The Humboldt Herald has received multiple reports of planned federal marijuana raids that will target the Tooby Ranch subdivision in Southern Humboldt.
Do the rumors have any teeth? Time will tell, but just like last time, people are reportedly making arrangements just in case.
Murmurs from the grapevine also suggest the feds are feeling the black eye from the relatively small net they got from Operation Southern Sweep. Last month 450 agents flooded Humboldt County and only walked away with some 16,000 plants. In contrast, Humboldt County’s own Drug Task Force makes busts that size or larger on a semi-regular basis without help from a federal army.
Medical marijuana and forfeiture law attorney Brenda Grantland opined earlier this month that Operation Southern Sweep appeared more like a fishing expedition than the result of a 2-year investigation as reported by the FBI. Perhaps the pressure’s on to put the pole back in the water. Or maybe they have worthwhile information this time.
In any case, federal agents are still here, despite the FBI’s comments to the contrary. Blogger Kim reported sightings in Eureka last week. In addition, a top Bush administration drug czar was in town last week fueling any residual paranoia from last month’s raids.
In one email to the Humboldt Herald, a reader suggested 2008 may be the year the emerald triangle curtain goes to the shredder. Humboldt’s sitting ducks will have to wait and see. Summer’s not even half-way over and more than 3 months remain until Republicans leave the White House (unless there’s some good ol’ fashion election fraud, of course).
If the rumors are true, one thing is certain — the feds really suck at keeping secrets.
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July 28, 2008 at 4:20 pm
This is a funded 2-3 year deal, they are still collecting info, and they will be doing rounds of busts. its not just one or two big busts. The recent arrival of the Deputy Drug Czar laid out the reality. The question is are they going to go for smaller ops, the pot shops, and the numerous indoor scenes. Its a long ball play, so be warned!
July 28, 2008 at 4:28 pm
You are positively giddy Heraldo and you can’t or don’t care to hide it.
July 28, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Peace be with you
Who brought all this federal attention?
love eternal
tad
July 28, 2008 at 4:34 pm
This is all part of the war on terror. The feds have been cracking down on black money over the past few years. Paypal and internet poker. Now the multimillion dollar marijuana trade. There doesn’t have to be a connection in reality. Just the possibility of a connection. Welcome to cointelpro II.
July 28, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Peace be with you
Does anyone remember this song? “That don’t bother me at all.”
love eternal
tad
July 28, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Don’t forget the rumors of all those rentals to FBI agents. They are still collecting and sorting information and they aren’t done here by a long shot.
July 28, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Well, right now the growers are really “earning” their money. Wouldn’t want to be them. When its the Feds, 215 scam offers no protection. Ed Denson can’t help.
It must be hell having to “go to the mattresses” like the Mafia clans in The Godfather. Every time they see a strange face, they’ll wonder if the handcuffs are about to come out. Also, be worried anyone who knows them will “rat them out” in exchange for leniency. The worst part is between the raid and the indictment, waiting.
Also, wouldn’t want to be a tourist taking a ride in the hills who has car trouble. Might be their last trouble.
July 28, 2008 at 9:20 pm
That old ganja weed, ancient in its uses, will be hard to do away with. It’s a weed and you know weeds. I wonder if the Feds burn it out in the open, you know, with the fire danger what it is. Will the North Coast Unified Air Quality Management District issue them a burn permit?
July 28, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Interesting, I’ve heard similar rumors but nothing I could pin down with facts.
July 28, 2008 at 10:52 pm
I feel for people who need the weed for legit reasons. Bad enough to be sick, but then to have the federales sniffing around must really suck.
For those who are growing for profit, it might be a good time to take a break.
July 28, 2008 at 10:55 pm
The big biz growers brought fed attention to the state when 215 backfired into a profiteer’s wet dream. And sorry to break this to you Tad, but Humboldt County has a reputation for marijuana. It’s a sure bet that the feds have known about Humboldt for a long, long time.
July 28, 2008 at 11:07 pm
You don’t think the feds have figured out the 4/20 code do you? Or found the YouTube videos of Humboldt pot gardens? Do the feds have the Google???
July 28, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Jumbo hipped them morans to the google tube.
July 29, 2008 at 4:02 am
Has anybody read the new issue of the New Yorker?!
The main article is on “The Medical Marijuana Economy”
Gallegos is mentioned on the first page. Locals won’t learn anything new, but it’s a very good read
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/28/080728fa_fact_samuels?yrail
July 29, 2008 at 7:05 am
ok, I know I’m speaking out of ignorance here, but what the hell is the point of allowing a state to legalize medicinal marijuana if you’re just going to raid all of the plants and farms?
July 29, 2008 at 8:18 am
Gambleer, Thanks for the link. Excellent article!
July 29, 2008 at 9:23 am
For almost two years the local utility company has been singing that growers are depleting the water and electricity supply. Their justification for raising the hook-ups to $37k and the top electricity rate to $1/kw. That complaint has gone to the county for sure and maybe the feds. Or did it come about because of the investigation and they just wanted to make a good show? They accuse anybody who comes this way of being a grower.
July 29, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Humboldt has an abundance of surplus electricity and water infrastructure that was once used by the bustling logging industry.
July 29, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Gambleer thanks for the article link. A great read!
July 29, 2008 at 7:18 pm
“peace be with you
Who brought all this federal attention?”
Those who rampantly abuse prop 215.
The feds don’t want a battle between state vs federal rights. It is a loose loose situation for them. Therefor, any pot situation that can stand behind the ACTUAL 215 wording is likely safe.
Those who succumb to greed can’t stand behind state law.
July 29, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Paving, joke or irony?
Humboldt has an abundance of stump, river silt, dog hair forests and chemical contamination infrastructure left courteously by the once bustling logging industry
July 30, 2008 at 10:32 am
The feds have plans to conduct mass raids in Arcata, Mckinleyville and up off of 299 around Redwood Creek.
July 30, 2008 at 5:38 pm
how dou you know this stuff…
10:32
July 30, 2008 at 7:59 pm
I have been seeing a lot of feds in town. I commute from eureka to blue lake for work everyday and it’s getting to where I spot them on a regular basis either in the morning or evening. These guys look new to the area to me. Definitely a recently increased presence.
July 30, 2008 at 8:31 pm
There are citizens volunteering information to the appropriate organizations as well. There are enough pissed off citizens watching the decline of formerly good neighborhoods that the Feds will have plenty of help for the next round.
July 30, 2008 at 10:06 pm
pot is not addictive, though its use can be habitual, as can be the use of chocolate, or red meat, or prozac for that matter.
using something regularly doesn’t necessarily mean that you are “addicted” to that substance, it just means you use that substance regularly.
now, using a substance in such a way that it causes negative impacts on your life or the lives of others would make you, by most definitions, an “abuser” of that substance.
but the great, great majority of pot users are not pot abusers.
and if and when the users and abusers decide to stop using pot, none of them will ever experience the kind of withdrawl symptoms associated with truly “addictive” substances, such as tobacco, alcohol, cocaine, heroin, meth, caffeine, etc.
in thousands of years of history with marijuana, no one has ever been killed by an overdose of marijuana. and, by the way, after being subjected to actual studies, the “gateway theory” that pot leads to the use of “harder drugs” has been thoroughly disproven.
so no one is being killed by marijuana.
however, people have been killed by law enforcement agents in the course of enforcing pot prohibition, and people are killed because of crimes arising from greed and the profits associated with the prohibition of marijuana.
the answer, of course, is ending prohibition, and with that, ending the dangerous police actions and crimes associated with the high profit margins that are caused by prohibition and the black market.
prohibition didn’t work for alcohol and it hasn’t worked and won’t work for pot. what did work for alcohol was legalization, regulation, education, and moderation.
the only approach to marijuana that will work over the long haul is legalization, regulation, education, and moderation.
July 31, 2008 at 4:28 pm
The federal raids are all show here, just like they are in Los Angeles. The problem is the pseudo-legalization is not a “scam” and it has not “backfired,” it is working. The response by the MPP to Burns’ comments was obligatory, just as his comments and opinions are. That is, Walters and Burns _job description_ is to disparage any information which suggests legalization of a controlled substance is a good idea. What they say doesn’t have to be truthful or backed up by any real evidence. It is the same as a defense attorney who knows his client is guilty as sin having to protect the client as it is the defense lawyer’s job. In Burns’ case the client just happens to be antiquated drug laws.
Unfortunately, the people of Humboldt aren’t used to actual police enforcement. As a result, Humboldt doesn’t hide it very well. The pathetic excuse for stealth tactics employed by the average Humboldt grow operation would make a good script for an episode of “Trailer Park Boys” at best.
July 31, 2008 at 6:29 pm
A dope trailer is no place for a kitty.
August 1, 2008 at 9:18 am
If the authorities really wanted to eradicate big ganja grows; a successful psy-ops in Humboldt could really impact the coming yields. They could save a ton of resources just by putting out a bunch of leaks crying ‘gargantua ganja grow raids certain’. But I do not think that they are that smart, or that those are the intentions. They will miss out on cash and land seizures, and someones Daddy may not get taken away from them. If the rumors are true, the Feds must really suck at keeping a secret.
And reality check; I have been suffering from the most severe marijuana abuse symptoms; I CANNOT GET HIGH!! Damm! I have a 215 for restless leg syndrome/muscle spasms. It provides me with much needed relief when I smoke, and enables me to sleep at night without taking a pill that makes me foggy and weird feeling. This is a true fact. Another true fact is that I love smoking it anyway, and the restless legs are convenient as far as keeping me safe from the law. Having that threat lifted feels wonderful, and that minor detail improves my over all health. Can it not be medicine if it tastes good and you like it?
We know it can cure debt too. I also have issues with large grows. I have my own lil small business, and am having a hard time competing with growers wives that have stores that pretend to do well. Meanwhile my business limps along needing a $$ injection. Then these same people bitch about how ‘one’ of their tenants trashed the place, and they want the transient who has suffered more knocks in life than we could imagine to just go away. Damm, I want a store!! I have a big rented house and a 215 card!? Unfortunately I have a landlord who is turned off by seeing their healing herb abused for profit over the years. I have ‘respect’ (which may or may not accompany a 215 holder, or a tenant at all for that matter) so I am forced to watch my 4 lil plants grow outside and forgo any profit(but no deceit and fun). I could go rent another place to set up my legal grow? But then I see one of our dear friends and grad-student who has a three year old, and cannot find a place to rent in Arcata. Well, it’s because JackAss has rented 5 houses and only lives in one ! But I don’t want to see your average Joe get busted who runs a couple lights in his back room to enable him to pursue his art career. And I want to point out to the KevinHoovers that all these problems associated with grow rooms are not the fault of the 215 laws. ‘Prohibition’ is the most excellent scapegoater of all time. Come On! we would not even be growing inside. Drug abuse bad, drug war worse.
And oh, back to how I abuse marijuana; and I really do. I can smoke after each meal of the day every day, but what happens is my tolerance goes through the roof and after the fifth bong load @9:00 a.m. I do not feel stoned at all (This is horrible!!lol). The herb has left me with no choice but to take a break for a couple days. If you like to get really really stoned then smoke less, like on the weekends. Abusing this stuff is just a joke. Now Coffee, there is a drug that I can abuse. But forget leaving it alone for a couple days!(I get headaches if, and just cannot go that long without). But when too much coffee leaves me stressed, jittery, twisted tummy, dehydrated, and I forgot to eat lunch symptoms; I know what will put me back on track and get me feeling better again.
August 4, 2008 at 11:36 am
Friday, August 1 the LA Times website carried a photo of someone in a Blackwater T-shirt handling a box labeled DEA at a raid in LA. Several activists noted it, and then noticed that the 7-photo picture show had dropped to 6 photos, censoring this one (found by other means): http://www.latimes.com/search/la-me-marijuana03_k4w9opnc.jpg,0,3365571.photo
Ironically, the LA raid came on the day a California appeals court upheld the state’s mmar ID card program because “The purpose of the CSA is to combat recreational drug use, not to regulate a state’s medical practices.” http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/D050333.PDF
Does anyone have evidence or testimony of the rumored Blackwater involvement in Humboldt county raids?
August 4, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Stoned straight 9:18 you said it, RESPECT the herb, it is medicine. Good idea to keep that in mind when introducing anything into our bodies, respect it for what it is and learn from that and we won’t have so many problems. Right on post!
August 4, 2008 at 1:00 pm
First of all let me say that I very occasionally smoke and I believe pot should be legal. However, in my opinion, like booze, it is best saved for the weekend and off hours. Stoned people annoy the heck out of me, and I sure wouldn’t want to have to depend on one in an emergency. I have been trying to find a place to rent to live in Arcata but can’t, even though Eureka is a hellhole that is sucking the life out of my family, we are gainfully employed with excellent references, and I am an HSU grad student. What gives??? Am I to believe that grow houses inside most rentals represent the barrier to our finding a rental? Or not?
August 4, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Thanks to Kevin Hoover who antagonized and polarized people about pot some Arcata business and property owners have been able to advance in it’s desire to be an elitist city. Too bad most people won’t stand against their fascist policies and attitudes and get back to REAL community! The pot culture has shrunk and now it is “recreational” smoking that is targeted, that and “commercial grows”. What happened to people who raised children to understand what pot smoking or eating it is all about? The time and place for it and respecting eachother. It’s not about making a profit or blowing off the world although that is part of what goes on, it is about being real.
August 4, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Funny, pro-medicinal pot organizations seem to be quite happy with Hoover’s reporting. If you read the paper, maybe you would know that. Some crank wrote a diatribe against Hoover a few weeks ago (that Hoover printed) and the crank got the slapdown by other writers the next week, including a pro-pot org.
August 4, 2008 at 2:19 pm
really? which org? I don’t find it online.
August 4, 2008 at 2:22 pm
July 22, 2008:
August 4, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Well to clear up some mis-conceptions: I’m not a member of norml nor do I agree with all that the pro-med-pot folks stand on in regards to legalizing pot. Independently speaking I don’t think it is anyones business whether I smoke, eat, drink, buy, sell or grow ANYTHING within a community understanding that is of consensus to the group. I’m more of the Harm Reduction group if you need to know where I’m coming from to understand my thoughts.
August 4, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Another thing, what Kevin Hoover thinks says and does means absolutely nothing in reality to what is really happening in Humboldt Co. because he is not interested in the good of the community as a whole, only in profit and personal fame of any kind does he delight. There will come a time as we grow up and become truly concerned for our futures as a County that must ride out the tide of economic and national decline that we pull together and toss out the troublemakers who dramatize and inflame our differences and create distrust when we need to suport our neighbors instead of ridicule or degrade them. The Arcata Eye is a glorified rumor rag, it will crash and burn because its own empty integrity tanks.
August 4, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Are you saying that Kevin will come around and say growhouses are a good thing, Kate? Is that what you want? If he was only interested in profit he’d be doing that instead of running a newspaper, because it’d be a whole lot less work.
Certifiable. Where’ve you been anyway?
August 4, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Rose I want Hoover to go the way that all bullies go and meet his nemesis. But that is my own personal thought. you might like the whole drama of soap operas, smut mags and TMZ type character assassinations that go on in the media but I think that type of stuff is not condusive to a healthy community. I love Humco and I speak out against anyone who I believe is destroying or refusing to allow us to grow and prosper. Where’ve I been? Why Rose, did you miss me?
August 4, 2008 at 10:27 pm
I think the feds are here because the banks are going down and the gov needs a money transfusion so all the stuff confiscated in Humboldt will sell very well on the international market, just kidding. I also think they are assessing the layout and organizations that are at work in the county. My hope is that they’ll see how dumb Co. Supervisors are and realize they don’t want to spend much time in such a backwards place.
August 6, 2008 at 1:52 am
with over 1,000 pot clubs in California, growhouses in the news everywhere and Humboldt way down on the list for production, it seems a little provencial to think that all the forces of the US Gov would turn to the Humboldt Nation.*
in 2006 (pre Mex Cartles growing mondo in So Cal) Hum came in at a LOW number 9 in the state w/only 59,616 – compaired to
County Plants Seized
1) Lake 314,603
2) Shasta 227,488
3) Mendocino 135,736
4) Fresno 102,814
5) San Bernardino 91,286
http://ag.ca.gov/cms_attachments/press/pdfs/2006-10-30_CAMP_2006_Stats_Table.pdf
#1 program on Showtime is “WEEDS” now in its 3 year.
http://www.sho.com/site/weeds/home.do
For a list of clubs (for those that don’t get out much) see:
http://canorml.org/prop/cbclist.html
or http://www.weedtracker.com/
Grow houses are a problem all over. Canada is going crazy over them, and every city has forclousers being bought up and turned into grow houses by gangs.
check out Google News anyday with “grow house” as the imput.
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&um=1&tab=wn&q=%22grow+house%22
* Unless it’s another ’scam’ by the Agents of Sam like Camp was to cover the release of Contra Coke people:
http://www.alternet.org/story/71263/?page=entire
Yes HUM Floks seems while CAMP was starting up in early 1980’s it was a cover – deversion for the then newly apointed Fed Russoniello who was letting Coke dealers go.
Read about how Russoniello felt “No. Cal pot growing was a stain on the hands of Prayer” and how he helped Nancy R. kick off her “just say No” and started up CAMP.
But take the time to scroll down to the section:
“Tough on pot growers, easy on Contra’s coke”
its about 1/4 way down the page. Seems while Russoniello was doing such a great job making Hum safe from those bad growers, he was letting coke dealers off. Why? Oh well read on … but then by now we all know the story Iran-Contra …
Nice to know Humboldt and Camp was used for a cover – an attention graber.
Wonder what’s up this time they don’t want us looking at.
Oh yes and Russoniello was *just* put BACK into office! Sen. John Kerry WAS going to try to stop it. But then it happened during X-mas and well no one was ‘home’ at the time. Bush appointed him, the office was vancent from one of the Alberto / Bush firings! … my my my …
1,000 clubs, grow houses all over the place and their looking at Humboldt again .. amazing … wonder why?
August 7, 2008 at 2:04 pm
People are as dumb or smart as the people they let rule them. Lately it seems that most people agree with the dumb people and will believe a lie as long as its said by the people that they elected. Remember the song “We won’t get fooled again”? Some of us are awake and aware….
August 8, 2008 at 12:51 am
^ Your absolutely correct Kateascot, You Humans are a whacky lot, are’nt You.
Them and Their zany antics have Me laughing almost constantly these days.
Vote for Me in November!
That’s all for now,
Commander Bunny.
August 9, 2008 at 6:24 pm
What we need are more farmers, more back-to-the-landers, more people who get their hands dirty to grow whats’ needed, and to adopt more primitive values. We need to grow edibles, as well as the herb, and get away from strange people who feel they have to have some bang-bang ,crash the door in, and I’ll aim my gun at you. These emos who thrive off the good guy-bad guy crap which unforunately we all have been raised with, and do what we need to support ourselves and help our children to grow up knowing work and to be useful.
You all watch too many damn movies–the rule should be, unless I am doing something grieviously harmful to many LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE. I have lived in anarchy and its the ones in power that what all the disaster and disruption. People will push as far as you let them and they will go murderously far and I’m just a cancer patient trying to keep an appetite so I can survive longer. Come on–make me into some big criminal that is the scourge of the neighborhood so you can justify treating me like shit.
Because of this machine I now type on there will be more insidious crimes starting to occur, ones that can harm many and take all they have. Better watch those borders, better watch those planes from foreign lands, better watch those interests that buy up American property, BUT DON’T TREAD ON ME. I am not the problem….whoever is pouring feds behind our redwood curtain is the problem. AND by the way, Veterans Administration, thanks for the Marinol–funny thing, marijuana has no medical properties but the instructions that came with my fake THC proclaims different. TELL ME–does it or doesn’t it?
August 9, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Hey Bambi I like your style! More back-to-landers is exactly what we need. The problem is that there are folks who think they control all the land and those of us who need it must fight with those who greed it…peaceful people have a hard time resisting the violence and winning the fight. Commander Bunny wouldn’t understand that….