300,000 marijuana plants worth 1.8 billion dollars seized in California

300,000 marijuana plants worth 1.8 billion dollars seized in California

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050722/ts_alt_afp/usdrugscalifornia_050722192851
Fri Jul 22, 3:28 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Authorities in California have seized almost 300,000
marijuana plants with a street value of 1.8 billion dollars, law
enforcement officials said.

The huge haul of cannabis was seized since April in a series of raids aimed
at stamping out marijuana growing in the West Coast, the state's Attorney
General Bill Lockyer said.

"California's landscape is being ravaged by the chemicals and the waste
associated with these illegal marijuana gardens," Lockyer said in a statement.

"The illegal gardens seized by (police) are contaminating our water,
destroying our land and also presenting increased risk for innocent hikers
that may inadvertently stumble across one of these gardens that are guarded
by armed men."

California has been targeting marijuana crops at the start of the growing
season for the past 22 years, seizing more than four million plants with an
estimated wholesale value of more than 16 billion dollars.

The marijuana growing season starts in mid-April with harvests ending in
late September or early October.

So far this year, authorities have arrested 13 people, seized 293,511
plants and 46 weapons and destroyed 113 pot gardens, officials said.

The free-wheeling state of California has for years been a battleground
between federal US officials and groups that advocate the use and
legalization of marijuana as a medicine for sick and dying patients.

The US Supreme Court in June refused to sanction the use of marijuana for
medical purposes, dashing the hopes of thousands of patients using the
substance for pain relief in California and other states.