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One consequence -- end of hippie era of pot growing

Robert Collier sfgate.com

San Francisco, CA Mar 22, 2007 -- The controversy over medical marijuana is obscuring a related trend, say federal and state anti-drug officials -- the end of California's hippie pot-growing era.

"Of the big gardens, 95 percent of the major grows are by Mexican nationals, while before, they were run by hippies," said Bill Ruzzamenti, director of the federal government's Central Valley High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area initiative.

Most of these growers use undocumented immigrant workers to grow the pot on large plantations hacked out of the wilderness on state and federal park and forest land, clearing the brush surreptitiously and using harsh chemicals that pollute water supplies, the officials say.

"Over the last five years, there has been a huge influx of Mexican nationals who grow on public lands," said Kent Shaw, associate chief of the state's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement. "The majority of those, 80 to 90 percent, are actual gardens operated by Mexican national drug lord organizations, no doubt, the drug cartels."

The worry of involvement by Mexico's ultra-violent drug cartels has gained a lot of public attention, but some officials suggest that the intelligence information is too weak for such claims.

"Whether or not the major Mexican trafficking organizations are involved in cultivation up here is something we just can't say," said Javier Pena, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Northern California division.

Most observers say the Mexican-grown pot goes almost exclusively to the recreational marijuana business and has not yet affected the medical marijuana industry, which sources its pot mainly from old-style growers.

"We buy from people we know, people who are vouched for," said Richard Lee, owner of SR-71, a medical marijuana store in Oakland.