MARIJUANA WORTH MORE THAN LEGAL HARVESTS

At the height of the harvest season, it appears Nevada County farmers
can make a lot more money from marijuana than anything else.

And the amount of pot seized is spiking this year, driven in part by
stepped-up enforcement.

Illegally-grown marijuana seized in Nevada County through August this
year appears, conservatively, to be worth between $123 million and
$205 million, based on federal estimates of crop value and local
figures on plants confiscated. That figure is based on state and
national law enforcement wholesale costs per pound, assuming a yield
of 1 pound per plant.

That dwarfs the value of legal crops grown here in 2006 - the latest
figures available - when farmers, loggers and livestock producers
produced goods valued at $16.2 million. Those figures appeared in the
annual crop report submitted by Nevada County Agriculture
Commissioner Jeffrey Pylman in August.

The 41,000 marijuana plants seized here this year far exceed the
4,863 found during 2006, which would have brought roughly $14.6
million on the low end and $24.3 million at the high. That compares
more closely with the county's $16.2 million value for legal crops in
2006, but does not count legal pot crops and illegal plants not seized.

The local figures reflect statewide trends.

Last year, narcotics investigators seized 2.8 million marijuana
plants, valued at $11.07 billion. In 2005, the total value of
marijuana production was estimated at $7.6 billion, officials said.

That's more than milk, the state's biggest legal ag commodity. In
2005 state farmers and ranchers earned $31.7 billion on 400
commodities, according to the latest figures from California's
Department of Food and Agriculture.

Each plant normally yields 1 to 3 pounds of mature buds, the part of
the plant most desired on the market for its high content of the
active ingredient that gets smokers high, said Lt. Bill Evans, in
charge of the sheriff's investigation and narcotics division.

"I have personally taken 3 1/2 pounds of colas (buds) off of one
plant," Evans said. But yield varies vastly depending on growing
conditions and the variety of marijuana plant; the rule of thumb for
1 pound per plant for statistical purposes would be considered
conservative, he said.

One pound of high-grade pot buds in the well-known Northern
California growing area sells for anywhere from $3,000 to $5,000 per
pound wholesale, according to Evans and the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration in Washington, D.C.

At the low end, that means the pot seized here so far this year would
be worth between $123 million and $205 million.

Those figures do not count what has been cut and sold beyond law
enforcement's knowledge.

Street values

Street value figures for drugs have often been criticized by readers
of The Union and others, who contend they are inflated to make law
enforcement look good. But Steve Robertson of the DEA in San
Francisco said law enforcement takes the values seriously.

"Our intelligence goes out every quarter and talks to informants and
policemen" to get current street prices, Robertson said. "We also get
them from underground sales. People tell our agents what the price is
of the drug they're buying."

Based on that, an ounce of high-grade pot is currently going from
$360 to $400 an ounce on the street in Northern California, Robertson
said. The quarterly reviews also produced the $3,000 to $5,000 per
pound wholesale value, Robertson said.

Like many commodities in the United States, the price per unit
increases as the amount sold drops, Evans said. That means the 1
ounce figures could double when pot is sold by the joint or in
smaller quantities, he said.

The large increase of seized marijuana plants this year can be
partially traced to several large farms planted by Mexican criminal
organizations found in the South Fork Yuba River Canyon, Evans said.
After one of several busts in early August, Evans said, "The entire
canyon is littered with gardens."

The flood of pot plantations on federal lands also caused Sheriff
Keith Royal to say Nevada County was getting a reputation as "the
emerald triangle." The area's climate lends itself to good
production, Evans added.

The increase is also the result of new District Attorney Cliff
Newell's stricter guidelines of only six plants for medicinal pot
gardens, which have produced seizures when patches go over that
limit, Evans said.

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BY THE NUMBERS

About 4,900 illegally-grown

marijuana plants were seized in Nevada County in 2006, valued at
$14.6 million to $24.3 million, based on assumptions of value at
$3,000 to $5,000 per pound and a conservative yield of 1 pound per plant.

Nevada County's legal crops were worth $16.2 million in 2006.

There have been more than 41,000 illegal pot plants seized here so
far this year, with a value of $123 million to $205 million, based on
the aforementioned figures.

- - Source: Nevada County Agriculture Department, Nevada County
Sheriff's Office, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration