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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MAY 11, 2018
Flower town’s shift to pot creates stink California teacher
Marijuana has
pension system
become new
crop of choice
targets gun sellers
By AMY TAXIN
Associated Press
CARPINTERIA, Calif. —
This picturesque coastal town
cradled by mountains and
sandy shores is a scene out of
a Southern California post-
card. Residents of Carpinte-
ria say they feel lucky to live
in what they consider a slice of
paradise.
But change is in the air. And
sometimes, they say, it stinks.
That’s because marijuana
has become a new crop of
choice in the farmlands sur-
rounding this tight-knit com-
munity of 14,000, which has
long helped fuel the U.S. cut
flower industry.
Residents say a thick,
skunk-like odor from the mari-
juana plants settles over the val-
ley in the evenings and before
dawn. To keep out the stench,
they have tried stuffing pillows
under doors, lighting incense
and shutting windows, a reluc-
tant choice since it also keeps
out the cool ocean breezes that
are part of the town’s allure.
“We don’t want a mari-
juana smell,” said Xave Sara-
gosa, a 73-year-old retired sher-
iff’s deputy who was born and
raised in the town and lives
near a greenhouse that grows
marijuana. “We want fresh air.”
Saragosa said the odor per-
vades his hillside home at night
and keeps his wife up coughing.
Carpinteria, about 85 miles
from Los Angeles, is in the
By DON THOMPSON
Associated Press
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
Workers in a greenhouse growing cannabis plants in Carpinteria, Calif.
southeast corner of Santa Bar-
bara County, a tourist area
famous for its beaches, wine
and temperate climate. It’s also
becoming known as a haven for
cannabis growers.
The county amassed the
largest number of marijuana
cultivation licenses in Cali-
fornia since broad legaliza-
tion arrived on Jan. 1 — about
800, according to state data
compiled by The Associated
Press. Two-thirds of them are
in Carpinteria and Lompoc, a
larger agricultural city about an
hour’s drive to the northwest.
Virtually all of Carpinteria’s
licenses are for small, “mixed-
light” facilities, which essen-
tially means greenhouses.
The result is a large num-
ber of licenses but small total
acreage. Only about 200 acres
California National Guard
begins border training
By JULIE WATSON
Associated Press
SAN DIEGO — After a
contentious standoff between
the state and federal govern-
ment, California National
Guard troops started training
Thursday with the U.S. Cus-
toms and Border Patrol to be
camera operators, radio dis-
patchers and to fill other sup-
port roles.
President Donald Trump
ordered National Guard troops
to deploy to the U.S.-Mexico
border to help federal author-
ities combat illegal immigra-
tion and drug trafficking.
California’s all-Democratic
leadership has positioned the
state as a national leader in
battling the Trump adminis-
tration, especially on immigra-
tion issues. Government lead-
ers at the state level and in big
cities have condemned mass
raids and deportation efforts,
Trump’s call for a border wall
with Mexico and Attorney
General Jeff Sessions’ “zero
tolerance” order to prosecute
people caught illegally enter-
ing the United States for the
first time.
Gov. Jerry Brown agreed
to contribute 400 troops to the
National Guard’s deployment
to the Mexican border to help
go after drugs, guns and crim-
inal gangs — not immigrants.
The governor has said
under the terms of the agree-
ment the state reached with
the Trump administration, the
Guard cannot handle custody
duties for anyone accused of
immigration violations, build
border barriers or have any-
thing to do with immigration
enforcement.
Some troops could start
their new jobs as soon as Sun-
day, which will free up agents
to patrol the Mexican bor-
der but keep National Guard
members away from the inter-
national line so they do not
have contact with migrants.
Maj. Kimberly Holman
told The Associated Press
that some of the 250 troops
who volunteered for the call
to help Border Patrol agents
started their on-the-job train-
ing Thursday after meeting
their Border Patrol supervisors
in San Diego.
“This will free up the green
shirts — the badged agents —
and get them out on line,” Hol-
man said, adding that troops
volunteered for the mission
because they want to keep Cal-
ifornia safe.
“Nobody has been ordered
to come here,” she said.
“Everyone is here by choice
and has said, ‘I would like to
support this mission.’”
So far, 250 are in place but
more troops may be added as
the Border Patrol needs them,
Holman said.
William Rogers, supervi-
sory Border Patrol agent for
the San Diego sector, said
troops are being put in jobs
that will keep them away
from migrants. For example,
he said National Guard cam-
era operators will work mon-
itoring video inside Border
Patrol facilities and will not be
assigned to manning a camera
from a vehicle parked at the
international line.
of the county’s farmland is
devoted to marijuana, com-
pared with tens of thousands
sown with strawberries and
vegetables, said Dennis Bozan-
ich, who oversees the county’s
marijuana planning.
The area’s greenhouses
have their roots in Carpinteria’s
cut flower industry, which was
sapped after the U.S. govern-
ment granted trade preferences
to South American countries
in the 1990s to encourage their
farmers to grow flowers instead
of coca, the plant used to make
cocaine.
In an ironic twist, some Cal-
ifornia flower growers weary of
import competition have started
trying to grow cannabis, a plant
that, like coca, is deemed illicit
by the federal government.
Others have sold their green-
houses to marijuana investors.
“We have literally no carna-
tion production in the United
States any longer because
South America grows them
so cheaply,” said Kasey Cron-
quist, chief executive of the
California Cut Flower Com-
mission. “Farmers had to move
crops, and that is what we
have seen happen over time —
they’ve gone to crops that are
more valuable or more diffi-
cult for Ecuador and Colombia
to ship.”
Domestic cut flower grow-
ers saw their share of the U.S.
market drop to 27 percent in
2015 from 58 percent in 1991.
Sales of imported cut flowers
grew to more than $1 billion
during the same period, accord-
ing to data compiled by the
commission.
WEST SACRAMENTO,
Calif. — One of the larg-
est public pension funds in
the nation has voted to use its
financial might to pressure gun
retailers across the country
to stop selling military-style
assault weapons and acces-
sories like rapid-fire “bump
stocks” used at the 2017 Las
Vegas mass shooting.
The $222.5 billion Califor-
nia State Teachers’ Retirement
System said it will try to unseat
board members at companies
that resist and could dump its
stock in those retailers if they
still refuse to conform to laws
already in effect in California.
The fund plans an accom-
panying publicity drive to
leverage the student-led
nationwide push following the
February massacre at a Flor-
ida high school. Fund offi-
cials also are lobbying other
pension funds and investors
to join their drive. The system
funds pensions for more than
900,000 public school educa-
tors and their families.
Aside from outlawing
bump stocks and restricting
assault-style weapons, Cali-
fornia bans sales of magazines
holding more than 10 bullets
and assault rifles that can rap-
idly be reloaded.
Opponents said the board is
setting a dangerous precedent.
If Congress and other
states won’t act to prevent
schools “from becoming kill-
ing fields, then let’s take the
battle to where the money is,”
said state Treasurer John Chi-
ang, a Democrat who led the
push and is running for gov-
ernor in next month’s primary
election.
The board acted as Dem-
ocratic state lawmakers intro-
duced legislation that would
require the nation’s largest
public pension system to sim-
ilarly pressure retailers to stop
selling military-style weap-
ons and attachments. The
$350 billion California Pub-
lic Employees’ Retirement
System declined to do so in
March.
Both the teachers and
public employee funds had
already divested from assault
weapon manufacturers after
the 2012 slayings at a Con-
necticut elementary school.
San Diego area teacher
Jessica Moore told board
members Wednesday that
her job now includes plotting
exit routes and comforting
children during lockdowns.
“I think in terms of taking
a bullet for them,” she said
tearfully.
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The Morgan family is so grateful for
the love, kindness and support received
since Doug Morgan passed 2 weeks
ago. Thank you for the condolences,
prayers, calls, texts, cards, flowers, and
donations to the Knappa Kids Wrestling
in his honor. Doug’s Celebration of life
was on Sunday. Thank you to all that
attended, it was a beautiful tribute to
an amazing man. Thank you to Knappa
High School for the use of your facility
and thank you Lavonne, Scott, Heidi,
Sharon, Heidi, Brian and Pam Dutton,
and Pastor Gary and Sandy Geer, for
the hours spent preparing, cooking
and cleaning. There are no words to
describe how grateful we are for you.
For everyone behind the scenes that
helped or offered to help, we are so
thankful for you. We are so fortunate
for the love and compassion from this
wonderful community and our family
and friends. Doug will love on in our
hearts forever.”