Pot seizures and arrests up sharply
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Drug agents this fall seized a record haul of nearly 3 million marijuana plants, more than two-thirds of them from state and national forests and other public lands, authorities announced Wednesday.
The tally from the annual marijuana eradication campaign conducted by state and federal drug agents represented a 25% increase over 2007. Lake County yielded the most pot, with nearly 500,000 plants uprooted. The counties of Tulare, Shasta, Mendocino and Humboldt rounded out the top five.
Law enforcement officers also arrested 143 people, nearly triple the number from last year, and seized 142 weapons during raids conducted over the last two months.
The effort marked the 26th year that state and federal law officers and other agencies have combined efforts during the fall harvest season in a bid to put a dent in California’s illegal marijuana crop.
California is the nation’s biggest producer of pot, accounting for more than half of the cannabis grown in the U.S., authorities say.
-- Eric Bailey
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