RECORD POT BUSTS IN STATE

2.2 Million Marijuana Plants Seized by Authorities So Far This Year,
Including 25,000 Destroyed in Raids This Week in Sonoma, Mendocino Counties

Narcotics agents have seized more than 2.2 million marijuana plants
this year in California, topping a record of 1.6 million set last
year through the state Department of Justice's Campaign Against
Marijuana Planting.

One team of raiders removed 25,000 plants this week from the
backcountry of Sonoma and Mendocino counties, clearing marijuana from
two commercial growing operations in the Yorkville Highlands
northwest of Cloverdale and The Geysers.

They whacked down 8,000 plants on private land off Highway 128 on
Wednesday, a day after destroying 17,000 plants at The Geysers, said
Sonoma County Sheriff's Sgt. Chris Bertoli, who supervises the Sonoma
County Narcotics Task Force.

With a street value of $3,500 per pound, the cannabis -- prized for
its buds that flower and mature outdoors in late summer and early
fall -- would have supplied a nationwide black market, according to
law enforcement.

"This stuff doesn't stay here," Bertoli said, after hiking steep
Yorkville hillsides with 17 fellow raiders, many flown in by
helicopter. "It goes out of state: Chicago, the East Coast."

Admitting that such labor-intensive raids only partially reduce
access to the illegal weed, regional CAMP operation commander Barry
Galloway said: "You've got to start somewhere."

Galloway oversees eradication in Sonoma, Mendocino, Marin, Humboldt,
Trinity and Del Norte counties. CAMP focuses on detecting and
destroying large-scale outdoor gardens during the traditional growing
season, which runs from July into October.

More than $1.3 million a year in federal money supports the program,
which last year conducted 477 raids in 34 counties, ridding
California of plants valued collectively at $6.7 billion.

Critics question taxpayers' investment in a campaign they say
exacerbates the environmental degradation and public safety threats
resulting from these remote, hidden gardens.

"The solution to all these problems is to regulate marijuana legally
. . . to treat it just like we treat wine and beer," said Bruce
Mirken, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, a group based
in Washington.

"What they're doing is an exercise in futility," added Mirken, who
lives in San Francisco. "This is a policy that does nothing other
than A) provide employment for a lot of cops and drug-war
bureaucrats, and B) make all the problems associated with marijuana
cultivation worse."

Near the Yorkville encampment, where agents recovered a .22 rifle, a
notebook with handwritten Spanish text and other evidence, raiders
offered a different perspective. They found extensive drip lines
feeding terraced gardens, discarded insecticide containers, trash and
a makeshift water reservoir rigged from tan oak logs and durable
plastic liners.

"People will say, 'It's only marijuana.' But this finances the
methamphetamine trade," Bertoli said. "You think people just wake up
wanting to use meth? . . . They've started with alcohol, then
marijuana, and then move up the food chain."

Eighty percent, or 1.3 million, of the plants seized statewide last
year were found on public land.

"Most of the gardens are run by Mexican drug trafficking
organizations," said Special Agent Holly Swartz, a spokeswoman for
the campaign.

Mirken pointed to a recent study ranking marijuana as the leading
cash crop in California and the nation, and argued the eradication
campaign has done little to reduce availability, particularly to young people.

He predicted intrusions into state forests and parks will continue,
the deeper narcotics agents drive illegal growers into rural, rugged terrain.

"If there is demand, somebody will supply it," Mirken said Thursday.
"To whatever extent these campaigns reduce the marijuana supply, all
that does is keep the price up and inflate the profit margin . . . It
guarantees that marijuana cultivation will happen in the most
dangerous locations possible."

Both Mirken and Swartz acknowledge the policy debate over
legalization rests mainly with lawmakers, and neither can estimate
how large a dent raiders make each year in California's overall crop.

"We do not have any rock-solid numbers about what is actually out
there versus what we get," Swartz said. "But if we know about it, it
is eradicated."