CAMP TAKE HITS RECORD 345,207 PLANTS

MADERA -- The state's marijuana harvest is in, and law enforcement officers seized a bumper crop as operations grow.

Working mostly on public lands and in Central Valley counties, officers harvested 345,207 marijuana plants -- 43 percent more than last year's record -- valued at $1.3 billion.

Topping the list was Kern County, which accounted for more than one-sixth of the total harvest with a single discovery of a 59,000-plant garden in the Sequoia National Forest -- the largest ever found in the state.

"Normally Kern County is proud to be No. 1 in carrots and oil," Kern Sheriff Carl Sparks said at a news conference. "We're not proud to be No. 1 in marijuana."

Investigators there found sleeping bags for 40 people and the remnants of a small community, including food and waste. But the remote camp was abandoned by the time law enforcement hiked in to begin destroying the scattered plantings.

"Next year we're gonna throw people in jail," Sparks said. "We just weren't prepared for that and how crazy these people are and how fast they are."

Reflecting what deputies encountered in the forest, only 16 arrests were made in the 18th year of the so-called California Campaign Against Marijuana Planting.

Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who released the annual figures, said the effort has driven up the price of marijuana by cutting supply and that should make it less accessible to youths. He said the goal is to target the kingpins, not the people lower down the chain cultivating the illegal crop.

A representative of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws said the growing number of plants seized shows the law enforcement effort is not working.

"Money used for education and rehabilitation are the only things that work," said Bruce Margolin, director of Los Angeles NORML. "Marijuana isn't going to go away no matter how much law enforcement money goes into it."

Begun in the early 1980s to help sheriffs combat marijuana growth in the "Emerald Triangle," where Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity counties converge about 150 miles north of San Francisco, CAMP has spread across the state.

The latest growing trends include a shift to large-scale, sophisticated operations, often on public lands, presenting a possible hazard to hikers, hunters, and others who use the land. Just two weeks ago in El Dorado County, a father and son hunting were shot and seriously injured after stumbling across a marijuana patch.

Increasingly, this area known for its abundant agriculture production is becoming a fertile land for methamphetamine and marijuana production, often with ties to Mexican drug organizations. More than half of the marijuana seized this year came from Central California and the larger operations are believed to be tied to Mexico.

During the press conference in Madera County offices, bags of marijuana valued at about $3 million were laid out on a table, flanked by bundles of methamphetamine and illegal arms -- both seized during weekend raids in Madera County. The sting, not part of CAMP, netted 15 suspects.