Marijuana War Bitter in California Fund Cuts Bring Call for CDBG
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24 - THE HERALD, Tues., March 3. 1981 Marijuana war bitter in California WILLITS, Calif. (UPI) - Califor 10 years ago, said, "The commercial nia's divisive, expensive and es growers are a small group. On the calating offensive against its other hand, just about everybody un marijuana growers often is com der 35 grows a little pot. They’re not Fund cuts pared aptly to the Vietnam War. going to be able to stop it. There’s a • The rhetoric and tactics of both tradition here of people doing what sides recalls the bitterness of the they want (o do. Is this America or is mid-1960s when the Indochina con it Nazi Germany? flict polaraized the nation into ha^ks “This used to be such a beautiful and doves. place,” he continued. “Growers are bring call Professing to see light at the end of just people who are trying the the tunnel, law enforcement officers American way of getting ahead.” .and narcotics agents call for more He does not like the crackdown on Serving The Greater Manchester Area For 100 Yean money and manpower to wipe out one Herald the growers, which the agents named of California's biggest cash crops, es 1^0 Operation Sensemilla, the Spanish Manchester, Conn. Wednesday, March 4, 1981 25 Cents timated by some to be worth $1 word for the seedless marijuana billion. grown in the region. Tbe self-styled '‘guerrilla for CDBG “It gets weird in the summer,” he farmers " contend the war against said. “Helicopters flying all around. them cannot be won. n Some people blame the growers for By MARY KITZMANN Relulcd story o n pap;*- (>. As in Vietnam, front lines are dif that. People don’t like to sacrifice to Herald Reporter ficult to pinpoint, but in the forested buy land and then find themselves in hills of Mendocino County the com >k - , MANCHESTER — Rejoining the could lose about $28 million in federal a war. They just don’t think growing Community Development program mercial growing of marijuana is aid. To the gasps of the last night s marijuana is wrong. You’d have a ■)} and abandoning plans for the sewage rampant audience at the Senior Citizen revolution if you tried to bust all the m treatment plant are possibilities Center. Cassano outlined the effects It also is risky Local, state and backyard growers in Berkeley.” federal officers, employ planes, i raised by President Ronald Reagan's On Manchester helicopters and raiding squads in an sweeping budget cuts, Deputy Mayor Foremost is the loss of about $10 effort to halt the cultivation of Stephen Cassano said Monday night million slated lor the sewage treat Not usual store Cassano. returning from the ment plant expansion marijuana plants that grow 12 feet I high and produce some of the world's John Leech, is manager of a store Congressional-City Conference in Alsojn danger of losing funds is the m . ' Washington DC., elaborated this most potent pot in Willits calM Real G ^ s , which is revitalization of the Cheney District, morning that the Housing Assistance Bert, 36, blond and bearded, is a not at all like the usual country one of the town s areas with the mo.st Plan may be eliminated from the CD grower whose name is not really hardware store. As well as farm potential to ease its housing shor program, while the program Bert supplies, it also stocks a fairly expen tage. He owns 40 acres of remote land in sive line of casual clothes and books becomes more like revenue sharing. The district, to be a mixture of the foothills of the Coast Range not on how to grow marijuana. The towns would receive the money, shops, businesses, and housing, could far from Willits, a bustling town 140 Leech, who said he came to Willits but would be under no conditions on provide hundreds of apartments The miles north of San Francisco on U S to get away from the stress of a city how to spend it, Cassano said. zoning for the district is under con 4 sideration 101, otherwise known as the Redwood job, describes the changes in Willits The elimination of the Housing *'V I * Assistance Plan, and allowing more Highway as part of “the back-to-the-land Big cuts in education, the elimina "This is a cottage industry," said movement.” local autonomy would remove the tion of programs such as bilingual Bert, who majored in journalism in As for marijuana, he said, “I don’t objections of a local citizen group education, and grants for special college before turning to pottery Use it. I don’t grow it. Some people that led the movement to leave CD, education, are expected; Cassano "fi- making and then to growing w. I • ’ around here grow it just to have a lit- Cassano noted. said. marijuana. "tle cash income.” “Nothing would force us back intc The elderly and low-in come California's divisive, expensive and escalating offensive commercial growing of marijuana is rampant. Authorities the program," he said. "But if the residents will also suffer reductions "I grew 30 plants last year, " he Leech scoffs at the notion Real i r f ' said. "They yielded an average of against its marijuana growers often is compared aptly with use planes, helicopters and raiding squads (shown in file Goods has flourished because ': h - program would function similar to in federal programs. The Section 8 three quarters of a pound each. " the Vietnam War. As in Vietnam, front lines are difficult to photograph) in an effort to halt the cultivation. (UPI photo) growers flock there for their revenue sharing 1 don't think the peo housing program, where ■ residents He figures that at an average of pinooint. but in the forested hills of Northern California the supplies. pie would want to lose out." pay 25 percent of their income “Not two in 10 of the growers come !r''i If the "strings " that the Concerned toward rent, with the remainder sub $2,000 a pound, his crop grossed about well covered in the local press. take a back seat. I did say we would counties were found to have commer $45,000. technology. I love to grow pot. It's an in here,” he said. “We’re not making Citizens for Manchester's Develop sidized. with be I'significantly cut' . A Willits businessman sympathetic proceed against commercial growing cial cultivation of marijuana. He said absorbing occupation." ^ big money. It’s no big deal. We gross ment objected to, and twice Cassano said to the growers cites the fact that and we have. But we’re wasting 533 separate plantings with more Heavy expenses Bert sells his seedlings to other about $400,000 a yeat.” 4 prompted voters to reject the The formulas for calculating who growers. Stewart still is alive as "proof that ridiculous amounts of time, effort than 97,000 plants were destroyed and Dave, 36, whose name is not Dave, program were dropped, Cassano is eligible (or low-income programs There were heavy expenses. He "I get $25 each for them and the people who grow pot aren't 335 persons were arrested for and money to the detriment of is a grower in Humboldt County, just suggested rejoining the program will also be revised, and probably- paid neighbors $io an hour to violent." cultivation. guarantee them to be females," he prosecuting more serious crime.” north of Mendocino. would merely take a public hearing lowered. he continued. CET.-\ will be "manicure" the plants while they In Riverside County, however, a Deukmejian said the confiscated ^said, explaining that only the female “Ten to 20 plants is a safe and a board decision. eliminated, and energy assistance were maturing to a height of 12 feet. ' deputy sheriff in a plane on a sur Pot price up pot weighed 117,000 pounds and had a plants produce the resin that gives gamble,” he said. “If you want to Without the revamping, popular funding cut 20': He spent about $600 on fertilizer and the Mendocino variety its potency. veillance mission was shot in the Allen said the crackdown has street value of $117,725,000. demand would probably force "Many will find they are no longer special soil which he packed into the grow more, you have to hike way out Bert said he had mastered the back. Other planes have been fired forced up the price of marijuana There is in California another drive another-referendum to rejoin. classified for programs or low- woods on his back. in the forest and do it on land owned technique of "sexing out" young on. “and now we see bu^laries and to legalize growing and personal But with Reagan's strong position income status." Cassano said "It's a very nice way of life, " Bert by the big timber companies. If it plants visually with the aid of a "Ninety percent of the growers robberies because the kids want it.” possession of marijuana. There is an that local communities are "over said. "It allows you to live in the gets busted, nobody gets arrested.” The annual Rex p a ^ e on Fat Tuesday is one of the highlights of Mass transportation funding will magnifying glass. we've seen have been armed but He said a better way to spend April 13 deadline to secure the regulated”, Cassano expects the woods By having a little cash crop If cultivating marijuana is made the annual Mardi Gras celebration In New Orleans and this year be eliminated altogether in five Bert, who lives in a cabin on his we've never had any gunfights with taxpayers’ money would be in per necessary signatures to put it on the Housing and Urban Development years, Cassano said But the con you can improve your property.