

These aren't your neighbors growing a few plants for personal use. 
Rather, a dozen "patients" might each use their doctor's 
recommendation to grow as many as 99 plants apiece, Powell explained, 
creating vast and lucrative farms that local law enforcement has no 
real authority to bother. And much of that marijuana is shipped, 
illegally, out of California at a healthy markup. Powell said he's 
currently working with authorities in five different states where 
seized marijuana was traced back to Shasta County.

But, Powell said, the growers will probably be heading back to the 
woods. Why? Shasta County's new marijuana-growing ordinance, which 
strictly limits the size of pot gardens and requires that either 
patients or their caregivers actually live on the property where 
marijuana is grown.

The county's ordinance is a reasonable attempt to keep residential 
areas from being overwhelmed by pot gardens. At the same time, not 
even the officer in charge of the county's marijuana-eradication 
efforts suggests it will actually stop people from growing. Instead, 
he said it will just move them elsewhere, back into hiding.

In doing so, it will probably make them more dangerous. At the same 
Thursday forum on marijuana growing and forestry, Sierra Pacific 
Industries patrolman Roger Newton said that Proposition 215 growers 
he encounters are often armed, usually have fierce pit bulls, and all 
too frequently trespass on neighboring private forestland. 
Ultimately, though, they're not afraid of law enforcement or 
legitimate forest users - but of "patch pirates" out to steal their 
valuable crop, he said. The best way for foresters to keep safe, he 
argued, is to be open and visible so paranoid growers don't think 
someone's sneaking up on them.

Nobody at the logging conference suggested as much, but it's hard not 
to think the same principle applies to marijuana growing itself.

The illegal marijuana growers who abuse the national forests or 
private timberlands and ranches are criminals who belong in prison. 
But they're also capitalists who meet a demand that shows no signs of 
disappearing, and years of eradication efforts did little to roll 
back the tide of backcountry growing. What did begin to curb illegal 
plantations in recent years is, quite simply, that it's been easier 
to grow the stuff legally.

Decriminalizing marijuana has all kinds of social implications that 
might make it a bad path. But if the goal is to preserve and protect 
our forests from criminals' abuse, and to ensure the safety of 
legitimate foresters, hunters and hikers, nothing would accomplish 
that faster than letting pot growers raise their crop on farms like 
any other commodity. When's the last time anyone ran into a backwoods 
moonshine still?

Last week's forum was in part sponsored by the Jere Melo Foundation, 
which was set up after the murder last year of the former Fort Bragg 
mayor by a schizophrenic Mendocino County resident who was growing 
opium poppies on private forestland Melo was inspecting. Its aim: "to 
put a stop to the violence and environmental damage caused by illegal 
marijuana grows."

Every law-abiding resident of Northern California shares that goal, 
but does anyone realistically think yet another season of helicopter 
overflights will achieve it?
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom