http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/1553061.html

[so much for the new drug czar's 'enlightened approach' to drug policy - along with OB, the WHN (WhiteHouseNiggah - see attached) Czar Kerli is also just another house nigger for the boss men. Sure is 'Change We Can Believe In' i.e., none whatsoever. To quote one of Nixon's more memorable pronouncements, "fuck 'em" -ths]

Drug czar: Feds won't support legalized pot
Published online on Wednesday, Jul. 22, 2009
By Marc Benjamin / The Fresno Bee

The federal government is not going to pull back on its efforts to curtail marijuana
farming operations, Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House's Office of National
Drug Control Policy, said Wednesday in Fresno.

The nation's drug czar, who viewed a foothill marijuana farm on U.S. Forest Service
land with state and local officials earlier Wednesday, said the federal government will
not support legalizing marijuana.

"Legalization is not in the president's vocabulary, and it's not in mine," he said.

Kerlikowske said he can understand why legislators are talking about taxing
marijuana cultivation to help cash-strapped government agencies in California. But
the federal government views marijuana as a harmful and addictive drug, he said.

"Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit," Kerlikowske said in
downtown Fresno while discussing Operation SOS -- Save Our Sierra -- a multiagency
effort to eradicate marijuana in eastern Fresno County.

Marijuana plants valued at more than $1.26 billion have been confiscated and 82
people arrested over the past 10 days in Fresno County. The operation started last
week and is continuing.

By comparison, Tulare County's leading commodity -- milk -- was valued at about
$1.8 billion in 2008.

Officials say the marijuana-eradication operation will cost hundreds of thousands of
dollars, but the exact amount won't be known until agencies can add up staffing,
vehicle and other costs.

In Operation SOS, more than 314,000 plants were uprooted in 70 gardens --
numbers expected to rise as the enforcement action continues. Agents also seized
$41,000 in cash, 26 firearms and three vehicles.

Planning for the operation began in February and focused on marijuana crops being
backed by Mexican drug cartels, Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims said.

Mims said many cartels are involved, but she would not name any because the
investigation is still under way. All but one person arrested was from Mexico, officials
said.

One hundred growers may still be on the loose, said Fresno County sheriff's Lt. Rick
Ko. Many may have gotten rides out of the area, but some could still be in the Sierra,
Ko said.

Last year, Fresno County deputies seized 188,000 marijuana plants.

In just one week, nearly twice as many plants were seized, Mims said, "so you can
imagine how many we were missing."

Statewide, more than 5.3 million plants were seized in 2008, or two of every three
confiscated in the United States, said Bill Ruzzamenti, director of the Central Valley
High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.

"The amount of drugs out there scares most of us," he said.

Volunteers are going into the gardens to clean up trash, dead animals and pesticides
to return the land as close to its original condition as possible. But it could take years
for the land to recover, because little can be done once fertilizers and pesticides seep
into the ground or stream beds.

"For every acre of marijuana grown, 10 acres are damaged," said George Anderson
with the California Department of Justice.