UP IN SMOKE

Not All Marijuana Growers Believe In Peace, Love And A Volkswagen Van

In the popular lore of Mendocino and Humboldt counties, the typical
marijuana grower is a refugee from the 1960s who simply wants to do his own
thing -- grow a little weed, live peaceably in the woods, drive the kids to
school in a battered VW van with peace symbols in the windows.

Reality isn't so groovy. Drug agents last week reported raids on elaborate
shells, 11 of them, designed to look like houses, but which were actually
costly disguises for high-tech greenhouses -- complete with thousands of
plants, diesel generators, sophisticated security systems, guns and
ammunition. Far out, man.

Welcome to for-profit ventures on a very large scale -- operations that
have the potential to be dangerous.

Mom-and-pop growers may shrug their shoulders if a stranger stumbles on
their pot gardens, but, with millions of dollars at stake, the heavies
employed by a big-time drug syndicate will not be so benign.

Marijuana laws often defy common sense. Partisans would happily debate from
now until the end of time whether grass, an illegal drug, is more harmful
than the booze that fills supermarket shelves.

Still, until Americans figure out a more coherent approach to marijuana
(and to all drugs), there remain reasons to discourage the drug bosses who
occupy the most remote corners of California's North Coast.