The State : Official Faces Drug Charge

An El Dorado County supervisor accused of growing marijuana plants behind his Apple Hill home had helped strengthen the law enforcement efforts that led to his arrest, the Sacramento Bee reported. Mike Visman, 40, had been a strong supporter of local law enforcement’s anti-drug efforts, and he supported funding for a local drug task force and more deputies to crack down on narcotics, the newspaper said. Deputies, tipped off by a U.S. Forest Service helicopter crew, raided a hillside marijuana garden and found a water line leading to Visman’s house. Charles Stowell, a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration, said the garden contained 30 large, budding plants worth at least $100,000 on the streets. “The plants were some of the best quality that I’ve seen,” Stowell said. A relative speculated that Visman, arrested on felony charges of cultivating and possessing marijuana for sale, may have been trying to compensate for the season’s poor apple harvest.