MORE POT MEANS MORE LAW OFFICERS IN CALIFORNIA'S NATIONAL FORESTS

Bucking the national trend of shrinking forest staff, the U.S. Forest
Service is doubling the number of law enforcement officers in the
state as part of an effort to uproot illicit marijuana growing operations.

By May, there should be 160 law enforcement officers, patrol captains
and special agents working the 18 national forests in California, said
Ron Pugh, special agent in charge of the Forest Service's Pacific
Southwest region, which encompasses all of the state.

Although he said the increase in workers -- which will cost $6 million
- -- should help, Pugh said the Forest Service could use more in
tackling the "daunting task" of stopping those behind marijuana plantings.

"A hundred and sixty is about a third of what we should have," he
said.

The 2.1-million-acre Shasta-Trinity National Forest, the state's
largest, is set to get four to six new law enforcement officers, said
Mike Odle, forest spokesman. The forest has seven officers on staff
now and is already advertising for the openings, he said.

"We are hoping to get them on the ground for the 2008 marijuana
growing season," Odle said.

The influx of law enforcement officers is just one part of a 10-point
plan aimed at stopping marijuana cultivation on the national forests
announced late last week by Mark Rey, undersecretary for the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service.

Even with the increased staff and other strategies, the Forest Service
will be hard-pressed to stop those planting marijuana gardens in the
state, said Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project,
a Washington, D.C.-based group advocating for marijuana
legalization.

"This is a war they can't ever win, but they can keep a lot of people
employed fighting it," Mirken said.

By busting more gardens and groups funding the gardens, the Forest
Service will drive the price of marijuana up, he said, giving more
incentive for others to grow.

Other points in the Forest Service's plan include working closer with
local, state and other federal agencies;

clearing out trash and chemicals left behind by growers to minimize
environmental impacts; and trying to arrest people atop the
organizations behind the gardens. Officials describe these groups as
drug trafficking organizations, or DTOs, and say most of those either
are based in or started in Mexico.

When clearing out the gardens, which sometimes number in the tens of
thousands of plants, officers have found herbicides and pesticides
that are banned in the U.S. but sold in Mexico, said Matt Mathes,
regional spokesman for the Forest Service. Growers arrested in gardens
also have said their bosses had connections to organized crime across
the border.

"Everything leads us to know that the origins of this are in Mexico,"
he said.

Pugh said there are three families in particular that have roots in
Mexico and are thought to be behind many of the gardens.

"This situation can accurately be described in California as the
widespread illegal occupation of our national forests by armed foreign
nationals for the purpose of conducting criminal activity," Pugh wrote
in the plan.

[sidebar]

POT PLAN

The U.S. Forest Service has developed a 10-point plan aimed at
stopping illegal marijuana gardens on its lands in the state.

1. Reorganized law enforcement structure.

2. Investigation group focused on gardens.

3. Increased staffing.

4. More cooperation with other agencies.

5. Identifying priority investigations.

6. Improved intelligence gathering.

7. Improved education.

8. Modified tactical strategies.

9. Restoring lands.

10. Aim to reduce the number of gardens.