Pot Shots in California

Guard dogs, wired fields and a crop that blows the mind

By their rude patches in the remote valleys of California stand embattled small farmers defending pot that is known around the world for its high quality: sinsemilla (a Spanish-derived word meaning without seed), an unusually potent hybrid marijuana. Ever since Mexico began widespread spraying of its pot fields with the herbicide paraquat, cutting shipments to the U.S., sinsemilla has become one of California's fastest growing--and most profitable--crops. California's pot patches range from small gardens with a few plants to 2 1/2-acre fields that may yield up to 4,000 sinsemilla plants, some with 4-in. trunks that stand 20 ft. tall. With 1 oz. of sinsemilla retailing for $250, and each stalk producing up to 32 oz. of pot, narcotics officials estimate the value of the California crop at a mind-blowing $1 billion--at least equal in value to the state's grape harvest.

Even though 647 patches were spotted in a single county last year, drug officials seized only 53,000 Ibs., about 15% of the estimated total harvest. But there is an all-out effort to curb this year's harvest, which must be completed before November's rains. Officials estimate that there is a bumper crop, mostly in 27 northern counties. Says California Attorney General George Deukmejian: "We can't expect other countries to carry out drug-eradication programs if we don't make an intensive effort here." The state bureau of narcotics has increased its marijuana task force from two to seven agents and borrowed planes, helicopters and officers from the federal Drug Enforcement Agency.

Because the sinsemilla plants need a lot of sunshine, most large plots can be spotted from the air by experienced agents, who summon raiding parties armed with search warrants, flak jackets and chain saws. They cut down and truck the stalks to incinerators. The cultivators who are caught usually get off with probation, though the maximum penalty is a $5,000 fine and ten years in prison.

The potgrowers are fighting back. Some try to hide their sinsemilla stalks among tall sunflowers. One imaginative cultivator hung red Christmas-tree balls on his pot plants, trying to make them look like tomato plants from the air. The ruse did not work, because any cultivated ground in the middle of a forest attracts the suspicions of drug-enforcement officials. A few growers have even taken shots at the agents' low-flying planes, causing one casualty: a sheriff was wounded in the back while circling a marijuana patch in Riverside County, east of Los Angeles.

Some growers are booby-trapping their patches, and not just to keep out the police. The pot farmers must also fight off poachers, many of them local teenagers. Fields have been found equipped with electrical alarm systems, guard dogs, shotgun traps and even punji sticks, the sharpened stakes used by the Viet Cong to pierce the feet of patrolling American and South Vietnamese soldiers. Mendocino County, located north of San Francisco, has had several assaults, shootings and even one killing related to pot thefts. Warns Sonoma County District Attorney Gene Tunney, son of the late heavyweight boxing champion: "If you go walking in the hills during harvest time, you're asking to have your head blown off."

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