Local Pot-Busting Team Loses Funding

VOLUNTEERS PREPARE TO CLEAN UP BUSTED GROW SITES.

The 15-year-old County of Monterey Marijuana Eradication Team soon
may be jonesing for more green. COMMET, which was granted $177,000 in
the 2007-08 fiscal year, recently received notice from the Governor's
Office of Emergency Services that its federal funding likely will dry up.

The federal Justice Assistance Act has historically supported COMMET
and other pot-busting programs, according to OES counter-drug chief
Gina Buccieri-Harrington. But until and unless the feds renew the
funding, she says, the programs will be suspended.

Sheriff's Narcotics Detective Sgt. Dan Karamitis says that without
federal support, the county will have to cough up more cash for
eradication efforts.

Meanwhile, wilderness advocates and Los Padres National Forest
officials have worked out a tentative agreement to let volunteers
clean up busted pot-growing sites on public lands.

Every year, law enforcement officers confiscate tens of thousands of
illegal pot plants in Monterey County. But neither the sheriff's
department nor the U.S. Forest Service has done much to clean up the
tons of trash or restore the acres of fouled landscape left behind.

For almost two years, Ventana Wilderness Alliance President Tom
Hopkins has been pressuring Los Padres officials to let his
volunteers do the cleanup for free. "Given the Forest Service's
funding, they weren't going to get to it," Hopkins says. "And we had
volunteers that felt strongly about stewardship on public lands."

But Los Padres officials stalled, hung up on the logistics and safety
concerns. Forest patrol captain Ray Gould wanted to have an operating
plan in place before letting volunteers tackle the potentially
dangerous sites, as the Weekly reported last September.

Six months later, forest officials have agreed to let the volunteers
do their thing. The turnaround may have been due to pressure from
U.S. Forest Service Chief Gail Kimbell and the regional forester,
according to Monterey District Ranger John Bradford. "For all of us,
it was 'The boss wants to see this done, so we better get it done,' " he says.

VWA volunteers will clean up a small site in April. If all goes well,
they'll tackle a bigger one in May.