Porterville Recorder, 24 Jul 2012 – When law enforcement announces the finding of an illegal marijuana garden on forest land what usually gets the attention of people is the dollar amount of the plants cut down. However, what should be getting attention is the environmental damage done by these illegal growers, and the health damage they may be causing by the chemicals they are using on plants that could eventually end up being inhaled by a marijuana user.

Porterville Recorder, 23 Jul 2012 – Law Enforcement Anticipating Double Number of Illicit Gardens Last week’s bust of several illegal marijuana gardens on public land in the hills of Tulare County clearly demonstrates the battle to curtail the illicit gardens is just beginning. Capt. Mike Boudreaux of the Tulare County Sheriff’s Department said he expects to see double the number of illegal gardens in the foothills and mountains and a tri-fold increase in the number of gardens on the Valley floor over last year.

Record Searchlight, 25 Jul 2012 – Reading your story of Deputy Mark Potts, and the suppression of his First Amendment rights by Trinity County, I was shocked and amazed by the actions of his superiors. His thoughtful constitutional interpretations on firearms, drugs, and county sheriff’s jurisdiction should be welcome in a free country such as this. I’d hope that he wins declaratory and injunctive relief, as well as punitive damages from Trinity County. Trinity needs a sting to make the message real.

Record Searchlight, 22 Jul 2012 – DUNSMUIR – Voters here will decide in December whether the city’s medical marijuana growing rules should be loosened. The City Council on Thursday night approved placing a measure on the November ballot to relax some restrictions on growing medical marijuana in city limits, City Manager Brenda Bains said Friday. Petitions were circulated by Leslie Wilde, owner of Dunsmuir’s sole dispensary.

Sacramento Bee, 21 Jul 2012 – Re "Wildlands caught in drug war crossfire" (Editorials, July 18): Your editorial rightly noted that there can be human costs to the pesticides used in illegal pot grows, in addition to the disasters befalling wildlife like the Pacific fishers. When vulnerable patients use medical cannabis as part of their treatments, they can be exposed to and endangered by the same harsh pesticides used by growers against animals. It is yet another reason for California to enact effective regulations to make control the production and distribution of the medical cannabis approved by voters more than a decade ago. Wildlife and medical patients both deserve to be protected from criminal growing operations, and I will continue to promote legislation that will help make them safe.

Chico Enterprise-Record, 21 Jul 2012 – Regarding Tuesday’s story headlined "Police: Marijuana motive for most home-invasion robberies": Early in the last century, home invasion robberies of this sort started. Thirteen years later they stopped, along with the concomitant exploding neighborhood stills and drunk waterfowl along the Pacific flyway.

Record Searchlight, 21 Jul 2012 – Nothing keeps citizens on their toes like robust debates about the issues of the day – from the weeds in the lawn in front of the neighborhood school to the fate of the revolution in Syria. You know, the debates held on this very page and in other American newspapers every day. And nothing grounds those debates in reality so much as the well-informed views of those in the trenches: What’s your doctor’s take on the health care law? What does the business owner think of the state’s labor regulations? How would the police sergeant clean up that crime-ridden park?

San Francisco Chronicle, 21 Jul 2012 – Instead of just talking about how sorry it is about the movie theater shooting in Colorado, how about if the Obama administration does something about it? Instead of wasting the Department of Justice’s limited resources going after the medical marijuana industry in states that allow it, how about they go after the illegal guns that overrun our country? The same day the feds raided Oaksterdam University, college students were being mowed down about 10 miles to the south. Now U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag is trying to close Harborside Health Clinic in Oakland.

The Press Democrat, 21 Jul 2012 – Enforcing a disputed 10-day old emergency ordinance, Lake County authorities arrested two Santa Rosa men Thursday and warned marijuana growers at three other properties they had 48 hours to dispose of excess pot plants. The day-long enforcement operation resulted in the seizure of 399 plants, most of them from a St. Helena Creek Road property near Middletown. Two Santa Rosa men encamped in a trailer had an elaborate grow of 303 plants they claimed were for Southern California medical marijuana co-ops and for themselves, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said.

The Trinity Journal, 18 Jul 2012 – Trinity County Deputy Mark Potts has sued Sheriff Bruce Haney, the Sheriff’s Department and Trinity County, saying his free speech rights were violated when he was officially reprimanded for writing letters to the editor of The Trinity Journal. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Sacramento.