Pot-shots guard the jackpot in California

Press, 25 October 1984, Page 20

Pot-shots guard the jackpot in California

From

JOHN HUTCHISON,

in San Francisco

“One shot, two arrested at marijuana patch;” “Violence in the pot fields;” “Sheriff has lead in cannabis killing.” Such headlines are commonplace in northern California’s newspapers these days as the state’s $4 billion harvest of cannabis sativa moves to market. “Pot” is the most lucrative product of some of the mountainous counties north of San Francisco where it is cultivated in small clearings deep in heavy forest. Some people will kill to protect their marijuana gardens in which a single plant is worth an average SNZ2OOO. The harvest season coincides with the open season for hunting deer in the same rough bush country, and bona fide hunters with their powerful rifles can come into confrontation with armed growers standing watch against marijuana thieves. A man tracking a deer was killed recently when he stumbled on a pot patch. Another hunter rescued his partner at gunpoint from two growers who had beaten the companion seriously. When four armed thieves entered a marijuana garden, the ensuing gunfight brought severe wounds to one marauder. Law officers found an arsenal of firearms in the grower's home. Four such violent incidents occurred in one recent week in a snail rural valley in theipounty where timber and wine 'grapes have been superseded by mari-

juana as the principal cash crop. Armed sheriff’s men, state law enforcement' officers, and United States narcotics agents co-ordinate their resources aqd their wits in the effort to control the trade and its violence. The co-ordinated drive reported in late September that it had destroyed 120,000 marijuana plants, some of them large enough to bring ?NZIO,OOO at harvest. Even so, more goes to market than to bonfires. Profits are so large that the federal Government recently announced that, in addition to. actions taken for illegal cultivation and sale, it will prosecute growers for income tax evasion. When cannabis was first grown commercially in California mountain counties, there was a tendency among many residents to view the activity with some tolerance, as had been “moonshine” distilling which was an illicit backwoods industry during the 1920 s Prohibition era. The cultivation of cannabis was widely considered a “hippie” enterprise, confined to the counter culture for which established citizens had little respect . and not much concern. As the traffic grew there were many of these who came to recognise it as a remarkably profitable business, worth the risks, or defensible on the grounds of the money it was generating in communities suffering from recession. Now, say officials wrestliniwith the control effort, fic in once-peaceful mountain com-

munities is not only big illegal commerce, but it has been taken over by big-time criminal interests, often allied to city vice gangs. The stakes are high and violent people are in charge. Deadly booby traps, attack dogs, alarm systems and armed tough guards protect the plants. Lawmen, hunters, fishermen, trampers, campers, and even absentee landlords inspecting their own properties literally risk their lives if they enter .some remote areas. There are reports of loggers refusing to work in some timberlands where pot is grown. Belligerent growers have vandalised timber equipment and threatened the crews. Two sheriffs deputies recently reported that they narrowly escaped injury when a trip-wired booby trap fired on them. There are instances when law enforcement aircraft used to spot or reach remote plantations have been fired on by growers. Land surveyors and power-line crews report threats. More than mere indignation is being expressed by some who innocently stumble into menacing incidents. A company which clears bush for electric lines recently served notice that its crews may be armed for self-protection. A veteran deer hunter proposes that sportsmen should carry handguns as well as their rifles. There are even heated suggestions that vigilante groups be organised to meet gunfire with gunfire.