CRITICS DECRY POT RAIDS

Marijuana: Despite Discoveries Of Inland Groves, The Eradication
Program Is Questioned

Deputies scouring the hills of western Riverside County have a nose
for marijuana.

They can spot the musty, pungent odor from far away. And over the past
year, they have sniffed out more than 150,000 marijuana plants in the
county.

"We use helicopters, tips and visit old sites to find these groves,
but the most important tool is the smell of marijuana," Lt. Charlie
Branscum said as he prepared to enter a grove near Anza. "It's a
distinctive smell."

The Riverside County marijuana-eradication task force began trampling
through the hills, groves and forests around Corona, Idyllwild,
Temecula and Anza in April. They will continue into October and are
hoping to destroy more than 200,000 plants total. Officials said those
plants would sell for more than $4.5 million on the street.

The team is part of a larger California program aimed at erasing pot
farms. The marijuana sweeps have been criticized in Northern
California by residents and marijuana advocates, with the team's
tactics and the program's effectiveness questioned. But agents and
deputies said they are making their presence known.

"We are not just getting drugs off the streets, but keeping them out
of schools and out of the community," said Sgt. Mike Blackwood, who
supervises a special investigations unit for the Riverside County
Sheriff's Department, which is heading up the marijuana task force.
"We take this very seriously."

A Statewide Fight

All across California, drug-enforcement agents, border-patrol agents
and sheriff's deputies are scouring national forests and finding large
groves of marijuana.

It's all part of the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting program,
started in 1993 in Northern California. In the past year, CAMP members
have destroyed more than 460,000 marijuana plants.

In its 11-year history, the CAMP program has destroyed 3.5 million
plants with an estimated street value of $14 billion. CAMP officials
estimate that California marijuana growers rake in at least $5 billion
a year.

In the past few weeks, CAMP members have aided in getting to
hard-to-reach places in Riverside County. The members are trained to
hang from a hovering helicopter to yank plants up, officials said.

The marijuana-eradication program in Riverside County uses federal and
Drug Enforcement Administration monies to fund its work.

The program costs $314,000 to pay for overtime and personnel. Most of
the deputies and agents going into the hills are working overtime in
connection with their regular enforcement duties, Branscum said.

Agents said Riverside County ranks among the top 10 counties
nationwide in marijuana production.

"The county has a lot of public land and national forests," Branscum
said. "As long as they have a water source, they can grow the crops
anywhere."

Criticisms

Professors with doctorates, farmers and a former congressman say the
program is not as positive as officials say.

The critics said the campaigns affect nature, reinforce violence and
crime, are a waste of money and even hurt those who need the marijuana
for medicinal purposes. They point to a 56,000-acre brush fire in San
Diego County started by a helicopter on a marijuana sweep as one
reason for concern.

"For now we are stuck with this bankrupt policy," said Dale Gieringer,
a member of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana
Laws. "It's hard to assess the impact the program is having, but I
know that if they let people grow marijuana in their own homes, you
wouldn't have people out in the forests."

Others wonder if the campaign is worth the resources.

"It's part of the yearly business for these growers to figure they
will lose a part to CAMP," said former U.S. Rep. Dan Hamburg, who
lives in Ukiah. "Look at the tens of thousands of plants they have
found. Those are impressive statistics. What they don't tell you is
how much marijuana they don't find, or large-scale growers they don't
prosecute."

A Day in the Hills

As the sun rises above the San Bernardino National Forest near Anza, a
group of agents and deputies slither up streambeds, through thickets
of sage and manzanita trees. Their goal: a marijuana grove they have
been watching for two months.

The group clears the area after giving chase to a man watching over
the groves. The man seems to disappear in a mountain that he knows
better than anyone else.

"They move up here, spending up to six months, and watch over these
plants," Blackwood said as he picked through marijuana plants.

Deputies caught the man running to a car parked along a Forest Service
road. They also caught an accomplice. They are arrested and taken into
questioning.

Deputies will turn the men over to the federal Drug Enforcement
Administration or the U.S. Forest Service if they are connected to the
groves.

The deputies and agents find an air gun but don't come across any
booby traps. Deputies said they haven't dealt with traps or anyone
firing at them, unlike authorities in Northern California and San
Bernardino County.

The deputies call in a second squad, which spends the rest of the day
hacking and ripping up the plants. The marijuana plants are fed by a
small, black line taking water from an underground stream.

Manzanita trees cover the plants, but they were easy to spot from a
helicopter because of their deep green color, Blackwood said.

Several thousand plants circle a small camp.

A hole has been dug and is full of cans of chili and tuna and SPAM.
Some of the food is already rotting, mixing with the musty scent of
the nearby marijuana. A bag of new socks are near the hole, unopened
and close to a bottle of rat poison.

"The growers are getting more sophisticated," Branscum said. "We even
found some using an old car battery to power a radio."

The growers deal with the heat and tough conditions because they are
paid several thousand dollars or given a percentage of what is grown,
Blackwood said.

After the deputies and agents pull the plants, they place them in a
large net, and a helicopter lifts them out of the forest and back to
base camp, where they are put in a large trailer and trucked off to be
destroyed.

The deputies eventually return to base camp and head home. In several
hours, a few of them will be back out in the mountains working on
another bust.