WITH NEARLY $2 MILLION CONFISCATED IN ONE MONTH, IS THE POT SCENE
GOING UP IN SMOKE?

The first major marijuana bust of the year that netted nearly $1
million worth of planted and processed marijuana was discovered at a
Tahoe Keys home.

Roughly two weeks later more than $560,000 worth of marijuana was
found by authorities in a home along Tahoma Drive.

Jeff Catchings, commander of SLEDNET, South Shore's drug enforcement
agency, said 117 marijuana plants were discovered Friday at a home
near Tata Lane with a value around half a million dollars.

In all, the three busts netted marijuana with a street value in the
ballpark of $2 million.

"I haven't seen this many grows in this period of time," Catchings
said. "I would say there is definitely a spike in the number of grows."

Jonmichael Debettencourt, 26, of Santa Rosa; Kevin Thomas Parker, 27,
of Bakersfield; and Erik Raymond Zortman, 26, of Petaluma were
arrested in the first bust in the Tahoe Keys.

Debettencourt and Parker are charged with cultivat-ing and possessing
marijuana for sale while Zortman was charged with suspicion of
possession of a narcotic without a prescription.

Dane Gasper, a 37-year-old South Lake Tahoe resident, was arrested on
suspicion of cultivating and possessing marijuana for sale in the
Tahoma Drive arrest. Catchings couldn't recall the name of the person
arrested Friday, except it was a 20-year-old male with $25,000 in
cash stashed in a sock.

El Dorado County has guidelines for people growing medical marijuana
(http://www.co.el-dorado.ca.us/eldoda/cua.html) and Catchings said
his officers have walked away from such grows. Usually, Catchings
said, the legal growers want to notify law enforcement.

In the past three major busts, officers were told the marijuana was
being grown for medical purposes, Catchings said.

Hans Uthe, assistant district attorney of El Dorado County, didn't
know what to make of the recent busts.

"I don't know if there's any predictability to it," he said. "It may
mean there's more in the community or it may mean we've had a streak
of finding the ones that are there."

Some, such as Jon Gettman of DrugScience.org, a Web site devoted to
cannabis reform, argue the number of grows throughout the United
States means marijuana legalization should be considered.

"The ten-fold growth of production over the last 25 years and its
proliferation to every part of the country demonstrates that
marijuana has become a pervasive and ineradicable part of the
national economy," Gettman wrote in a report, "Marijuana Production
in the United States (2006)."

"The failure of intensive eradication programs suggests that it is
finally time to give serious consideration to marijuana's
legalization in the United States," he continued.

Across the lake, the Placer County Sheriff's Department this year has
arrested suspected drug dealers and seized 297 grams of marijuana, 87
grams of suspected methamphetamine, 56 grams of suspected cocaine,
$12,464 from drug transactions and three vehicles used to transport drugs.

The arrests stem from tips deputies received during community
interaction, a Placer County deputy said.