cannabisnews.com: A Bumper Year for Pot 





A Bumper Year for Pot 
Posted by FoM on June 09, 2001 at 07:44:07 PT
By Larry D. Hatfield, Chronicle Staff Writer
Source: San Francisco Chronicle 
Increasingly controlled by a handful of Mexican drug cartels, California's billion-dollar wilderness marijuana industry has shifted from the Emerald Triangle in the north to the southern Sierra Nevada, according to federal and state law enforcement officials. And after a record year last year, officials are gearing up for another bumper crop both in production and seizures this year. The highly valued California-grown pot is literally as valuable as gold, selling today for about the same price as the metal, at around $4,200 a pound. 
Not only is the illicit marijuana industry a major crime problem -- authorities say the Mexican cartels are using profits from their illegal methamphetamine operations to finance expanding pot farms in California and elsewhere -- officials say it poses serious threats to the wilderness ecology and to people using California's and the nation's backcountry. "This is a really serious problem," said Jerry Moore, regional law enforcement director for the U.S. Forest Service. "And it's a problem that has spread all over the state." He said the most serious change in the shadow industry is the inroads made by Mexican drug organizations. "We think we have at least two organizations working here in California, maybe more," Moore said. Intelligence sources have information that the cartels have divided up territories, with some operating in California and on mostly federal lands elsewhere, including in the Appalachians in the East. "There's still a number of people growing marijuana for commercial use who have been involved for more than 20 years, mainly in the north, but these organized groups have pretty much taken over," Moore said. That means bigger operations and bigger problems for law enforcement. "The days of a hippie growing a few plants in the woods are pretty much over," said Forest Service spokesman Matt Mathes. "What's taken over are large, organized cartels, many originating in Mexico, that grow up to 10,000 or more (plants) in a plantation." Authorities said the center of the industry has spread from its old base in Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity counties -- the so-called Emerald Triangle -- into the Sierra foothills and mountains from Calaveras to Kern County. Indeed, more than half of the 345,207 marijuana plants seized last year by California's Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) were in the Central Valley and Sierra foothills. Kern County, which includes remote wilderness areas in the Sequoia National Forest, has become a favorite of pot farmers -- it led CAMP seizures with 59,015 plants. Nearly half of California's counties had pot gardens raided by local and state authorities last year and federal authorities said there were raids in all of the state's 18 national forests. The national forests cover 20 million acres, one-fifth of California. Moore said there are huge problems with wilderness marijuana plantations in Tulare and Tehama counties, that the sophisticated growing operations have spread into the Angeles, Los Padres and San Bernardino national forests. "Those areas are not traditionally big garden areas," Moore said. A 60,000-plant operation was busted in Sequoia National Forest last year and Moore said several 5,000-to-7,000-plant gardens have already been found in Cleveland National Forest, primarily in San Diego and Orange counties, this year. The exact size of California's marijuana crop is impossible to determine, but judging from last year's record seizures, it ranks up there with tourism and agriculture as one of the state's major industries. Comprehensive figures are difficult to determine because of interagency overlap, but last year, the attorney general's CAMP program claimed its 345,207 marijuana plants seized were 43 percent more than the previous record set in 1999. The retail value of the plants -- 203,964 from public lands and 141,243 from private lands -- was estimated at $1.3 billion. The Forest Service said 440,000 plants were seized on national forest lands. In fact, that figure may have been 100,000 plants or so higher because of eradication efforts by sheriff's departments or the state, Moore said. CAMP seized 59,015 plants in Kern County but Kern and other counties seized even more in local raids. Tulare County Sheriff's Lt. Greg Wright, for instance, said his agency alone eradicated 60,000 plants with an estimated value of $180 million. The wilderness pot farms are labor-intensive operations, requiring growers to pack in all their equipment, to maintain caretakers and guards at the site during the growing season and to walk in bigger crews for the planting and harvesting. They leave more than footprints. "One of the worst things about the plantations is the environmental degradation the growers wreak on the national forests," the Forest Service's Mathes said. Moreover, authorities said, the forest pot farms pose a danger to the public using the woods. "It's an incredibly valuable crop," Mathes said, "and these people are generally armed. That poses some risk to forest visitors, like you and me. Fortunately, they generally plant in out-of-the-way places." Note: Mexican cartels shifting plantations to southern Sierra. Contact: Larry D. Hatfield at: lhatfield sfchronicle.comSource: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)Author: Larry D. Hatfield, Chronicle Staff WriterPublished: Saturday, June 9, 2001 Copyright: 2001 San Francisco Chronicle Page A - 3 Contact: letters sfchronicle.comWebsite: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/Related Articles:State Pot Farms on Move http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9967.shtmlMendocino County Law Enforcers Say http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread8862.shtmlPatton of Pot - 60 Minutes IIhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread8656.shtmlCannabisNews Articles - Emerald Trianglehttp://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=Emerald+Triangle 
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Comment #3 posted by billygoatfunk on June 11, 2001 at 13:50:49 PT
Hello!!!
Read between the lines..."The highly valued California-grown pot is literally as valuable as gold, selling today for about the same price as the metal, at around ******$4,20******0 a pound." 
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Comment #2 posted by Imprint on June 09, 2001 at 16:18:08 PT
California Pot
Marijuana grown in California is huge. Mendicino County is where I have gotten the majority of my weed in the past +20 years. My personal guess is that one forth of the population there is growing their own for personal use and sales. I toured a massive outdoor growing area that had previously been found and the pot plants were removed. This was very interesting set up. The property was in the 10 acre range.  This is a well-wooded area (White Oak and Redwoods) with lots of ground cover. There was one main dwelling at the center of the property and spread out over the property was several sheds that were like outposts. These sheds had porches and TV antennas.  Near the main dwelling was a manmade pond, lined with tulles, full of newts and bass. Buried and coming form the pond was a large tube that was connected to a pump in some nearby bushes. The pump was hooked up to an old Honda CVIC engine. It still had a portion of the dashboard mounted to it with an ignition switch, tachometer, fuel gage and such. There was a manifold connected to the pump, which feed several water lines that went in all directions of the property. These water lines were buried about 2-3 inches below the ground. The two growing areas I examined were very ingenious in design. A plant called Manzanita grows all over the hills in this area. This plant gets to be around 10 feet high and grows in large patches. The growers had removed all of the growth from the under side of these plants leaving an umbrella of Manzanita growing at the top of each plant. So, from above the patch of Manzanita would look normal. There was a surprising amount of headroom. All of the pots for the pot plants were still there, spaced about 3 feet apart. Each pot had the stem of the pot plant sticking out up to where the DEA had cut them off. Water lines were still present with feeder lines to each plant. These areas were well kept with pathways and no weeds. Entrance into the patch wasn’t obvious. Walking up to the patch it just looked like another patch of Manzanita; you had to find a opening that went through a small maze that lead into the growing area. A great amount of time and resource was used to create this. I had this opportunity because a relative of mine was doing some work for the fellow that bought the property in a seizure auction. An interesting side note, my relative used the CVIC engine as a replacement in an old CVIC. The car was used for a couple of years before being sold and driven across the country. This is typical for this area. People have found abandoned mines and grown underground, a common tactic is to grow several small patches of marijuana spread out over a 1-2 acre area in US forests.  Indoor growing is big there; the nurseries have more grow lamp and hydroponics supplies than any store I have seen in the Bay Area. Folks use generators and have also tapped into the main electricity line to avoid meter detection and of course not having to pay for the service.  The feds don’t have a clue of what they are up against. Cartels or not, thousands of ponds of marijuana are produced in this one area each year. This is clearly the main source of commerce for this area. In the local video store you can rent a tape on how to grow in the local forest. One last note I have meet several folks that are experts on wild mushroom picking. I guess you know what this is all about. 
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Comment #1 posted by Doug on June 09, 2001 at 11:03:02 PT
Quoting the Police
Whenever I read an article quoting law-enforcement agents of any stripe, I immediately discount it. They have lied so repeatedly and so blatantly that this is the only safe course. I realize that occasionally they may tell the truth, but they've blown their credibility. I would think that law officers would realize this problem, and try to improve their image for truth. This is another effect of prohibition.
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