A 19-year-old man from Antioch who survived an apparent self-inflicted gunshot to the head has been arrested at a Sacramento hospital on charges stemming from an armed marijuana robbery last week that ended with the death of his associate.

Brian Cole Fiore was arrested at 5:15 p.m. Monday and booked into the Sacramento County Jail on suspicion of attempted murder, robbery, negligent discharge of a firearm and evading a peace officer with wanton disregard for safety, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office reported.

After an autopsy over the weekend, investigators say they think David Fields, 21, was shot shortly before the vehicle he was riding in flipped over an embankment along the roadside, and rolled to a stop 130 feet down into the ravine below.

According to Brenda Godsey, spokeswoman for the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, Fields and Fiore arranged to meet six people in McKinleyville on May 11 to purchase 14 pounds of marijuana.

When Fields and Fiore met the group at a residential McKinleyville intersection, one of the men produced an assault rifle while the other brought out a handgun, Godsey said. The two men ordered the six people to the ground, took the marijuana and fled in a Jeep Grand Cherokee.

One of the six reported the incident to police, who soon located the Jeep with the aid of other reporting parties, who indicated they could see a Jeep passenger holding an assault weapon through their vehicle’s window.

The Jeep was soon located by police, who followed the two suspects speeding toward Willow Creek on State Route 299. During the pursuit, the Jeep’s passenger fired the assault rifle toward police, but no one was hit.

via Antioch man arrested in wild marijuana holdup, shooting in Ukiah – San Jose Mercury News.

Re-read the story again, except this time, replace all instances of “marijuana” with “a keg of beer”.  Do you think any of this story would’ve transpired if we were talking about a keg of beer?

First of all, the 19-year-old Fiore wouldn’t even be involved, since the liquor store would’ve checked his ID.  The 21-year-old Fields could’ve just walked into the liquor store, showed ID, signed some paperwork, and purchased a keg for 1/1000th the price of 14 pounds of marijuana.  He wouldn’t need an assault rifle and would have very little motivation to steal the keg of beer when he can purchase it cheaply.  Even if money was the motivation and he instead robbed the liquor store with the assault rifle, there’d be alarms and cameras for him to deal with.

Second, six people in McKinleyville would have no motivation to meet two young strangers on a residential corner and try to sell them a keg of beer.  Not enough profit in it.

But because marijuana’s illegal and adults can’t buy it like a keg of beer, it’s profitable enough to rob people over and criminal enough to shoot automatic weapons at cops in residential neighborhoods during high speed pursuits.

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Prompted by Schwarzenegger, North Coast begins debating legalizing pot via pressdemocrat.com

It’s no surprise that when Gov. Schwarzenegger called for a discussion on the legalization of marijuana it would be seen as a call to arms for prohibitionists. For Sonoma County, the usual suspects are taking their places.

“I think we need another drug like we need a hole in the head,” Sonoma County Sheriff’s Capt. Matt McCaffrey said.
The societal costs of having more people using drugs would exceed the tax benefits, he said.

“A lot of the money would be going to the ills caused by this drug,” in much the same way alcohol taxes don’t cover the costs of problems caused by alcohol consumption, he said.

It’d help if you remember the “we don’t need another drug” argument. It’s the first new talking point that you will be hearing from the prohibitionists. It stands the prohibitionist argument of “this drug is so bad we HAVE to outlaw it” on it’s head. Since marijuana is so much safer than currently legal drugs, we should legalize it right now. When law enforcement gets a place at the FDA’s approval panel for new drugs, I’ll take what they have to say about the harm of marijuana more seriously. I’m sure that when Purdue Pharma introduced “Oxycontin” the dear Sheriff didn’t say a word.

The second point the good Sheriff makes is that the ills of legalization of marijuana will outstrip the revenue it generates. With 18 million marijuana users per year, the cost of marijuana use is already baked in. Other countries (Gov. Schwarzenegger’s criteria) only saw a slight increase (around 5%) in the use of ADULTS who grew up with prohibition.

Sonoma County District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua said he’d be willing to participate in discussions about legalization. But he questioned whether now is the time.

“I don’t think on an important topic like this it can be done when we’re facing a deficit at our doorsteps,” he said. “At this point it serves as a needless distraction to Sacramento.”

The DA needs money today and removing a source of billable income isn’t the tune he wants to hear. Lightening his workload is a needless distraction, and is outright dangerous to his future as an elected official. When a DA needs to up his conviction rate, or show he’s one tough dude he needs a bus load of pot smokers to incarcerate (for a mandatory long time). He’d spend months or years tracking down robberies before he could get a mere handful of convictions. It’s not time now, and it’s never a good time for the DA to discuss marijuana legalization.

Next up: “What about the children?”

“It would contribute to greater abuse” by children if it’s freely available to adults, said Sonoma County schools Superintendent Carl Wong.

Children living on the marijuana-rich North Coast already use marijuana at a higher rate than elsewhere, said Lynn Garric, the director of Sonoma County’s Safe Schools Program.

A survey conducted by the group ranked Sonoma County fourth in the state in student marijuana use. Marin County students reported the highest use, followed by Mendocino and Humboldt counties, she said.

The survey showed that 30 percent of Sonoma County eleventh-graders had used marijuana in the month preceding the survey. The state average was 16 percent.

“We have to be careful about impacts on children,” she said.

So a survey created, funded, and conducted by Sonoma County’s Safe Schools Program found an alarming usage rate amongst the county’s eleventh graders, forgive me if I’m not shocked. Black market dealers don’t ask for ID and don’t care who’s buying, and that goes for any product, from guns to unpasteurized milk. It’s the black market that feeds drugs to our children, in the free market your drugstore doesn’t sell to minors because it’d get shut down and lose all that wonderful revenue.

When the debate is joined by the prohibitionists, they will trot out every skewed study, every frightening headline, every pot horror story to defeat you. Don’t let them get away with sentencing 800,000 Americans every year to a tour of our incarceration system, get prepared, get motivated, get active.

“We are starting to see a real change,” said Ellen Komp, a Humboldt County-based spokeswoman with the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Komp said the price of marijuana from the North Coast likely would remain high, much like premier wines from the region. She envisions “tasting” rooms, which could boost tourism and bring relief to the North Coast’s battered economy.

I think I’ll order an eighth of Mendocino’s finest Sour Diesel and a tumbler of Maker’s Mark…

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New to DVD today is Humboldt County, an introspective character piece by novice writer/director duo, Darren Grodsky and Danny Jacobs (both also act in the film). The film follows disenchanted medical student, Peter (Jeremy Strong), as he spends a summer lost within the confines of a marijuana commune hidden deep in the backwoods of Northern California. via DVD Review: Humboldt County – LAist: Los Angeles News, Food, Arts & Events.

Darren and Danny joined us as interview guests in the Sep 26, 2008 Stash.  I really loved this movie and my wife watched it for the first time last week and loved it, too.  This is not a “crazy dope comedy”, so if you’re looking for that, go rent Pineapple Express or Harold & Kumar.  This is a movie that explores the essence of the cannabis community as Peter exits “Babylon” and experiences the interaction of the Humboldt family – “fish out of water” tale.  This film features some of the most realistic depictions of pot farmer characters I’ve seen in a long time.

And besides, it’s got that lady from Six Feet Under (Frances Conroy) and the doctor from Deadwood (Brad Dourif), two of my all-time favorite HBO shows, so you know the acting is good.

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High Life: Medical Marijuana’s Boomtown
It’s estimated that $143 million in medical marijuana sales have netted $11.4 million in state and local taxes annually, based on registered businesses, California State Board of Equalization spokeswoman Anita Gore said. And those estimates are small compared with those in a 2006 report co-written by California NORML state coordinator Dale Gieringer, which said that Californians consumed between $870 million and $2 billion worth of medical marijuana per year.

Of course, marijuana is nothing new to Humboldt County.

Humboldt, part of Northern California’s Emerald Triangle, has long been known for its high-grade marijuana crop, which has been immortalized on merchandise, including “Got Humboldt?” T-shirts, skateboards that feature weed and the words “Humboldt Gold,” and an upcoming movie named — what else? — “Humboldt County.” One recent study by Steven Hackett, an economics professor at Humboldt State University, estimated marijuana brings in as much as a half billion dollars to the county’s economy.

For years, Humboldt County has enjoyed the benefits of a booming underground economy. But changes to state laws — such as the passage of Proposition 215 in 1996, when voters approved the medical use of marijuana — mean that many engaged in cultivation and sales are trying to follow state medical marijuana laws. Or at least some of them are making an effort, and in doing so are pouring money into local and state tax coffers.

The City of Arcata declined to disclose specific taxes paid on medical marijuana sales by local businesses, calling that “proprietary information.” But the city’s finance director, Janet Luzzi, said one dispensary in town is among Arcata’s top 25 producers of sales tax, and has been for several quarters.

“The economy of Humboldt County would have ceased to exist a long time ago without it,” said [medical marijuana advocate Martha] Devine [who's known to some here as "Granny Green Genes,"] glancing around the plaza. “This county was built on marijuana.” … She’s witnessed the decline of the county’s other traditional industries, like timber and fisheries, and believes marijuana is largely responsible for Humboldt’s progressive culture and thriving businesses.

“I think it’s really kept our economy going,” Devine said.

It will be the economic realities that finally overturn adult marijuana prohibition, much more so than any number of statistics or reports we can produce.  It doesn’t matter whether marijuana is harmful or not; we accept very harmful alcohol because it’s financially more lucrative to tax and regulate it than to prohibit it.

Marijuana’s remained illegal because it has fewer users than alcohol, so the profit government makes from prohibition outweighs the profit it could make from taxation and regulation.  But with the housing market collapse, states that rely on property tax revenues will feel the pinch.  With oil prices going through the roof, consumers will demand a cheaper fuel alternative.  Stricter regulations to protect the environment will make hemp farming more attractive as an alternative crop requiring no pesticides, the use of which as a biodiesel fuel will be more carbon-friendly.

Government in general could care less how many lives are ruined by marijuana prohibition, because so many more lives are enhanced through prohibition-related employment.  But government in general cares a great deal about the almighty dollar, and when legal marijuana becomes a bigger cash cow than illegal marijuana, we will finally see an end to adult marijuana prohibition.

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Government releases list of items seized in drug raids | The Eureka Reporter
A week after marijuana, cash and weapons were seized from nearly 30 locations in Humboldt and Mendocino counties, a laundry list of those items has been released by a federal government agency.

Federal Bureau of Investigations Special Agent Joseph Schadler said Tuesday that nearly 16,000 pot plants, nearly $200,000 in cash, 53 guns, two vehicles, five generators, a trailer and five all-terrain vehicles were seized from the grow houses, homes and a nearly 2,000-acre land parcel between both counties that were searched last week.

About 450 federal, state and local law enforcement personnel working what was dubbed “Operation Southern Sweep” targeted an alleged commercial marijuana growing and dealing operation that’s been under investigation since early 2006.

No charges have yet been filed against any suspects and besides a man who was arrested June 24 on suspicion of assaulting a federal agent during the execution of the search warrants, no one has been arrested. The man has since been released and isn’t facing charges, Schadler said.

“We’re in the truth-finding business,” the FBI special agent said. “If we collect evidence and there’s nothing there, nobody will be charged. I don’t suspect that will be the case, but that’s always a possibility.”

450 law enforcement agents from multiple agencies… wow, that’s got to cost a whole bunch, I imagine.  Plus add in all that helicopter time, various support vehicles, and all the ancillary expenses like cataloging and storing evidence.  And after all of that time and effort, no arrests and no charges.

I wonder how else we could have spent that government time and money in Northern California this week?

The U.S. Forest Service did not meet its own deadline to have 252 fully staffed fire engines available statewide by June 22, leaving Inland forests potentially shorthanded going into the summer.

As of Monday, more than a week after that target date, the agency remained 29 engines short of that goal, or almost 12 percent, spokesman John Heil said. He could provide no explanation.

“We’re not prepared to get into that now,” Heil said, noting that the agency was busy battling hundreds of fires in California.

Cities and counties all over the state have sent fire engines and crews to battle the blazes in Northern and Central California.

The fires, sparked by thousands of lightning strikes, covered more than 334,000 acres, primarily in the north half of the state, he said.

To help fight the blazes and fill the void left by unavailable engines, many Southern California-based Forest Service engines have been sent north, leaving area forests with fewer resources.

While parts of the Northern California forest are burning down, 450 government agents were sneaking around other parts of those forests to rip up cannabis plants.

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Seized pot worth $25M to $60M – Times-Standard Online
Federal agents who served warrants on properties across Humboldt and into Northern Mendocino County have begun the process of sifting through the massive amount of evidence seized during Tuesday’s marijuana raids, with the plants alone worth an estimated $25 million to $60 million.

Estimates produced by the FBI indicate authorities seized more than 10,000 marijuana plants, one vehicle, computers, more than $160,000 in cash and 30 firearms, including shotguns, handguns and fully automatic weapons.

Wow, that’s weird.  For a minute there, I thought Americans had the right to own vehicles, computers, cash, and firearms.  You’ll always notice how law enforcement emphasizes the firearms netted in these marijuana raids, because they need to scare the public with the unspoken assumption that somehow these marijuana growers are violent criminals.  Those firearms are used in self-defense, since a marijuana grower can’t exactly call the cops if thugs try to steal the marijuana.

Officials stressed from the outset of the operation that 215 patients and medical marijuana dispensaries would not be targeted by the warrants.

In a prepared statement released Wednesday by the FBI, Special Agent in Charge Charlene Thornton, said, “This is not a medical marijuana operation or a group of people growing for personal use. The targets of our investigation are reaping huge profits while contributing to the crime and violence oppressing communities across the state.”

No, the prohibition of marijuana is contributing to crime and violence and allowing growers to reap huge profits.

And as for that promise that they weren’t going after Prop 215 patients?

A Sunny Brea man, whose residence was the target of a warrant Tuesday, said agents raided his house by mistake, and confiscated about 35 marijuana plants he said he was growing under 215 regulations.

The man, who would not give his name, said about 10 agents knocked on his door in the morning and showed him the warrant.

”It was a warrant for someone who wasn’t there, who I presume was connected to this (commercial growing) deal,” he said. “The FBI stressed that they weren’t there for the small 215 garden. They found them, and they said they had to take them, and we didn’t contest it.”

So much for that promise.

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