ATTACK MARIJUANA HOUSES

Marijuana "grow houses" - a growing and violent plague in Lee County
and especially in Lehigh Acres - is getting welcome attention in
Tallahassee. We should urge legislators to act.

The operators of grow houses, where marijuana is grown indoors, will
face tougher penalties under a bill that passed a House committee Wednesday.

Rep. Nick Thompson, R-Fort Myers, sponsor of HB 173, showed the
House Safety and Security Council photos of a Lehigh Acres grow
house shot up by intruders, including a bullet hole inches above a
baby's crib. It was dramatic evidence of the violence that has
followed grow houses as they spread through Lehigh and other parts
of the state, and it was part of a convincing case for passage of
this bill and its Senate companion, SB 390.

The scattered nature of settlement in large subdivisions in
Southwest Florida makes an ideal environment for drug producers
seeking the safety of indoor cultivation.

Their presence is a threat to people in these neighborhoods. On Feb.
12 a gunfight at a Lehigh grow house left two people dead. The Lee
County Sheriff's Office raided some 70 grow houses in 2007 - mostly
in Lehigh - and has closed 30 in Lehigh Acres in just the past six months.

Current law has a ludicrous 300-plant threshold before the operators
of a grow house can be considered for major trafficking penalties.
The new legislation would lower that to 25.

Florida is second only to California in grow houses, says Thompson.
It's time to move aggressively to stamp them out.