Marijuana plant seizures doubled in Washington in 2007

Marijuana plant seizures doubled in Washington in 2007

This August 2007 photo released by Seattle Police shows a marijuana grow operation raided by investigators.

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Story Published: May 22, 2008 at 8:42 AM PDT

Story Updated: Nov 20, 2008 at 8:33 PM PDT

By Associated Press

YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) - Seizures of marijuana plants in Washington more than doubled to 296,611 last year, and the Office of National Drug Control Policy ranks the state second only to California in outdoor pot farming.

Washington ranked third in indoor pot production with California first in that category as well, authorities said during the annual spring conference of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs this week.

The scope of pot seizures in Washington is about at the level of California seven to 10 years ago, Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Matt Duran said. Last year 3 million plants were seized in California, more than 10 times as many as in Washington.

"It's kind of the prediction for our future," Duran said. "It's going to get worse before it gets better."

The Evergreen State has far fewer resources than California for targeting pot operations, State Patrol Lt. Richard A. Wiley said.

"They do marijuana eradication for six months straight, while we're lucky if we can afford to do it for five weeks," Wiley said.

Large-scale marijuana growers in Washington often operate in remote areas of national forests and Indian reservations. Leading counties for outside marijuana production last year include Klickitat, Yakima, Grant, Franklin and Skamania, and 102,379 plants - more than a third of the total - were seized on tribal lands.

Indoor growing is more typical in Western Washington, especially in the Seattle-Tacoma-Everett area. In King County, which includes Seattle, 26,359 plants were seized, sometimes in homes in well-off areas where neighbors had no idea anything was amiss, Duran said.

In those operations - 30 to 50 statewide that DEA knows about and likely more than have escaped detection- homes are jammed with marijuana plants, electric lines are tapped illegally to power grow lamps, carbon filters are mounted to mask telltale odors and booby traps are set to deter intruders, he said.

"It's just going to get worse and worse," Duran said. "It's spreading through the United States."

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