Despite legalization, illegal marijuana growing persists
Sheriff finding large gardens in mountains
Tulare County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Jim Franks is not surprised law enforcement is finding large marijuana grow sites in the foothills and forest this year.
Despite the legalization of the recreational use, and even limited growing, of marijuana, Franks said they always expected the large grow sites, usually connected to drug cartels or large illegal growers, would continue.
“The law is not deterring illegal growing,” he said after officers with the Sheriff’s Office and state tore up 40,870 plants recently. “It never was. That was misinformation,” he said of Prop. 64 (Adult Use of Marijuana Act) which voters passed in November of 2016.
That new law allows for the legal recreational use of marijuana and even for individuals to grow up to as many as six plants. Eventually — January of 2018 — the law will allow for marijuana stores and large-scale commercial growing operations which will have to be licensed.
“We do not expect the Cartel growing is going to stop,” said Franks, explaining the illicit pot will always be cheaper to buy because people will not have to pay the tax expected with store sales.
Also, he said the illegally grown marijuana will eventually get mixed in with the legally grown to increase profits at stores because it is cheaper to grow the marijuana on federal land in the forest than a legal, commercial operation will cost.
“I don’t see it discontinuing. There’s too much money in it,” he said. “It’s just a big scam,” he said of the efforts to legalize marijuana.
However, on the smaller scale operations, the law may be having an impact.
Porterville Police Lt. Dominic Barteau said so far this year the checks they have made on the growing of marijuana have found people to be in compliance with the new law.
“So far, they have encountered people complying with the law,” he said.
That was not the case last year when officers discovered several large growing operations in the city, although nothing on the scale of what the sheriff’s office has found this year in the mountains.
The new law allows for up to an ounce of possession of marijuana for those 18 years of age and older. However, according to Franks, the person with the marijuana will not be required to show proof whether they purchased it at a licensed marijuana store, or from a person on the street.
“As soon as you drive away from the guy you brought it from, it’s legal,” said Franks
The sheriff’s office, along with federal and state law enforcement, are back in the mountains this summer looking for the large grow sites. The find on Blue Ridge was the biggest so far and was spotted during one of the numerous fly overs of the mountains being conducted.
In the Blue Ridge operation, the Sheriff’s Tulare Area Gang Narcotics Enforcement Team (TAGNET) detectives conducted overflights in the mountains. Once it was spotted, they joined forces with the CAMP (Campaign Against Marijuana Planting) task force for a two-day operation to eradicate the plants. No arrests were made. As with all illegal grow sites, there was damage to the terrain, including chemicals and lots of trash.
In that bust, 40,870 plants with a street value of $122 million were removed.
Franks knows it will be a long summer.
“We’re really just getting started eradicating up in the mountains,” he said, adding the job of identifying illegal grow sites in the Valley has been turned over to code enforcement.
He has not been surprised they are already finding grow sites, acknowledging the wet winter has put more water into the hills, water the illegal growers use to grow their crop.
“We already know its going to be there,” he said. He added the Blue Ridge area has always been popular with growers.
“I expect a busy summer, yes,” he answered his own question. He said depending on the weather, they could be finding grow sites into December.
Growing Season The most popular elevation for growing marijuana, he said, is between 3,000 and 4,000 feet in elevation, but they have found plants as high as 8,000 feet.
“The plants are rarely taller than 6-feet,” he said of plants developed by the Cartels to make them less visible from the air. “The taller they are, the easier they are to spot,” he said.
And, he said, the Cartels have developed plants which mature more quickly and can grow higher up in the mountains where the growing season is shorter.
Franks said they know where to first look and then they look for patterns which indicate a grow site. Right now, the mountains are still pretty green, but as they dry out, the gardens will begin to stick out more.
He knows they are only making a dent.
“What they do, they overwhelm us. They use the same spots, but we know there’s grow sites out there we’ll never find,” he said.
He said the large operations are definitely financed and set up by the Cartel.
“They take good care of them. When it gets close to harvest time, they’ll put in a harvesting crew,” he said.
Unfortunately, by the time officers get to a grow site, those who have been living there and working there have run into the brush or woods. Seldom are there arrests, as was the case with the two big busts this summer.
As for the marijuana they find, it is either destroyed on site or taken and buried. Franks said because of the high moisture content of marijuana, is molds very quickly, making it worthless.
Does he feel they are fighting a losing battle? No, he does not.
“Yes, I think we are fighting the good fight. I do believe we are making a difference,” he said.