MARIJUANA INDUSTRY BLAMED FOR JUMP IN KILLINGS, ROBBERIES

The illegal marijuana industry brings with it an increase in crime,
including homicides, home invasion robberies and theft.

"If we average five homicides, four will be marijuana-related," said
Sgt. Wayne Hanson, who oversees Humboldt County's anti-marijuana
program. "People are killing people because it's the same price as gold."

The high price has attracted both Mexican drug cartels and Asian
gangs to the North Coast, said CAMP Commander Michael Johnson.

People aren't the only ones harmed by the illegal pot industry. In
public and private forests, pot growers destroy habitat, shoot
wildlife, contaminate water and soil with rat poison and pesticides
and leave behind piles of garbage when they leave, said Phebe Brown,
spokeswoman for the Mendocino National Forest.

Statewide, 5,731 acres of national forest were directly affected by
marijuana production last year, with the Mendocino National Forest
suffering about a third of that damage.

Marijuana cultivation also prevents hikers and hunters from enjoying
public lands because of the risk of stumbling onto a garden and its
armed caretakers, she said.

The gardens also attract thieves.

Last year, two men suspected of being marijuana thieves were shot and
killed near several pot gardens on public and tribal lands in Covelo.

Marijuana also is blamed for a host of social problems, according to
law enforcement.

Statistics back up those observations. In Lake County, about a third
of the people in the county's alcohol and other drug services program
cite marijuana as a problem drug for them, administrator Laura Solis
said. Alcohol is the most often cited problem, she said.

Bob Nishiyama, head of the Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force, said
he's seen families torn apart because the parents get stoned, lose
their jobs and neglect their children.

High prices and greed would continue to fuel illegal pot gardens and
the violence surrounding them unless pot was legalized worldwide, he said.

Mendocino County already attracts marijuana trafficking because it
has a reputation for being tolerant, he noted.