California IN BRIEF : UKIAH : Marijuana Patrol Teams Sent Home

While federal agents prowled remote mountain areas on a sweep to uproot marijuana, local authorities were forced to send their eradication teams home because of funding problems. Mendocino County is disbanding its marijuana team today because the state has not renewed its funding. The sheriffs of Trinity and Humboldt counties plan to dissolve their teams unless they get state help. State and federal agents last weekend began “Operation Green Sweep,” which they said was the largest anti-marijuana operation ever conducted on public land. Since 1984, the state has provided the three counties with money to patrol the mountains and yank the illegal plants, valued at up to $3,000 each. Last year the counties received a total of $2.2 million.