Growing and selling marijuana on the black market remains a lucrative business in California, long after voters approved the sale and recreational use of marijuana in 2016. But state law enforcement officials continued to try to dismantle illicit production to better support legal businesses.
About $53.6 million worth of illegal cannabis was seized in the first three months of 2024, according to an April 11 report from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Between January 1 and March 31, the Governor’s Unified Cannabis Enforcement Task Force seized 31,866 pounds of unlicensed cannabis and eradicated 54,137 unlicensed cannabis plants. Agents executed a total of 18 search warrants across the state, including two in Alameda County.
Since its creation in late 2022, the task force has gleaned more than $371 million in unlicensed cannabis and 400,000 illicit plants, after executing more than 230 search warrants.
In its first full calendar year of operation in 2023, the estimated value of cannabis seized in Alameda County exceeded $77.8 million – the highest of any county in California, followed by Siskiyou Counties , Mendocino, Los Angeles and Kern.
Notable cases of illegal grow operations in the East Bay in recent months include the March 29 seizure in East Oakland of $10 million worth of cannabis from a property just north of Coliseum – the third such crackdown in the region in the past six months – as well as a raid in February 2023 when authorities seized approximately 12,000 pounds of cannabis worth more than $19 million in a West Berkeley warehouse. Another illicit grow operation in Oakland, housing an estimated $36.9 million worth of unlicensed cannabis, was shut down in October; State law enforcement officials said it was one of the most profitable operations that year.
Additionally, authorities further north in Contra Costa County shut down 20 illegal indoor cannabis growers in Antioch, Brentwood, Pittsburg and Discovery Bay, whose cannabis value was estimated at more than $15.3 million. dollars last June.
Although state statistics don’t reflect all local enforcement efforts, Gov. Gavin Newsom praised the work underway across California, which he said is home to the largest legal cannabis market in the country. world.
“As we continue to cultivate a legal market,” Newsom said in a statement, “we are taking aggressive action to crack down on those who still operate in the shadows – shutting down illegal operations linked to organized crime, trafficking of human beings and the proliferation of illegal products that harm the environment and public health.
Efforts to shut down illegal cannabis operations rely largely on intelligence gathering and targeted investigations, according to Bill Jones, chief of the Department of Cannabis Control’s law enforcement division, established in July 2021 .
He confirmed to NPR earlier this month that the black market is “significantly larger” than the legal market. In addition to the ripple effects of poor enforcement during the first years of legalization in California, many cannabis entrepreneurs worry that California’s $5.3 billion legal marijuana industry dollars, is struggling to stay afloat, in part because of continued federal restrictions, the rise of illicit markets and the collapse of wholesale trade. pot prices per pound and crippling tax burdens that have decimated any profit potential.
Beyond efforts to mitigate black market commerce, Jones said Thursday that the task force’s work to end unlicensed cannabis operations also has an important public safety element.
The dangers associated with illicit cannabis businesses can range from health risks related to untested vape cartridges that may be filled with toxic additives to fires started by electrical connections that have been altered or even bypassed by unlicensed producers.
Last month, an Antioch home was destroyed following an illegal marijuana grow operation that complicated the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District’s efforts to put out the flames.
Although the district does not currently collect data on fires linked to black market cannabis businesses, Fire Chief Lewis Broschard told county officials at a fire district meeting last week that “operations of illegal marijuana cultivation are just as prevalent now as they were before legalization.
California Daily Newspapers
