DROPPING IN ON POT FARMS

CAMP Agents Prepare To Put A Squeeze On State's Marijuana Harvest

It's the time of year when seeds nourished by spring rains have
sprouted into lush plants covering California's fields and mountains.

If those plants are marijuana, it's also the season when helicopters
dangling law-enforcement agents from cables appear in the skies.

At a dusty, sun-baked airfield in Elk Grove on Friday, teams of agents
dressed in fatigues practiced gripping tightly as a fleet of
helicopters slowly swung them through the air. It was their last day
of training before the official start of the 24th annual Campaign
Against Marijuana Planting.

The campaign, run by the state Department of Justice in conjunction
with federal and local law enforcement, had a record year in 2005.
CAMP's helicopters dropped agents with nets into remote, clandestine
fields to collect and destroy about 1.1 million Cannabis sativa
plants. CAMP estimates the value of the seized crop at about $4.5 billion.

Agents found about three-fourths of the marijuana on public lands such
as national forests and state parks.

Due to an increase in the size of the enforcement program, improving
surveillance technology and a lot of spring rain, CAMP expects to find
a lot of pot in the hills again this year.

"California produces more marijuana than any other state in the
nation, and we want to end that," said CAMP Commander Michael Johnson.
"We want to take back the public lands and make them safe for public
use."

CAMP agents team up with county anti-drug programs, which invite them
in after conducting surveillance and determining where the marijuana
is growing. In recent years, CAMP has added staff to conduct
investigations and make arrests.

The program costs about $1.4 million a year in state and federal
funds.

But not everyone believes CAMP is the best use of government
resources.

"CAMP has had essentially zero impact on the availability of
marijuana, and it has had at best a negligible impact on the price,"
said Ethan Nadelmann, director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a national
organization that supports legalizing marijuana for medical use and
spending drug-control money on public health efforts and education
rather than on law enforcement.

A 2004 Field Poll found that 39 percent of California voters believed
pot should be legalized and sold like alcohol or tobacco. Fifty-six
percent of California voters did not believe it should be legal.

"You're basically spending money to go after a product where a very
substantial minority of Californians believe that marijuana should be
legally regulated like alcohol," Nadelmann said.

A decade ago, California voters approved Proposition 215, which
exempts patients from prosecution for pot possession if they have a
doctor's prescription for medical marijuana use. It also allows them
to cultivate the plant.

According to Johnson, the dangers of large-scale pot farming go beyond
marijuana use. The big growers often use their profits to support
other illegal drug enterprises such as methamphetamine rings, he said.

The illicit growers are also harming the environment, he said, by
clear-cutting forests, using pesticides on protected government land
and ruining animal habitats.

And they can be dangerous. "We had a rancher last year who was
confronted by armed growers who were trying to force him off his own
land," Johnson said.

CAMP agents confiscated 76 weapons and made 42 arrests during last
year's raids.

The program started in 1983, with agents hiking into remote areas on
foot and seizing about 65,000 plants.

Even though the growing season is just getting started, CAMP has
already arrested three people and seized 50,000 plants this year.

Compared to the early days of the program, Johnson said, "It's a lot
more high-tech. We're always looking for ways to perfect what we're
doing."

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CAMP BY THE NUMBERS

Number of Cannabis sativa plants collected and
destroyed in 2005: 1.1 million

Value of the seized crop: $4.5 billion

Weapons confiscated and arrests made by agents: 76 and 42,
respectively

Cost of program in state and federal funds per year: $1.4 million