DRUG CZAR: FEDS WON'T SUPPORT LEGALIZED POT

The federal government is not going to pull back on its efforts to
curtail marijuana farming operations, Gil Kerlikowske, director of the
White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, said Wednesday
in Fresno.

The nation's drug czar, who viewed a foothill marijuana farm on U.S.
Forest Service land with state and local officials earlier Wednesday,
said the federal government will not support legalizing marijuana.

"Legalization is not in the president's vocabulary, and it's not in
mine," he said.

Kerlikowske said he can understand why legislators are talking about
taxing marijuana cultivation to help cash-strapped government agencies
in California. But the federal government views marijuana as a harmful
and addictive drug, he said.

"Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit," Kerlikowske
said in downtown Fresno while discussing Operation SOS -- Save Our
Sierra -- a multiagency effort to eradicate marijuana in eastern
Fresno County.

Marijuana plants valued at more than $1.26 billion have been
confiscated and 82 people arrested over the past 10 days in Fresno
County. The operation started last week and is continuing.

By comparison, Tulare County's leading commodity -- milk -- was valued
at about $1.8 billion in 2008.

Officials say the marijuana-eradication operation will cost hundreds
of thousands of dollars, but the exact amount won't be known until
agencies can add up staffing, vehicle and other costs.

In Operation SOS, more than 314,000 plants were uprooted in 70 gardens
-- numbers expected to rise as the enforcement action continues.
Agents also seized $41,000 in cash, 26 firearms and three vehicles.

Planning for the operation began in February and focused on marijuana
crops being backed by Mexican drug cartels, Fresno County Sheriff
Margaret Mims said.

Mims said many cartels are involved, but she would not name any
because the investigation is still under way. All but one person
arrested was from Mexico, officials said.

One hundred growers may still be on the loose, said Fresno County
sheriff's Lt. Rick Ko. Many may have gotten rides out of the area, but
some could still be in the Sierra, Ko said.

Last year, Fresno County deputies seized 188,000 marijuana
plants.

In just one week, nearly twice as many plants were seized, Mims said,
"so you can imagine how many we were missing."

Statewide, more than 5.3 million plants were seized in 2008, or two of
every three confiscated in the United States, said Bill Ruzzamenti,
director of the Central Valley High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.

"The amount of drugs out there scares most of us," he
said.

Volunteers are going into the gardens to clean up trash, dead animals
and pesticides to return the land as close to its original condition
as possible. But it could take years for the land to recover, because
little can be done once fertilizers and pesticides seep into the
ground or stream beds.

"For every acre of marijuana grown, 10 acres are damaged," said George
Anderson with the California Department of Justice.