BUMPER MARIJUANA CROP SEIZED

SACRAMENTO - The state's marijuana harvest is in and the good news is law
enforcement officers seized a bumper crop. The bad news is they seized a
bumper crop and operations are growing in size.

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 harvest with a single discovery of a 59,000-plant garden in the
Sequoia National Forest -- the largest found in the state.

Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who released the annual figures yesterday,
said the effort has driven up the price of marijuana by cutting supply and
that should make it less accessible to youths.