Authorities report big jump in marijuana plants seized in California raids

SAN FRANCISCO — Authorities reported a staggering jump in the number of marijuana plants seized in California's eradication effort, claiming a more than 50 percent jump over the previous year.

The Campaign Against Marijuana Planting seized 4.4 million plants in 2009, up from 2.9 million plants in 2008, according to state Department of Justice figures released Wednesday.

"Mexican drug trafficking organizations are exploiting our pristine public lands with these massive marijuana gardens," said U.S. Attorney Lawrence G. Brown. "It wreaks environmental havoc on public lands and poses a serious danger to hikers and law enforcement personnel alike."

The state has reported a record number of seizures each year since 2002, when more than 354,000 plants were cut down. Agents cracked the one million mark in 2005.

This year's increase was due to the discovery of larger pot gardens and the use of better eradication strategies, state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement spokeswoman Michelle Gregory said.

Increased use of helicopters is the main factor allowing agents to find and destroy more plants, she said. Officials put the total street value of the plants seized at $17.8 billion.

Some marijuana advocates and policy analysts have long accused the state campaign of inflating estimates of plants seized and their value on the street.

Mark Kleiman, director of the drug policy program at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the quantity of marijuana claimed by CAMP is far more than Californians could ever consume.

Estimating the plants' street value based on sheer quantity also does not reflect the true amount of processed pot the plants could actually yield, Kleiman said.

"How much is pulled out of the ground is not a good measure of what is getting through," he said.

Gregory said individual agents keep a tally as they cut down plants during each raid then analysts compile totals. The dollar amount is based on an assumption of one pound of consumable pot per plant valued at $4,000 per pound.

Agents seized 89 weapons and made 111 arrests during the raids that started in June and ended in October. More than 75 percent of the plants seized were grown on public land, officials said.

Shasta County in central Northern California topped the list of counties with more than 557,000 plants pulled from the ground. Lake County was second with more than 506,000 followed by Mendocino County with nearly 441,000 plants.

Pro-legalization activists called the spiraling tally evidence that the government is losing the battle against marijuana, arguing that pot is no less available and no closer to being eradicated in California than it ever was.

"The fact is this program is and always has been a complete exercise in futility," said Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project. "It's a jobs program for cops and drug war bureaucrats and nothing else."