Mexifornia State Flower - Revisited

[Rim05]

Whenever you post a quote from somebody else, out of respect for the source of the quote, you always need to at least explain where you got it from and, even better, provide a link.

I know all about posting the source of a story. The story I read had hundreds of comments so you only got one and the name of the person was one of those 'comment names' such as Towler.
I have wasted way too much time with you about drugs. Do what you want because I am against any kind of 'feel good' drugs.

[Twoller]

Originally Posted by Rim05

I know all about posting the source of a story. The story I read had hundreds of comments so you only got one and the name of the person was one of those 'comment names' such as Towler.
I have wasted way too much time with you about drugs. Do what you want because I am against any kind of 'feel good' drugs.

Okee dokee. Be sure to stay away from them Snicker's bars.

[Commander Bunny]

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article...-pot-violence-

Fed up with armed marijuana growers taking over public lands, a group of Mendocino County residents on Tuesday asked the board of supervisors to declare a state of emergency and bring in the National Guard.



“They're everywhere, they are destroying the forest,” said Chris Brennan, a Laytonville rancher and federal trapper.

“It's out of control,” said Paul Trouette, a county Fish and Game commissioner.

Supervisors directed the county attorney to investigate what a state of emergency would entail and the potential repercussions.

The request comes one week after a sheriff's deputy shot to death a man that the sheriff's office said leveled a firearm at him in a large marijuana garden in the Mendocino National Forest east of Covelo.

Public lands have long been favorite locations for large-scale illegal marijuana gardens. But the problem has worsened, something state and federal drug enforcement officials blame on Mexican drug cartels.

This year, about 440,000 pot plants have been eradicated from the Mendocino National Forest alone, said Michael Gaston, assistant special agent in charge with the U.S. Forest Service.

Large-scale illegal cultivators are shooting and poisoning wildlife, dumping pesticides into streams, diverting streams and taking pot shots at people who attempt to use the forest between the spring and fall, Brennan said.

“I've been shot at,” he said.

A half dozen other people at the board meeting, held in Covelo for the first time in many years, said they'd also had warning shots fired in their direction while on public lands

“There are pieces of the county we don't go in now,” said Peter Bauer, a fifth generation Covelo cattle rancher. He said he won't be using some of the grazing permits he has for public lands because of marijuana gardens. “My livelihood is threatened by this,” he said.

Paula Fugman no longer rides horses on federal forest trails. “It's really scary,” she said.

One Covelo resident called the pot operations “an armed foreign invasion.”

Gaston said the U.S. Forest Service has boosted its enforcement manpower and is working with local and state officers. Efforts are focused on apprehending “queen bees” that run the operations, not just the workers who toil in and protect the pot, he said.

The department also is boosting its post-eradication cleanup, which includes destroying miles of black irrigation tubing and other pot-growing infrastructure and hauling out pesticides left behind.

North county residents say more must be done.

“We've already lost the war,” said Cory Miller, who lives five miles from the remote area where the shooting took place.

Supervisor John McCowen said the efforts will fail until the federal government decriminalizes marijuana, thus critically reducing its profitability.

Checkpoints at the entrances to forest land would greatly discourage pot growers from entering, she said.

“There are only a few roads in,” said Virginia Spivey, a teacher at the Round Valley High School in Covelo.

[Rim05]

Supervisor John McCowen said the efforts will fail until the federal government decriminalizes marijuana, thus critically reducing its profitability.

Another poor excuse for a public official. If he is not able or willing to do what he was elected to do, I would suggest that he step down.
Why don't we decriminalize every law we do not like?

[Twoller]

Originally Posted by Rim05

Another poor excuse for a public official. If he is not able or willing to do what he was elected to do, I would suggest that he step down.
Why don't we decriminalize every law we do not like?

The point is not to decriminalize every law we do not like, but to get rid of laws that don't work. Even more important is to get rid of laws that make problems worse instead of better. The laws against marijuana are based on moral hysteria, just like the old, abandoned laws against alcohol. The laws against marijuana are what are creating the calls for the national guard and a state of emergency.

Supervisor John McCowen was right when he said that decriminalizing marijuana will get rid of the problem by destroying its black market profitibality.

But notice, the people creating a problem growing the stuff are illegal immigrants. Why aren't the people who are calling for a state of emergency and the national guard not calling for a crackdown on illegal immigrants? You would think that the first thing they would be screaming for is Arizona's 1070, but I guess even the "conservatives" in Mendocino gots to have there leaf blower monkeys.

Vote Yes on Proposition 19 this November.

[Commander Bunny]

^ There's alot of Conservatives in the area, Mendo/Humboldt/ect. but there's also a large population of Progressives that will basically bend-over backward for the illegals as well.
The radio stations in those parts are constantly having fundraisers for the illegals, operations, cars, and all sort of stuff to assist Them, although it's the Cartel/illegals that have brought down the community.
You should see Ukiah, it's really become a barrio.

[Commander Bunny]

Lake County deputy shoots, kills armed man at marijuana garden

A Lake County sheriff’s deputy Wednesday shot and killed a man who leveled a rifle at officers investigating a large, illegal marijuana garden on public land between Cobb and Middletown, the Sheriff’s Office said.

The man was armed with a rifle when deputies and federal Bureau of Land Management agents confronted him around 6:30 a.m. in an area planted with thousands of pot plants off Socrates Mine Road, authorities said.

Deputies ordered him to drop his weapon, but he raised it toward them and was shot, Sheriff’s Sgt. Brian Martin said. The man, who was not identified, was pronounced dead at the scene.

He is the third person to be shot and killed in the last five weeks on the North Coast by officers investigating cultivation of pot during what’s become an especially violent marijuana enforcement season.

Armed guards pose an increasing threat for people in the region’s public lands as well as for officers airlifted into rugged terrain where clandestine gardens often are found, said Bob Nishiyama, who commands the Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force.

“Last year, we recovered more guns in gardens than any year prior,” Nishiyama said.

Task force officers seized 105 weapons in 2009, compared to 39 in 2007. The figures include marijuana garden raids and other missions, according to the unit’s annual reports.

This year, agents with the task force, which runs as many as three raids a week, often hear gunshots as they’re lowered by helicopter into illegal gardens, he said.

Informants have said the gardens’ guards now are told by their employers, many of whom are thought to be connected to Mexican drug cartels, to stay and fight or they won’t get paid, he said.

“We’d assume they were shooting to slow us down as they try to escape,” Nishiyama said. “But now we have to rethink that.”

In Napa County, a Fresno man was fatally shot June 30 in a garden raid near Lake Berryessa when he drew his handgun and refused orders by Napa Special Investigations Bureau officers to put it down.

In Mendocino County, a deputy on July 27 shot and killed a man who leveled a rifle at authorities raiding a garden in the northeastern part of the county near Tehama County, officials said.

Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman has declined to release the deputy’s name, saying it would be made public at the end of an internal investigation.

But other law enforcement sources said the deputy is Sgt. Bruce Smith, who heads the County of Mendocino Marijuana Eradication Team, COMMET.

Allman said he would “neither confirm nor deny” that the deputy was Smith. But he previously said the deputy had been involved in a shooting in “about 1989.”

Smith shot an armed suspect in 1990 during a routine traffic stop near Leggett, the only officer-involved shooting for which news records could be found during that time frame.

Six bullets were fired at Smith but Smith was not hurt, investigators said at the time. The District Attorney’s Office ruled the shooting self defense.

On July 21, a suspect was shot by a Santa Clara County deputy during a raid in the hills between Santa Clara and Alameda counties.

The Lake County incident occurred on Bureau of Land Management property between Socrates Mine and Ford Flat roads, about half a mile from Socrates Mine Road, Martin said.

Although it would be typical for more than one person to tend and guard a grow of that size, no other suspects were seen by officers. The garden of immature plants included some that measured 6 feet tall, Martin said.

The name of the deputy who shot the suspect and the number of times the suspect was shot were not released.

The deputy remained on duty Wednesday but may be put on administrative leave pending an investigation into the shooting by the District Attorney’s Office and the Sheriff’s Office, Martin said.

“We’d assume they were shooting to slow us down as they try to escape,” Nishiyama said. “But now we have to rethink that.”

In Napa County, a Fresno man was fatally shot June 30 in a garden raid near Lake Berryessa when he drew his handgun and refused orders by Napa Special Investigations Bureau officers to put it down.

In Mendocino County, a deputy on July 27 shot and killed a man who leveled a rifle at authorities raiding a garden in the northeastern part of the county near Tehama County, officials said.

Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman has declined to release the deputy’s name, saying it would be made public at the end of an internal investigation.

But other law enforcement sources said the deputy is Sgt. Bruce Smith, who heads the County of Mendocino Marijuana Eradication Team, COMMET.

Allman said he would “neither confirm nor deny” that the deputy was Smith. But he previously said the deputy had been involved in a shooting in “about 1989.”

Smith shot an armed suspect in 1990 during a routine traffic stop near Leggett, the only officer-involved shooting for which news records could be found during that time frame.

Six bullets were fired at Smith but Smith was not hurt, investigators said at the time. The District Attorney’s Office ruled the shooting self defense.

On July 21, a suspect was shot by a Santa Clara County deputy during a raid in the hills between Santa Clara and Alameda counties.

The Lake County incident occurred on Bureau of Land Management property between Socrates Mine and Ford Flat roads, about half a mile from Socrates Mine Road, Martin said.
Although it would be typical for more than one person to tend and guard a grow of that size, no other suspects were seen by officers. The garden of immature plants included some that measured 6 feet tall, Martin said.

The name of the deputy who shot the suspect and the number of times the suspect was shot were not released.

The deputy remained on duty Wednesday but may be put on administrative leave pending an investigation into the shooting by the District Attorney’s Office and the Sheriff’s Office, Martin said.
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article...news?p=1&tc=pg

[Commander Bunny]

Mendocino County residents determined to take land back from large-scale pot growers..

Looks like a few Counties/State Agencies are teaming-up without Federal assistance...a good read.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article...1350?p=1&tc=pg


I thought this was a silly comment:
A governor's spokesman said he has never heard of an emergency being declared over pot.

[Twoller]

Originally Posted by Commander Bunny

Mendocino County residents determined to take land back from large-scale pot growers..

Looks like a few Counties/State Agencies are teaming-up without Federal assistance...a good read.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article...1350?p=1&tc=pg


I thought this was a silly comment:
A governor's spokesman said he has never heard of an emergency being declared over pot.

But there is still not even the mention of the actual problem: Illegal immigration. This is where the crackdown needs to be, along with property and land use violations. The war on marijuana is what has created the grow operations. Illicit grows were started in Mendo by citizens, not illegals. Now illegals have taken the whole thing to the next level. And why wouldn't they? It is the illegals who are in charge of the trade in marijuana. If they grow it in Mexico or grow it in Mendocino, the money still moves south. And the whole process is born and regulated from Mexico through the cartels who have clearly set up shop in the US.

If we can remove marijuana from the black market, the illegals will still be in Mendocino and they will still be plying criminal enterprises to make up for the revenue they lose from the decriminalization of marijuana.

As long as we refuse to hunt down and throw out illegal immigrants, they are going to continue to cause problems like this.

But it is most important that we strike a blow against their handlers and enablers based in Mexico by voting yes on Proposition 19. Illegal immigration is a criminal enterprise that works hand in hand with organized crime based outside of the US. Take food out of their mouths by taking away their black markets and we strike a blow against illegal immigration.

[Commander Bunny]

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article...ut-pot-gardens

One retired teacher is so angry about the dammed streams, booby-trapped trails and garbage dumped in the woods by marijuana growers that on Sunday she risked confrontation to hunt down a pot garden she suspected was on her land.

“I have a hot Italian temper,” said Carol Vellutini, 68, of Santa Rosa. “I'm furious when people dump garbage in pristine places.”

On Sunday, Vellutini led a group of friends armed with shotguns into her rugged and and remote property that spans 300 acres about 25 miles northwest of Santa Rosa...

Hmm, what I don't get is that They only plants that were 6"-8" tall, by this time of the season they should have been at least 4'-8' tall.
Something just does'nt seem right here to Me, perhaps the Growers knew that they've been spotted, and cut a few branches off some of the weaker plants, cloned 'em basically, and left this patch to be dicovered, rather than Their main crop, perhaps on an adjacent property
That would explain the size of the plant They found on Her property.
or They were really, really bad at growing...?