SANTA CRUZ TURNS DOWN $12,500 CANNABIS ERADICATION FUNDING

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) -- The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors
turned down money needed to pay overtime for deputies who hunt down
marijuana crops.

Losing the money will "significantly hamper our ability to move forward
with our yearly eradication efforts," said sheriff's spokesman Deputy Kim
Allyn.

The supervisors voted 3-2 Tuesday to accept $12,500 from the Federal
Department of Justice to cover the overtime. After the vote was taken,
however, the board learned it required four votes to accept the money
because it is "unanticipated revenue." The cash would have been given to
supplement the $275,000 already awarded for the program.

The vote came after several members of the audience pleaded with
supervisors to refuse the money. Andrea Tishler was upset over the
sheriff's marijuana eradication efforts.

"This has gone too far," he told the supervisors.

He was particularly upset over an anti-marijuana operation where detectives
staked out a hydroponics store. Deputies would follow people home who
bought pipes and other material used to grow marijuana indoors, and then
check their Pacific Gas and Electric bills to see if there were unusually
high charges.

That operation resulted in dozens of arrests on cultivation charges.