Washington Post, 31 Dec 2012 – U.S. Crackdown On Growers Fails To Lead To Big Players Weldon, calif. – A few minutes after 4 a.m., agents in camouflage cluster in a dusty field in Kern County, Calif. "Movement needs to be slow, deliberate and quiet," the team leader whispers. "Lock and load now."

Los Angeles Times, 29 Dec 2012 – Re "Pot farms take dirty toll," Dec. 23 Some years back I purchased a copy of biologist George Wuerthner’s guide "California’s Wilderness Areas: Mountains and coastal ranges." As a Southern California native, I was not familiar with geographic locales outside my immediate area, so reading the volume and looking at the beautiful color photos instilled an incredible sense of fascination with California’s far north and its incredibly rich biodiversity and unspoiled splendor. It made me realize that pristine areas of the state, untouched by humans, still exist.

The Ukiah Daily Journal, 27 Dec 2012 – To the Editor: When Mendocino County sends a letter to the Federal Government demanding full legalization of marijuana, the Board of Supervisors should be the first to hand over the keys to our nation to the power of the Mexican Drug Cartels. Instead of waving the white flag of surrender on the supply side of the drug wars, like the BOS is suggesting, I would suggest an attack on the demand side of drug use.

Sacramento News & Review, 27 Dec 2012 – Hey, it’s the end of the year. You wanna do a recap of the highs and lows? A top 10 list? – -Softball Sammie You got it, Sammie. But 10 seems like a lot of work. How about a few top three lists? Let’s start with the lows:

Porterville Recorder, 27 Dec 2012 – More than 200,000 marijuana plants were confiscated and destroyed by local law enforcement this year in Tulare County, an astounding figure, but one that shows the effort to eradicate the illicit growing of the popular weed will not end soon. Those in law enforcement will tell you that they are only making a small dent in the growing of marijuana locally. While we agree that may be true, it did seem this summer that some progress was made to discourage the illegal growing of marijuana in the county.

DrugSense

Los Angeles Times, 26 Dec 2012 – Investigators Find It Difficult to Trace Marijuana Growth on National Forest Land to Mexican Cartels. WELDON, Calif. – A few minutes after 4 a.m., agents in camouflage cluster in a dusty field in Kern County. "Movement needs to be slow, deliberate and quiet," the team leader whispers. "Lock and load now."

Appeal-Democrat, 23 Dec 2012 – Let’s do some math. In the 1970s, people smoked marijuana with a THC content of 1-2 percent. With today’s growing process, the THC content is easily between 8-10 percent, or roughly 10 times stronger.

Los Angeles Times, 23 Dec 2012 – POT FARMS TAKE DIRTY TOLL State’s Medical Marijuana Boom Is Wreaking Havoc on Some Fragile Habitats. EUREKA, Calif. – State scientists, grappling with an explosion of marijuana growing on the North Coast, recently studied aerial imagery of a small tributary of the Eel River, spawning grounds for endangered coho salmon and other threatened fish.

Willits News, 22 Dec 2012 – A tersely worded press release signed by Mendocino County Counsel Thomas Parker advised the county had filed a motion on December 21 to quash the federal grand jury subpoenas. "The motion is based on the grounds that the scope of the subpoenas is overbroad and burdensone, oppressive and constitutes an improper intrusion into the ability of state and local government to administer programs for the health and welfare of their residents.