HAMBURG CRITICIZES OPERATION FULL COURT PRESS

Fifth District Mendocino County Supervisor Dan Hamburg on Tuesday
publicly criticized Operation Full Court Press, a multi-agency push to
oust drug cartels growing marijuana and leaving pollution on public
land in the six counties that share the Mendocino National Forest,
calling it part of the failed war on drugs.

"I think we all know that the war on drugs has failed. This is just
another aspect of that," Hamburg said, referring to the operation,
which got under way July 15. "This is not a winnable fight ... It's
going to come out somewhere else."

The issue came up when 2nd District Supervisor John McCowen called the
operation a success during the portion of the meeting reserved for
supervisor reports.

It was reported in a Friday press conference that the operation had
netted more than 100 arrests, nearly 469,000 marijuana plants, 1,520
pounds of processed marijuana, 18 grams of methamphetamine, 22 Xanax
pills, $15,981 U.S. currency, 32 weapons and 11 vehicles, and
authorities had removed more than 23 tons of trash, 22 miles of
irrigation line, 2,171 pounds of fertilizer and 57 pounds of
pesticides from grow sites.

Hamburg said he supports the operation, but said the operation
"catches the small flies," with agents arresting "the people doing the
grunt work," and not the "kingpins" who run the cartels. He also used
the opportunity to again voice his previously stated view that
marijuana should be legalized on a national level.

"When the laws get changed,

I think we can look forward to less expenditure on going after these
criminals, because for one thing, it will bring the price down,"
Hamburg said. "It's the federally supported price of marijuana that
keeps these illegal activities going. We all know that. The fact that
it's logical is almost the reason that nothing happens; we seem to
thrive on illogic in this country.

"A lot of money's going to be spent: we'll prosecute some people,
we'll collect some garbage -- which is all great -- we'll uproot a lot
of (marijuana) plants, and they'll move on to some other place where
people can profitably grow marijuana and traffic in other drugs until
we change the laws. It's that simple."

Third District Supervisor John Pinches agreed with Hamburg about the
need for a change in federal law, saying, "Legalization is the only
answer."

He said the fact that the drug is still illegal to grow and use
federally is the reason the operation is needed.

Pinches added, "The only problem, in the country, now, is there are so
many people benefiting from the laws being exactly the way they are,
and I mean everybody's benefiting: the growers, the law enforcement
overtime, and people are renting the helicopters, and it goes on and
on and on. That has to change, when it comes specifically to the
Mendocino National Forest."

He said to get to the root of the problem, he wanted to see the
Mendocino National Forest go back to "a mixed-use concept," saying,
"when we had limited value logging and grazing in our national forest,
we never had the drug cartels taking it over."

Pinches said keeping the pressure on in the forest for the operation
this year and next is a "short-term solution," and referred to
previous conversations about cutting county mental health services,
adding, "but we have million of dollars to go over there and keep the
price of pot up."