Pubdate: Thu, 05 Dec 2013
Source: Chico News & Review, The (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.newsreview.com/chico/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/559

KILLED FOR A PLANT

Two Marijuana-Related Shootings-One of Them Fatal-Is Further Proof of
Prohibition's Failure

Think marijuana isn't dangerous? Tell that to the pot-growing
homeowner who shot and killed an intruder who wanted to steal his
crop. That deadly attempted home-invasion robbery occurred in broad
daylight last Tuesday, Nov. 26, in Palermo. And the very next day, the
day before Thanksgiving, another man was shot in the face at a
marijuana grow site in Feather Falls (see Downstroke, page 8).

Fall is one of the most dangerous times of the year for those who
partake in this black-market enterprise. The growing season has only
recently come to an end, and many of the foothills pot profiteers are
sitting on their cash crops. There's a lot of work to do between
harvest-trimming and packaging, for example-and the time the
traffickers decide to transport their yields to buyers in and out of
the state.

The two shootings last week are just a couple of the high-profile
incidents related to Butte County's lucrative and sometimes
treacherous world of illicit pot-growing.

Let's not forget about the two bodies located in a shallow grave the
summer before last at a large marijuana garden in the foothills just
north of Magalia. Let's also not forget about 24-year-old Neal King, a
Chico resident whose vehicle was last seen in Oroville last March at
the home of a man who reportedly agreed to give him 160 pounds of
marijuana in exchange for real estate. King's body has not been found,
though authorities and his family are quite certain he's dead. Killed
for a plant?

All of this, of course, is further proof of what the CN&R has been
saying for years: that marijuana prohibition serves only to keep
intact the profit motive that makes cannabis cultivation such a risky
venture. It's time to legalize it.

How many more people have to be maimed or murdered before that
happens?
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MAP posted-by: Matt