VALLEY WAR ON DRUGS LOSING A KEY ALLY

A state agency that plays a major role in fighting the state's drug
war has fallen victim to the state's budget ax, and local officials
are fretting because it oversees a highly successful
marijuana-eradication effort.

Even worse, the move comes as local marijuana growing operations are
booming, law enforcement officials say. Growers are becoming more
brazen, popping up in Fresno backyards -- sometimes taking up several
adjacent houses in the same neighborhood -- and next to high-value
farmland on the Valley floor.

Valley law enforcement leans heavily on the California Bureau of
Narcotics Enforcement, said Bill Ruzzamenti, executive director of the
Central Valley High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force.
"Nobody does it better; nobody does more than BNE," Ruzzamenti said.

The bureau also oversees the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting --
better known as CAMP. Created in 1983, CAMP is composed of local,
state and federal law-enforcement officers.

The bureau is ramping down, although a state official says there still
is hope for a reprieve. But if it goes, "it would be a fatal blow to
CAMP," Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims said.

She said the county uses the agency "to supplement our local efforts.
It would be very difficult to move forward without them, both with
criminal investigations and boots on the ground."

Ruzzamenti said bureau agents "have decades-old experience in crime,
in spotting marijuana and going out and eradicating it."

The bureau contributes hundreds of hours of helicopter time in the
battle against marijuana cultivation and also provides teams that do
the hard physical labor involved in taking out the pot grows.

Local sheriff's departments don't have the manpower that the Bureau of
Narcotics Enforcement provides, and don't have the budget to put that
many helicopters in the air, Ruzzamenti said.

"The problem is so damn big and it rests on the shoulders of local law
enforcement -- and it is more than most can deal with," he said.

Budget casualty

The Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement is part of the California
Department of Justice. To help balance the state budget, Gov. Jerry
Brown cut $71 million from the DOJ over the next two fiscal years.
That money paid for the DOJ's law enforcement arm -- the Bureau of
Narcotics Enforcement along with the Bureau of Investigations and
Intelligence.

Lynda Gledhill, a spokeswoman for state Attorney General Kamala
Harris, said the office is winding down the operations of the two bureaus.

At the same time, she said, Harris is in "talks with the [Brown]
administration in the hope that something can be done to save some of
these programs."

Said Gledhill: "We're not past the point of no return."

One effort to find funding, however, already has failed. A proposed
bill in the state Assembly would have increased the annual vehicle
license fee by 0.15% of the market value of the vehicle. The bill
would have required $35 million annually be transferred the Bureau of
Narcotics Enforcement and Bureau of Investigation and Intelligence
Fund.

Brown's office did not return phone calls and an email seeking
comment.

Now fearing the worst, law enforcement officials are panicking at the
looming loss of both the Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement and CAMP.

Farmers have concerns

Valley farmers and ranchers, who are increasingly finding themselves
next to a newly created marijuana growing operation, also are worried.

"A lot of us in agriculture are becoming concerned about the pot farms
and their proliferation throughout the agriculture areas in Fresno
County," Selma farmer Carol Chandler said. "I just hope it doesn't
escalate into violence as farmers try to farm around these pot farms."

Manuel Cunha Jr. said a local farmer recently was confronted by a
marijuana grower who accused the farmer's workers of stealing pot
plants. The farmer denied the charge, and felt threatened by the
accusation. "The threat is real," said Cunha, who is president of the
Fresno-based Nisei Farmers League.

Ruzzamenti estimates that 2 million marijuana plants are growing on
the Valley floor this year. He said he flew the area a few weeks ago,
and the crop looks like corn -- with row after row of neatly tended
marijuana grows.

Without the Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement and CAMP, the battle to
enforce marijuana laws will be that much harder, Ruzzamenti said.
"It's overwhelming," he said. "That's just the bottom line. The
problem is overwhelming."