MARIJUANA BUSTS RISE IN NEW YORK

But In Chemung County, The Number Of Plants Seized Drops.

ALBANY -- Marijuana plant seizures by state police this year are
growing, sparked by some major busts in northern New York.

Seizures of marijuana plants have soared 36 percent this year as the
state police Community Narcotics Enforcement Team credit tougher
enforcement and greater collaboration with local police to smoke out growers.

"I think we are being a little more successful," said Lt. Michael
Tietz of the Capital Region's narcotics team.

Although this is also true in most of counties in our area, the one
exception is Chemung County where the number of marijuana plants
seized between January and August this year is less than half (156)
of those seized in the same period in 2007 (392).

"It varies from year to year," said Chemung County Sheriff Chris Moss.

He said it is also unlikely that areas where plants were seized last
year were producing this year.

"We depend on tips," he said.

Weather conditions also affect marijuana crops that need sunshine
and water, Moss said.

A favorite place to hide marijuana plants is in corn fields, he added.

Late summer and early fall are typically high times for drug
enforcement officers to use airplane surveillance to sniff out
marijuana farms peaking late in the growing season.

From January through August, state police seized 7,097 marijuana
plants, up from 5,206 for the same period in 2007, state records show.

The biggest busts this year have been in Essex County in northern
New York, where police seized 1,987 plants. The second largest was
in nearby St. Lawrence County, where 605 plants were found.

Other counties also have had an increase in seizures.

In Delaware County, plant seizures have hit 191 this year, compared
with 46 for the same period last year.

And in Steuben County, seizures grew to 385 this year, compared with
173 last year.

State police busts are in addition to recent stings made by local police.

For example, Seneca County sheriff's deputies found 661 marijuana
plants Tuesday at several properties.

Law enforcement officials said it's difficult to explain why some
areas have had growth in seizures. Sometimes, it's simply luck.

Last year, for example, state police got a tip of hundreds of plants
growing behind a fitness center in Patterson, Putnam County, and
swarmed the area to find ones growing 20 feet high.

"We could have one bust" and the number of plants found in a county
could surge, explained state police spokesman Sgt. Kern Swoboda.

For instance, state police report no marijuana plant seizures so far
this year in Monroe County, even though the county had 165 plant
seizures during the same period in 2007 and had 924 plants seized
for all of 2007.

It's unclear how many of the seizures have resulted in arrests, and
some of the reporting to state police appears spotty.

For instance, police had no records of busts in Putnam and Rockland counties.

In another measure of how much marijuana is kept from the streets,
the confiscation of dried ounces of marijuana appears to be way down
so far this year.

Only 39 ounces have been seized by state police this year, compared
with 423 ounces during the same period last year. In 2007, 4,555
ounces of processed marijuana were confiscated.

Police said, however, that the amount confiscated is likely to rise
as plants are chopped down and harvested later this year.

Commercial grade marijuana typically sells for $800 to $1,500 a
pound depending on the quality and availability, police said. A
mature plant can yield up to a pound.

In the Albany area, the total value of the 2,935 plants seized this
year could have been worth $4.3 million on the street, police said.