WHILE POT SEASON WANES, OTHER DRUGS MOVE IN

Recent rains this fall may have dampened the prospects of any
marijuana still remaining outdoors, but the Mendocino Major Crimes
Task Force remains busy with drugs in Mendocino County.

Any marijuana plants still outside may as well be left there, Bob
Nishiyama, Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force commander said Thursday.

Nishiyama said he sees connections between marijuana and other drugs
in his job as MMCTF commander.

Previously in mid-October Nishiyama had seen a grower raided by
Campaign Against Marijuana Planting spend money from last year's crops
on "crank," or methamphetamines, to make up for the loss of his plants
this year.

Although marijuana can sometimes be a large portion of what the Task
Force deals with, pot is not the force's exclusive focus.

Nishiyama said he is now seeing more cocaine. About five years ago,
Nishiyama said, cocaine was not turning up in Mendocino County, but
now he is starting to see it.

"When one peaks, another takes its place," Nishiyama said. He added
that "white heroin," typically from the East Coast, has also been seen
in the region. Heroin found in the state is usually "Mexican brown"
type heroin and is not as strong as the white variety of heroin from
back east.

Because white heroin is higher grade than Mexican brown, an addict
using the same dose of white as he used for brown can overdose and
die, Nishiyama said. "The next thing you know, people are dying."

Trading Mendocino County marijuana for East Coast white heroin is a
likely reason for why the white stuff has been seen here, Nishiyama
speculated.

To avert stirring people up, some have taken to darkening the white
heroin to look like the brown, Nishiyama said.

He also noted that local law enforcement officers are not the only
ones struggling with the local drug scene. Law enforcement across the
United States are apparently dealing with people who have been based
in this area.

News of people, like a Ukiah pilot caught at Wisconsin airport in
October with marijuana, for example, has been relayed to Nishiyama
from across the country. Wisconsin police stated that the marijuana on
the plane was worth an estimated $675,000.

"Virtually every state in the union has called and said We got this
guy from your area'," Nishiyama said.