PROPOSITION 19 WON'T END POT GROWING IN OUR PARKS, OPEN SPACE

HERE IN MARIN, we think of ourselves as a mellow lot, a
live-and-let-live people. We like to wait and see, consider both sides
of the question. But while we're doing that, it seems we are easy
prey. Vandals are grabbing our open space.

Two months ago, a huge pot bust in West Marin, right in the Mount
Tamalpais foothills, was reported in this paper. The bust netted
almost 7,000 marijuana plants, occupying more than 100 acres around
Kent Lake.

It didn't get there by itself. Campsites were found all over the area.
Camouflage clothing and leftover ammunition also were found. The guns,
it would appear, fled with their owners.

The invaders also left behind the pesticides, chemicals and evidence
of stream diversion that their line of work requires.

That land grab was not unique. Just this month, a pot bust in
Brentwood hauled out 14,792 plants spread over 100 acres on three
different properties. Humboldt County has it even worse. So far, its
total removal for this year is 138,746 plants.

How did the problem get so big, so fast?

Because the problem loves secrecy. A cannabis growers' website
recommends that outdoor grows should be planted where they're not
likely to be discovered. "Pricker bushes, mud, water and steep hills
are all people deterrents," it says. "Growing near small pine trees
helps hide your plants in the fall."

Marijuana, it seems, is a thirsty plant. Lacking a pirated
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recommends "a source of fresh, clean water." In the case of Tam's pot
patch, a diverted stream.

Cannabis grows large, but only the females plants are kept; and of
those, only the buds. This crop creates waste, taps into our
watershed, harms our wildlife, and gives back what? And to whom?

Reporting on the same Marin bust, the Point Reyes Light reported,
"Officials believe as much as 80 percent of the weed grown on public
land is owned by Mexican organized crime." These cartels won't go away
if the local product goes cheap and legal; they can undercut any price
because they have no overhead on our free land and have no intention
of paying taxes.

They can also use our water and weather to produce profitable exports
to other states.

Bad as this invasion was, though, it could have been worse. In Marin,
10 law enforcement agencies -- local, state and federal -- coordinated
in a superbly organized strike against it. Marin Municipal Water
District found the grow site, and after the plants were removed, the
Air National Guard and State Department of Justice took out the weed
and hauled it away.

One argument for legalization says it will take a lot of pressure off
law enforcement all over the state, freeing them up for other things.
Susan Manheimer, president of the California Police Chiefs
Association, says it would do just the opposite. Legalization, she
wrote in a letter to another newspaper, "would mean we would be
overwhelmed by international drug cartels that use violence and guns
to protect their lucrative markets."

We can't play "nice" with Proposition 19. We need to stomp on it.
Stomp it hard.