Deputies bust three Bonny Doon pot grows - Santa Cruz Sentinel

Sheriff's deputies found nearly 1,200 pot plants and arrested two men suspected of cultivating and selling marijuana Thursday at three indoor grows discovered in June during the Martin Fire.

[RobtA]

Considering how few houses were involved in the fire, finding pot at 3 locations is a rather high percentage, isn't it? Wouldn't surprise me if it's the main Dooner activity. Watch out, the folks in Zayante are jealous!

[Hempfully]

RobtA wrote:

Considering how few houses were involved in the fire, finding pot at 3 locations is a rather high percentage, isn't it? Wouldn't surprise me if it's the main Dooner activity. Watch out, the folks in Zayante are jealous!

Good !! I'm glad they were busted, less potheads around here.

[West Side Dave]

Once again the Senile fails to report how much it cost us tax payers to have the cops hiking around in the woods chopping up plants instead of solving real crimes.

[lets pee ourselves too]

how is that not this counties biggest cash crop?

and why bust them who were they hurting. buying food paying bills,getting local goods from around the area. thanks for robbing the city of bonny doon from all that money.

[LEAP]

Drug Abuse is Bad...The Drug War is Worse! Enforcement of marijuana prohibition is a huge waste of money & one of the worst social policies since slavery. This Drug War money ($69 billion/yr) would be much better spent arresting violent criminals, child molesters & drunk drivers...truly dangerous people.
Cops say legalize drugs, ask us why.
LAW ENFORCEMENT AGAINST PROHIBITION
www.askleap.org

[dansk]

if you growers would just quit looking like potheads then you might have better kharma.

[Pamparius]

I think what irritates me most about pot peddlers with a million dollars in stash, is they aren't paying their taxes on that! Why should I when I earn my money legally? I don't think pot is THAT big of a deal, but its the principle. You sit around getting high and usurp the system, while the rest of us pull our weight, sober.

[Waistdeep IN BS]

It's the Mexican Cartels that really need targeting, not a small time local bust. A waste of resources.

Mexican cartels running pot farms in U.S. national forest
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/08/08/pot.eradi...

[LEAP]

Today's Drug War policies fund terrorists, undermine justice and destory people's lives.

It's not the grower's fault that the government doesn't decide to change things. If cannabis prohibition were repealed, the government could regulate & tax it.

After all of my years as a cop, I still don't understand all the fuss about this plant. Nobody has ever died from it's use. Alcohol, tobacco and pharmacuitical drugs are much more dangerous. Nobody is suggesting that we criminalize the use of those substances. Prohibition failed once...now it is failing us again.

LAW ENFORCEMENT AGAINST PROHIBITION
www.askleap.org

[Schwinn]

Hempfully wrote:

<quoted text>
Good !! I'm glad they were busted, less potheads around here.

What a bummer it must be to live your life Mr. Bitter.

[Slim Shady]

Go to www.hempfest.org I"ll be there Aug 16/17 Myrtle Edwards Park. You would like me there.

[Da Buffalo Amongst Wolves]

Pamparius wrote:

I think what irritates me most about pot peddlers with a million dollars in stash,

I mean the LEAST they could do is co-op a bail fund or something sensible for the trade.

[Slim Shady]

Is Tina Nulph still single?

[I for one]

support our law enforcement officers in going after this stuff.

If you want weed, get a permit, grow your couple of plants, and do things legally... these guys, whether santa cruz natives or mexican cartels are not doing anyone any favors but themselves, and they deserve what they have coming.

[Willey]

small time operator....hmmmmm

bought a couple of houses and likely didn't file
a Schedule D on his capital gain from the sale
of his "product".....doesn' t seem fair to me

[Ryan]

West Side Dave wrote:

Once again the Senile fails to report how much it cost us tax payers to have the cops hiking around in the woods chopping up plants instead of solving real crimes.

It costs nothing. Asset forfeiture.

[LEAP]

Drug Abuse is Bad...The Drug War is Worse!

The membership of LEAP believe that to save lives & lower the rates of crime, violence and addiction, as well as conserve tax dollars, we must end drug prohibition.

A system of regulation & control is far more ethical and effective than one of prohibition.

LAW ENFORCEMENT AGAINST PROHIBITION
Criminal Justice Professionals Speaking Out Against the War on Drugs
www.askleap.org

[SCHS]

Slim Shady wrote:

Is Tina Nulph still single?

Did you go to SCHS, and grad sometime between 1976 and 1979 or so?

[realist]

Do these em effs pay taxes? If the don't, isn't that a crime too? How about using the feds to come in and deal with these people. They belong in prison. In the meantime, good job to the cops.

I hope they take all the proceeds and the properties from this man. That's the price of being a crook.

Also, those stores that sell the lights...how about the rico act on them?

[Drug War is a Failure]

The "War On Drugs" is a failure. It costs us billions, destroys countless lives and families, and to top it off... it doesn't even work!
As a society, we would be much better off if we regulated and taxed these substances. We could make money from taxes instead of wasting it on pointless drug raids. We could substantially reduce the prison population (and save even more money). For people who choose to use these substances, they (and we) could be certain of the quantity and quality, at a reasonable price. And so on...
OK, so that's how I think things "should" be. But here's an honest question about the way things currently "are" here in the Santa Cruz-area:
Assuming that we all agree that "selling heroin to teenagers" is worse than "growing marijuana"...
Why are law enforcement officers spending their time (and our money) raiding pot houses in the hills, while at the same time, on any given day, you can casually witness organized groups of men along lower Pacific Avenue, working in teams, selling hard drugs to anybody with the cash? I've watched them engage in these activities for long stretches of time. And not just at night, either... I'm talking about a sunny Saturday afternoon. These guys are NOT very subtle. And yet, somehow, the cops never seem to notice... just drive on by.
What's up with that?