RECORD POT SEIZURES IN MENDOCINO COUNTY

Much More Still Being Grown, Officials Say

Mendocino County retains its dubious title of being the top marijuana
producing county in the state, with drug agents and growers agreeing that
this year's bumper crop is setting records.

"It's growing everywhere," said Mendocino County Sheriff's Sgt. Rusty Noe.

As the annual harvest winds down, local and state pot-hunting teams say
they've yanked about 102,000 mostly mature plants from Mendocino marijuana
gardens, the most ever seized locally. The plants represent more than
one-third of the entire volume of marijuana confiscated statewide under the
state's annual Campaign Against Marijuana Planting program.

Attorney General Bill Lockyer estimated that the amount of pot confiscated
statewide by CAMP teams was worth nearly $1 billion wholesale, the largest
amount of the illicit cash crop ever diverted from the streets. Using the
state formula, Mendocino County's share of the confiscated pot would be
valued at more than $300 million.

But local authorities concede, and some pot growers happily concur, that
despite the touted state effort there's more marijuana than ever heading for
the underground marketplace.

Noe, who heads Mendocino County's marijuana eradication unit, said this year
has been the best yet in terms of the number of mature plants seized before
their prized marijuana buds could be harvested.

Noe said the amount, however, pales in comparison to what is growing in
countless backwoods nooks and crannies.

"There's just a lot of dope growing out there. We couldn't possibly get to
all of it," he said.

A northern Mendocino County pot grower, among a cadre of so-called backwoods
"mom and pop" growers who rely on their cash crops for extra income, said
Thursday the state effort "hardly made a dent."

The grower, who refused to be identified, said this year's crop will allow
him to go on a wintertime vacation south of the border. "We're just like any
other grower. We've got the crop in, now it's time to take a break," he said.

Noe said it's true small growers are seldom the focus of eradication efforts.

"We've just had too many large-scale, commercial-type operations that have
come to dominate marijuana cultivation in recent years," he said.

He said large-scale operators deliberately use public lands -- and in
Mendocino County's case, corporate timberlands and large ranch holdings --
in an effort to avoid forfeiture of their own property if caught growing. At
the state level, about 60 percent of all the pot plants seized were found
growing on public lands.

Authorities say the commercial-style operations represent a serious danger
to the public because the illicit plantations often are watched over by
armed guards.

"We didn't have any real violent confrontations this year in Mendocino
County as we have had in the past, but the potential is always there," Noe said.

While marijuana growing remains firmly entrenched in Mendocino County, other
North Coast counties are seeing a decline in overall production, according
to state figures.

Humboldt County, once touted as being part of a so-called "Emerald Triangle"
along with Mendocino and Trinity counties, fell to fourth place in this
year's state rankings. Trinity was ranked 13th on the state list.

Lockyer said there has been a shift from the traditional pot-growing regions
to other areas, such as the Central Coast and Fresno, Orange, Riverside and
even Los Angeles counties. Rural San Benito County and Fresno County were
ranked behind Mendocino on the state list.