Cash Strapped California launches frontal assault on Marijuana

Throughout the state, millions upon millions are being spend to assault marijuana. Both legitimate medical marijuana and illicit operations are experiencing the war on cannabis and people.

SHASTA: Strapped U.S. Police Turn to Marijuana Busts for Cash adequately lays out the profit motive for agencies to assault law abiding citizens. Click Here to read more:

Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko, his budget under pressure in a weak economy, has laid off staff, reduced patrols and even released jail inmates. But there's one mission on which he's spending more than in recent years: pot busts, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

The reason is simple: If the California lawman steps up his pursuit of marijuana growers, his department is eligible for roughly half a million dollars a year in federal anti-drug funding, helping save some jobs. The majority of the funding would have to be used to fight pot. Marijuana may not be the county's most pressing crime problem, the sheriff says, but "it's where the money is."

TUOLUMNE: 223,555 marijuana plants were claimed eradicated in isolated areas of Tuolumne County this week. The marijuana's estimated street value is $447,100,000. No arrests were made.

NAPA: 38-year-old Jose Luis Martinez Chavez was shot by two members of a drug task force investigating two growing operations near the Lake Berryessa on June 30.

MERCED: 9,000 marijuana plants were found growing near a tributary of the San Joaquin River in Stevinson, the Merced County Sheriff's Office said. The plants had an estimated street value of $9.4 million. The plants were burned by law enforcement.

MARIN: Four Marin medical marijuana dispesaries prepare for a legal battle while county and town officials plot their next moves after ordering them to shut down. The marijuana collectives were still operating as of Friday and held open houses earlier in the week.b

"We're going to proceed with an action to remove them from there," Corte Madera Councilman Michael Lappert said, adding, "I think the council would be open to listening to a scheme that involved proper zoning so that it's not in close proximity to schools.

NOR CAL: More than 150 law enforcement agents fanned out across Northern California last week to shut down a crime ring police say is responsible for running a network of marijuana grow operations potentially worth millions of dollars. Nine people were arrested and about 2,500 pot plants were seized from seven indoor grow houses in Sacramento, Elk Grove, San Jose, Milpitas and Oakland.

L.A.—A judge has delayed a decision on whether to bar Los Angeles from enforcing its medical marijuana ordinance against four collectives.

On another sad note, Washington's marijuana legalization measure did not qualify for the ballot.