Pubdate: Sun, 30 Sep 2007 Source: Oregonian, The (Portland, OR) Copyright: 2007 The Oregonian Contact: http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/324 Author: Kate Taylor Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) POLICE SEIZE NEARLY TWICE AS MUCH POT AS LAST YEAR Oregon - Law Enforcement Has Found 2 ,000 Plants As Of September In State's Remote, Rural Areas Harvest season this year has law enforcement scrambling to deal with the largest crop of marijuana in Oregon history. From counties long known for illegal foliage to those where marijuana is rare, narcotics agents say they are tracking and hacking an unprecedented number of plants in remote and rugged rural areas. By mid-September, they had seized about 220,000 plants statewide, nearly a 100 percent jump from last year's haul of about 120,000 plants. Almost all of the crops, DEA officials say, are grown by Mexican drug cartels expanding their California operations. Drug enforcement officials believe that overcrowding and heavy competition between marijuana growers in California are pushing the cartel-run operations into Oregon, Washington and other states. In Oregon -- which the DEA says last year ranked sixth nationwide for most marijuana seizures (California was first) -- counties are sending all the manpower they can afford deep into federal and privately owned forests to track crops, chase and arrest armed growers and to dispose of felled greenery. While a regular haul used to be about 300 to 500 plants, now it's 1,000 to 10,000, according to the state justice department. In early June, for example, the Tillamook County Sheriff's Office seized about 17,000 plants at one crop site east of Beaver. Most agencies estimate each plant is worth $1,000 by the time it is dried, with stems extracted, and packed and sold on the streets. Yet the more county, state and federal funding they throw at the problem (for helicopters, protective vests and firearms) the more marijuana they find, said Ron Nelson, the Oregon Department of Justice's marijuana eradication liaison to the DEA and state and local law enforcement agencies. Each week during harvest season, Nelson said, law enforcement typically busts two cartel-run marijuana operations. Since January, narcotics officers have arrested 30 people who are directly connected to Mexican drug trafficking organizations, Nelson said. He and DEA officials determine those connections through interviews with those arrested, as well as by evidence found at crop sites. "The problem is escalating, and a multitude of other crimes are being committed" as crops grow, Nelson said. "There are chemicals used in the growing, the diverted natural water of streams. There is the public safety hazard for people who are out in the woods recreating, running across these people in the woods who are armed and protecting their expensive gardens." Jackson County ranks highest for marijuana seizures to date this year, followed by Umatilla. From January to mid-September in Jackson County, police seized 45,349 plants, compared with 43,130 plants in all of 2006. In Umatilla County, officials razed 29,584 plants from January through last week, compared with that county's 2006 total of 8,000 plants. The seizures are riddled with drama and, sometimes, gunfire. On Sept. 6, Washington County officials taking part in a seizure of 1,100 plants in the woods near Hannah Creek fired at one another before realizing their mistake. Among other problems, the bumper crop of marijuana is making it harder for law enforcement departments to handle other work, such as methamphetamine seizures, said Yamhill County Sheriff's Office spokesman Capt. Ken Summers. The county has seized 22,000 plants this year, as opposed to last year's haul of 1,529 plants. "It's very hard for us to put our hands around the issue," Summers said. "It's growing so fast, and it's becoming so overwhelming." Tillamook County Sheriff Todd Anderson says he assigned one full-time staffer to marijuana seizure work through harvest season, and the department is eradicating marijuana with 10 times the manpower it provided a year ago. Still, marijuana crops continue to pop up in so many places that the number of seizures may still rise next year. Last year, Tillamook deputies seized 2,800 plants, but from June through September of this year, they've knocked down 25,760, he said. Those who work to end marijuana growing, such as Yamhill County's Forest Deputy Ron Wellborn, say the work holds huge challenges. There are the steep ravines, and grow-site workers who slip easily away into heavy brush. Then there's the work of felling sprawling fields of 8- to 14-foot-tall plants and gathering them into huge piles for moving or burning. And of course, there's always the threat of an angry grower taking a shot, he said. Wellborn is often tipped off by hunters, but he has accidentally walked into giant marijuana fields. "It's a little scary, not knowing who's there," says Wellborn, a 20-year veteran and seven-year forest deputy. "It's not something you want to do alone." When Wellborn finds a crop, he marks the location with a global positioning device to return later with a narcotics team. It's exhausting, sometimes dispiriting work, says Yamhill County's Summers, especially when other needs are calling for attention. "It's just wild," Summers said. Marijuana crops "seem to be growing by quantum leaps. I'm not sure how we're going to deal with it. And there are so many other things we need to be taking care of." - --- MAP posted-by: Steve Heath