CITY SHOULD CASH IN ON SUNSET'S CASH CROP: POT

San Francisco undercover police Officers Scott Biggs and Chris Oshita
work one of the hottest marijuana-growing spots in the Bay Area: the
Sunset District.

The foggy, family-friendly Sunset is a haven for pot farming. It turns
out that the Sunset has it all: ocean breezes to blow away the aroma
of ripe buds, lots of rental homes that can be gutted and converted to
indoor farms, and hardworking residents who come home and mind their
own business.

And most residents have no idea they are living next to a potentially
combustible growth site until the cops arrive.

"We have people saying, 'I couldn't believe that my neighbor's
generator is running all night,' " Biggs said. "Or they say, 'It
smells like a skunk crawled under my house.' "

That's no skunk; it is the sweet smell of a wildly profitable and
unregulated cash industry. And it is getting more profitable and less
regulated all the time.

The frustrated police wish the city was more aggressive in prosecuting
marijuana offenses. But let's be honest. That won't happen in San Francisco.

A better idea is to tap into the prevailing feeling around the Bay
Area to find a way for the city to regulate and profit from the crop.
Oakland's measure to tax pot dispensaries is a start, but we should go
further.

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, who represents San Francisco, has been
ridiculed for his measure, AB390, which would license, regulate and
tax marijuana cultivation and sales.

"One of the main goals is really take a strong role in making sure
that any grow operation is licensed and follows all the rules and
regulations," said Ammiano's communications director Quintin Mecke.

No matter where you stand on the legalization of pot, there is no
denying regulations - especially for growing - are needed for
neighborhoods like the Sunset. In the past six months, Biggs and
Oshita's team has busted 16 grow houses in the Sunset, each containing
200-250 plants, including one Tuesday.

The growers shrug off arrests, even if they are caught green-handed.
Prosecution for marijuana growing isn't a high priority.

These grow houses will continue to flourish without intervention and,
by doing so, they are endangering the lives and property of Sunset
residents.

Once big-time growers rent homes, they mask the smell of their product
by building sophisticated charcoal filtering systems and an elaborate
network of vents, essentially "destroying the house," Biggs said.

They also install lights that promote hydroponic growth, put tarp over
the windows and tie everything into electronic timers. The problem is
that lights, fans and timers take an enormous amount of power that
would cost up to $3,000 a month, and Oshita estimates that the average
Sunset home's utility bill is between $100 and $200 a month.

To avoid those charges, and suspicions from PG&E, some growers tie
into the main power line before it reaches the meter, and these
jury-rigged connections are hardly built to code.

"The potential for electrical malfunction is huge," said Capt. Paul
Chignell of the Taraval Station.

But it is worth the risk. Oshita estimates it costs between $2,500 and
$5,000 to set up a grow house and says, "You can make that back in the
first harvest."

Oshita says one of their latest arrests was a real estate agent with
an exclusive black American Express card. He told them he needed extra
money for gambling.

In fact, it seems as if everyone is making money from the cash crop -
except the city.

That ought to change.