Pubdate: Sat, 05 May 2012
Source: Visalia Times-Delta, The (CA)
Copyright: 2012 The Visalia Times-Delta
Contact: http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/customerservice/contactus.html
Website: http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2759
Author: David Castellon

CANNABIS CONCERNS HIT HOME FOR NEIGHBORS OF GROW OPERATIONS IN TULARE COUNTY

Carmen Lopez didn't know how it happened so quickly.

One day in early April, a large plywood fence was built behind a
long-vacant home in her Earlimart neighborhood and "unsavory" people
started hanging out there.

Though she couldn't see what was going on behind the fence, Lopez, a
real estate agent, has seen similar fencing in other southern Tulare
County communities, and she was told the fencing was up to hide
marijuana being grown behind them.

This worried Lopez and her husband, Rogelio, so much that on April 17,
they went to the Tulare County Board of Supervisors meeting and asked
the members if whoever built the fence and possibly started growing
marijuana had a permit and, if so, why neighbors hadn't been told what
was happening.

"We have guardianship of two young granddaughters," said Carmen, 55,
noting that she worried about "nuisance people" and thieves.

"It would not be a healthy area for anyone, because thieves could come
in at night. They might be shooting. We're right next door, and that
could be dangerous."

It's a concern that Tulare County Sheriff's Lt. Tom Sigley and the
narcotics deputies he oversees have heard a lot, especially over the
past two years.

"Prior to a couple of years ago, we had more mountain [marijuana]
groves, and what we've found is they have come down to the Valley
floor trying to hide behind the medical-marijuana laws." he said.

Some are "mom and pop operations" growing small amounts of the plants,
while some are tied to drug cartels and produce large amounts,
sometimes on farmland surrounded by other crops, Sigley said.

"In most of these, we find weapons, people guarding the groves, just
like in the mountains," he said, adding that he has heard some Kern
County marijuana gardens had booby traps capable of severely hurting
or killing anybody who tripped them.

Most reports of marijuana grows in unincorporated Tulare County go
first to the Sheriff's Department.

Sigley said that last year, his department identified 605 marijuana
grow sites, but because of the time involved investigating each one
and raiding those where investigators believed criminal activity
clearly was occurring, "We got to about 300 of them."

During one raid in the Goshen area last year, deputies found marijuana
plants 18 feet tall.

"We had to cut them with chainsaws," to clear them out to be
destroyed, Sigley said. "That was a three-day operation, with 15 people."

And so far this year, the department has received reports of about 250
additional grow sites ranging from backyards to large parcels to farms
and public lands.

In fact, in some parts of the county, where marijuana is grown is
common knowledge, though not everyone is as worried about it as Carmen
and Rogelio Lopez.

In Seville, for example, Marina Gallo, 50, lived behind a home where
medical marijuana was being grown until her neighbors stopped last
year rather than challenge an abatement notice for violating the
county's medical-marijuana ordinance.

And residents of the tiny, rural town said pot still is being grown on
at least two other homesites within a radius of just a few blocks.

"I know it's everywhere," Gallo said, but added that as long as the
growers and anyone associated with them keep to themselves, "It
doesn't bother me."

"Nobody really pays attention to that -- I don't," Pablo Jimenez, 19,
another Seville resident, said about marijuana being grown near his
family's home.

"The guy over here, people know about it, but the guy leaves everybody
alone."

Several more Seville residents contacted declined to comment on the
record, but some did say they weren't worried about medical marijuana
growing close to them.

That wasn't the case for Eric Gonzalez, 30, a married father of four
from Seville who said, "The only thing that worries me is outsiders
coming here" and causing trouble.

And so far, that hasn't happened, he said.

Still, he said he would prefer that medical-marijuana plants be grown
farther away from nearby Stone Corral Elementary School and away from
children who walk by the homes where the plants are grown.

"I worry about kids because those walls are 10-12 feet high, and we
can't see what's going on the other side," Gonzalez said.

"Nothing has happened yet, but I am concerned with all this here.
There might be robberies, people shooting people coming in to steal
the marijuana," said Margarita Serrano, 51, another neighbor.

Serrano, who frequently has children and grandchildren at her home,
said she believes the county should crack down on people who violate
medical-marijuana growing rules; those violations include growing the
plants in residentially zoned neighborhoods.

And some residents in Seville and other areas of the county have said
they worry about whether growers might shoot at children or teenagers
who go on their properties to try to see what's on the other side of
the fence.

Luis Jimenez, 27, is one of the medical-marijuana growers in Seville,
but he doesn't worry that his activities put anybody at risk,
including his three young children.

Jimenez said he grows marijuana so he can treat his diagnosed stress
condition. And if somebody shows up to steal his plants, he wouldn't
fight or take any action to trigger a violent response, so the threats
to his children and neighbors isn't a concern.

Just the fact that Jimenez is growing his plants in a residential
neighborhood and outdoors puts him in violation of the county's
medical-marijuana ordinance, and he said he would stop growing the
plants if he receives an abatement order.

He said he already has received a letter from the federal government
to notify him that authorities are aware of his activities and that
his property could be permanently seized if he's found to be in
violation of federal laws.

But that threat wasn't enough to get Jimenez to stop.

Still, Jimenez said he worries that the fervor by the county and
federal government to go after illegal marijuana growers may end up
hurting people who legitimately are growing marijuana for the purposes
California's Compassionate Care Act intended.

"There are people doing it for the right reasons," he said.
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