CAMP Put Dent in Pot Industry, Atty. Gen. Says

In his annual evaluation of the state’s controversial marijuana eradication program, Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp said Wednesday that the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) has succeeded in putting out of business many big-time pot merchants who were dragging the North Coast region “on a steep descent into lawlessness and violence.”

“By the end of the growing season next month, we expect to have destroyed 190,000 plants worth $380 million, with the harvest once again weighing in at more than 1 million pounds,” Van de Kamp told reporters at a press conference at a CAMP operations center near Garberville in Humboldt County. A copy of his statement was released by his office here.

Van de Kamp said law officers also seized 200 weapons, made 96 arrests and confiscated “a large assortment of lethal booby traps.”

While conceding that CAMP, now in its third year, has not destroyed the marijuana industry in Northern California, he said it has made “life miserable and expensive for the violent, big-time pot merchants that were running roughshod over this area. And in the process we’ve taken a giant step toward reclaiming the North Coast for law-abiding citizens.”

But even as the attorney general addressed reporters, a federal judge here continued to examine evidence in a lawsuit alleging large-scale civil rights violations by CAMP officials.

U.S. District Judge Robert Aguilar is hearing testimony and reviewing more than 80 alleged violations of the injunction he issued last February prohibiting CAMP helicopters from flying lower than 500 feet over private property and requiring CAMP agents to secure search warrants before entering private property.

The contempt-of-court hearing is part of a $100-million lawsuit against the state by residents of Mendocino and Humboldt counties who claim to have been harassed by police helicopters and searchers looking for marijuana gardens. The plaintiffs are asking that the program be shut down until CAMP officials prove that they can comply with the injunction.

“Our interest is not in stopping the program, just in shutting it down until CAMP stops violating people’s civil rights,” said attorney Ronald M. Sinoway, who represents the protesting residents and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

“CAMP suffers fatally from inadequate training, no planning prior to raids, no supervision and no follow-up after raids,” Sinoway said.

May Get Advice

“We have filed our affidavits and Judge Aguilar will hear both sides of the issue and may have comments and advice for us,” Van de Kamp said in a telephone interview later in the day. “But we don’t believe it will result in the shutdown of the program.

“This is not a cowboy-like operation,” Van de Kamp said. “We provide training and instruction for our helicopter fliers and it’s run in a professional way.”

Aguilar began hearing testimony Sept. 19 and is expected to issue a decision next week. CAMP is scheduled to end operations for the year on Oct. 15, but is scheduled to resume next year.

Typical of testimony in the lawsuit was that last week by Humboldt County resident Thomas Hoertkorn, who told the court that CAMP agents dressed in camouflage outfits entered his property without permission or a search warrant and that helicopters “buzzed” his house.

“Specifically, they flew over my house, rattled my windows and terrorized my family,” Hoertkorn said.

Sheriff’s deputies involved in the raid that day testified that they were taking the most practical route possible to the raid site and did not see “No Trespassing” signs posted on the property.