ONE CONSEQUENCE -- END OF HIPPIE ERA OF POT GROWING

The controversy over medical marijuana is obscuring a related trend,
say federal and state anti-drug officials -- the end of California's
hippie pot-growing era.

"Of the big gardens, 95 percent of the major grows are by Mexican
nationals, while before, they were run by hippies," said Bill
Ruzzamenti, director of the federal government's Central Valley High
Intensity Drug Trafficking Area initiative.

Most of these growers use undocumented immigrant workers to grow the
pot on large plantations hacked out of the wilderness on state and
federal park and forest land, clearing the brush surreptitiously and
using harsh chemicals that pollute water supplies, the officials say.

"Over the last five years, there has been a huge influx of Mexican
nationals who grow on public lands," said Kent Shaw, associate chief
of the state's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement. "The majority of
those, 80 to 90 percent, are actual gardens operated by Mexican
national drug lord organizations, no doubt, the drug cartels."

The worry of involvement by Mexico's ultra-violent drug cartels has
gained a lot of public attention, but some officials suggest that the
intelligence information is too weak for such claims.

"Whether or not the major Mexican trafficking organizations are
involved in cultivation up here is something we just can't say," said
Javier Pena, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Northern
California division.

Most observers say the Mexican-grown pot goes almost exclusively to
the recreational marijuana business and has not yet affected the
medical marijuana industry, which sources its pot mainly from
old-style growers.

"We buy from people we know, people who are vouched for," said
Richard Lee, owner of SR-71, a medical marijuana store in Oakland.