[Somerset CA, El Dorado County Growers Alliance]
June 29, 2020 - Placerville, CA - On Friday, May 22nd, and again during the week of June 25th, a task force made up of El Dorado County Sheriff's deputies, local Code Enforcement officers, and regional narcotics officers raided a series of properties in the Volcanoville, Fairplay, Somerset, Grizzly Flat and the Happy Valley area of El Dorado County. At several properties, they caused extensive property damage such as destroying greenhouses, ransacking houses, breaking windows, and destroying safes. The anti-cannabis raids that have been ongoing for the last month and a half took on a destructive turn Friday, May 22nd, and again the week of June 25th when raiders not finding any cannabis plants ransacked and damaged the inside of a house, destroying safes in hopes of taking cash. Raiding a property they jumped the neighboring fence and eradicated a mother's legal medical garden. Her son has seizures.
“This vigilante mentality must be stopped immediately. If the home intrusion is not a violation of justice enough then how long before someone puts up resistance and is killed,” says Rod Miller Executive Director of the El Dorado County Growers Alliance. “Our law enforcement has lost its moral compass in search of revenge,” says Miller.
El Dorado County voted by 60% in favor of issuing commercial cannabis licenses in November 2018. As of May 2020, the County has not issued a single commercial cannabis license. Sheriff D’Agostini recently said he was going to lead a posse of Sheriff’s to rip out every mature cannabis plant in the county. He has blamed the death of Deputy Ishmael on the cannabis industry in El Dorado County, but by his own admission, the site of the shooting was at a “Mexican” cartel grow.
“The Sheriff does not accept that the commercial cannabis prohibition that he promotes is in fact the cause of crime,” says Miller. “How many El Dorado County wineries had murders?”
“Where is the cash that the Sheriff is taking from properties going,” asks Miller. “The Sheriff and the County are spending upwards of $2 million on enforcement. They are identifying grows and homeless camps with satellite pictures from Planet Lab. Yet they are spending very little money to help growers navigate the large set of regulations for entering the legal commercial cannabis cultivation market. There is a fundamental freedom, fairness and justice problem with this inequity.”
For More Information Contact:
Rod Miller - 530-503-9078 or 530-748-9822 Executive Director, El Dorado County Growers Alliance. Rod@eldoradogrowersalliance.org
