newgrowerNY

North state officials try to make a federal case against pot growers
11-20-06|Redding.com|Dylan Darling


As soon as north state law enforcement teams learn the whereabouts of illegal marijuana gardens, they start planning their raids.
Often supported by federal grants — and sometimes National Guard troops — the officers don camouflage gear and hiking boots before invading pot plantations. The officers say their motivation for the raids is threefold — stop illegal activity, halt damage to the environment and protect the public.

"The longer those things (marijuana) stay out there, the more likely it is that some citizen is going to stumble into it," said Alan Foster, a special agent with the National Park Service who works out of the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area.

But, by their accounts, there are still acres and acres of pot that get processed and make it past police. The estimate of how much marijuana that agencies keep off the streets depends on who you ask. Some say they think they're catching 20 percent, others 30 percent. Others don't offer a guess, saying that if the officials knew exactly how much pot was really out there, they'd be raiding all those gardens.

A similarly low, but more defined, percentage is the number of pot growers police arrest in their raids.

About "20 percent of the time we make arrests," said Ross Butler, assistant special agent-in-charge at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Sacramento office.

Those who are arrested on suspicion of growing pot don't always end up serving hard time, said Jerry Benito, Shasta County district attorney. In California, the maximum penalty for growing marijuana is three years in a state prison, a $10,000 fine or both.

"Whether you are growing one plant or 5,000, the penalty is the same -- it's three years," Benito said.

If they behave, state convicts are often released after serving half their sentence, meaning they serve 18 months, he said.

Because of the disparity in penalties, Benito said he refers the biggest marijuana-cultivation cases to federal prosecutors.

Federal rules on marijuana are more strict -- with sentences starting at five years in federal prison for growing 100 plants, and 10 years for 1,000 plants. The sentences get longer if the growers are armed and if they have a criminal record, said McGregor Scott, U.S. attorney for California's eastern district and former Shasta County district attorney.

He said he doesn't know the conviction rate for those charged with marijuana cultivation because his office lumps all narcotics cases together, but said he's confident that most who are charged with the crime go to prison.

"Nobody (in his office) can recall a time when we didn't gain a conviction when we prosecuted someone for a big marijuana grow," Scott said.

He said his office mostly handles cases involving thousands of plants grown on federally managed land.

"When you got these huge marijuana gardens by these guys, you want to get some real sentences," Scott said.