TOUGHER DRUG LAWS CONSIDERED

Tulare County Board of Supervisors Asked to Back Rep. Nunes' Bill
Affecting Federal Land

Tulare County supervisors may vote Tuesday to support a bill by Rep.
Devin Nunes that would toughen penalties for drug offenses on federal
land and require a national strategy to fight drug activity on those
lands.

"The Tulare County Sheriff's Department expends more than $450,000
each year on illegal drug eradication efforts on federal land. This
legislation ... could reduce the need for law enforcement activity on
federal land," states a report to the supervisors summarizing the
possible benefits of the bill for the county.

House Resolution 5645, the Federal Lands Counterdrug Strategy and
Enforcement Enhancement Act, was introduced June 30 by Nunes, D-Visalia.

"Eighty-three percent of all plants eradicated from U.S. forests
between 2004 and 2008 were removed from national forests in
California. Sadly, Tulare County recorded three consecutive seasons in
which the number of marijuana plants seized exceeded $1 billion,"
Nunes wrote earlier this month in his online blog.

On Friday, county narcotics deputies helped the Forest Service
confiscate about 20,000 plants from an illegal grow operation in an
undisclosed northeast Tulare County location.

Last year, the department helped eradicate more than 221,500 marijuana
plants.

"This year in Tulare County, we've confiscated upwards of 200,000,"
each with an estimated street value of about $4,000," said Lt. Marsh
Carter, head of the Sheriff's Department's narcotics unit.

About 80 percent of those plants were found in Sequoia National
Forest, while the rest were largely in Sequoia National Park, Bureau
of Land Management and private land in the Sierra foothills, Carter
said.

And the number of seized marijuana plants will likely get considerably
higher, he added, because new varieties of marijuana combined with
mild weather earlier this year could push the end of the illegal
growers' harvest season beyond the usual September period to October
or November.

Carter said authorities occasionally also uncover methamphetamine labs
in the local foothills, and other law enforcement agencies in
California have found meth and PCP labs on remote public lands.

"I find this situation utterly unacceptable. We cannot meaningfully
address drug trafficking on public lands without a comprehensive
strategy," Nunes wrote.

If the bill becomes law, it would require the director of the Office
of National Drug Control Policy to develop a "Federal Lands
Counterdrug Strategy" -- to be updated every two years -- that would
include:

# Setting a government strategy for preventing the production and
trafficking of illegal drugs on federal lands. That would have to
include a focus on fighting marijuana cultivation on those lands.

# Specify the roles and responsibilities of agencies involved in drug
enforcement on the lands, including the National Drug Control Program
agencies, U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service and Bureau of
Land Management.

# Identify the resources needed by those agencies to implement the
strategy.

# Examine how technology can be used to fight illegal drug operations,
including the use of herbicides on marijuana growing.

Nunes' bill also calls for enhancing penalties for some drug offenses
on federal lands that include:

# Increasing from five to 10 years the maximum prison term for anyone
convicted of cultivating a controlled substance on federal land.

# Possession of a gun in connection with a drug offense on federal
land would be an "aggravating factor" meriting an enhanced sentence,
the length of which isn't specified in the bill.

Andrew House, Nunes' chief of staff, said a national strategy to fight
drug activity on federal land has been needed for years.

Carter said he hadn't read the legislation, but said: "We support any
and all efforts that involve enhancing sentencing and
sentencing-related guidelines" for drug activities on federal land.

"This legislation, through its study and increased penalties, could
reduce the need for law enforcement activity on federal land," the
staff report to the supervisors states.

But even if the bill gets support in Congress, it's not likely to be
voted on this year considering all the legislation that members still
need to address this year, House said.

"The intention in this bill is to build an awareness for it, build
support for it" this year and build a contingent of Congress members
to back it, House said, adding that next year, Nunes would work to get
it reviewed and put up for a vote.

Also on the agenda

In other matters Tuesday, supervisors are expected to hold a public
hearing on the county's uses of Community Development Block grants.
The California Department of Housing and Community Development
requires the annual public hearings to review the performance reports.

The more than $2.8 million in grants being reviews
include:

# $546,250 to improve Tooleville Water Systems, fund lateral water
connections for 155 homes served by the Plainview Mutual Water Co. and
drill a test well in Richgrove.

# $35,000 to conduct a housing conditions survey for all of
unincorporated Tulare County.

They're also expected to approve an agreement with the state
Department of Food and Agriculture to reimburse the county
Agricultural Commissioner's Office $154,217 for work to trap and
identify insects that could be harmful to agriculture operations.
About $26,000 of the county's costs would not be covered.