Indopedia All Things Marijuana
In 2017, the DEA busted over 4,000 outdoor cannabis grows and almost 1,400 indoor grows, seizing over 3 million cannabis plants. In the previous year, the agency busted around 5,500 outdoor grows and 1,900 indoor grows, destroying over 5 million cannabis plants.
Nearly three-quarters of all of the marijuana plants seized last year came from California, the country’s largest supplier of black market weed. The feds busted 1,514 illegal grow-ops in the Golden State last year, destroying nearly 2.5 million plants and seizing over $2.5 million in assets. The total number of seized plants fell 35% since 2016, when recreational cannabis was still illegal in the state.
Conservative Midwestern and Southern states were also popular targets for federal pot raids, although significantly less so than California. The DEA confiscated 472,927 cannabis plants in Kentucky last year, along with 74,599 in West Virginia, 62,323 plants in Arkansas, and 60,658 in Indiana. Idaho, Delaware, and Kansas had the lowest number of federal pot busts, with only 10, 56, and 66 plants seized, respectively. Despite Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ constant threats to crack down on all forms of marijuana, the Department of Justice is under pressure from bipartisan politicians to back off from its war on weed.
The DEA will also have to keep its hands off state-legal medical marijuana operations for the near future.
