VALUE OF ILLEGAL MARIJUANA CROPS UP FOR DEBATE

Supporters of legalizing marijuana and officers charged with seizing
it have different opinions about the drug, but they agree on one
point: It's a valuable crop.

Just how valuable, however, is another point of contention.

With the arrival of fall, growers of the illicit crop are racing to
harvest the plants while law enforcement officials rush to find and
wipe out growing sites. In two recent seizures in Tulare and Fresno
counties, officials destroyed thousands of plants, which they said
were worth $7.2 million.

That estimate is based on a formula used by the state Department of
Justice: on average, each plant would yield a pound of usable
marijuana over its remaining lifetime, and a pound of marijuana is
worth about $4,000 when sold in small quantities on the street.

While marijuana advocates generally agree with authorities on the
value of a pound of marijuana, they disagree that each plant yields a
pound of pot. They say authorities should measure the actual marijuana
seized, rather than make assumptions about a plant's lifetime potential.

The argument is more than a technical discussion. Larger quantities
generally result in harsher penalties in court.

Keith Stroup, legal counsel for the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws, better known as NORML, calls the values
police put on seizures "self-serving."

"I don't think most plants [would yield a pound] at any one time —
unless it's a massive plant," he said. "What would make more sense
would be to weigh the buds," which are the part of the marijuana plant
where the intoxicant, a chemical called THC, is located.

Special Agent Casey McEnry of the federal Drug Enforcement Agency in
San Francisco disagrees.

"We're not weighing the plants," she said. "When I give an estimate,
it's based on how many pounds [a plant] is capable of producing."

That's also the approach taken by the state Department of Justice's
Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement. Michelle Gregory, a special agent in
Sacramento, said while some plants may not produce a pound, others
will produce more.

"We're not going to weigh it over and over," she added, disputing
arguments by marijuana advocates that prosecutions should be based on
the weight of the drug when it's dry because that is its usable form.

The two local seizures illustrate how state bureau's formula is used.

Tulare County Sheriff's deputies took part in an operation last month
that captured 200 plants and valued the seizure at $800,000.

Chris Douglass, a spokeswoman for the Tulare County Sheriff, said the
$4,000-per-plant formula was more than fair in this case. Some plants
had very large roots and some were more than 10 feet tall and could
produce multiple pounds per plant, she said.

In another raid last month, Fresno County Sheriff's officials reported
eradicating 1,400 plants, worth $5.6 million at $4,000 each, and 200
pounds of processed marijuana, worth $800,000 at $4,000 each, for a
total value of $6.4 million.

While marijuana advocates argue that the weight assumption built into
the state formula is too aggressive, some police agencies think the
market value assumption can be too conservative.

Fresno Police spokesman Jeff Cardinale said his department, for
example, adjusts the value depending on local market conditions — an
equation that "fluctuates depending upon supply and demand."

In Fresno, the street price for an ounce of quality marijuana is $300
and up, according to operators of several medical marijuana clinics.
This results in a value of $4,800 per plant, assuming each produces a
pound.

Users of marijuana interviewed for this story said the price for an
ounce was about the same when the drug is bought from street dealers.
Stroup, of NORML, said nationally the price of an ounce can vary from
$300 to more than $600.

Gregory, of the state Department of Justice, stood by the agency's
pricing system. She said officers get their prices based on
information from traffickers.

"That's the price [drug dealers are] giving us," she said, "and they
know better than we do."

[SIDEBAR]

STRONGER POT

Hippie-era marijuana users would find today's drug not only more
expensive, but much more potent.

The cost of marijuana 40 years ago — generally $10 per ounce — is
about 30 times more expensive today, according to Panama Red, who
blogs on the pro-marijuana Web site budlife420.com

And he agrees with law enforcement officials that pot is more powerful
now. When marijuana was imported from Mexico back then, entire plants
— including non-psychoactive stems and seeds — were compressed by
smugglers using devices such as car jacks. They would then cut the pot
into 12-by-6-by-3-inch sections and sell it as "bricks," or "keys,"
which was shorthand for kilos — 2.2 pounds.

Since then, cultivators have used genetic engineering to increase the
potency of the drug. It is uncommon for dealers to sell — or buyers to
want — anything but the psychoactive buds.

Gordon Taylor, who oversaw much of Northern and Central California in
2007 as special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration's Sacramento office, said a strain called "BC bud" is
eight times more potent than the marijuana of the 1970s.

Jim Guy