The four young men had just started their marijuana harvest in rural Northern California when a dozen sheriff’s deputies swooped in with guns drawn, arrested them and spent the day chopping down 150 bushy plants with machetes.
‘I could do this every day if I had the personnel,’ Calaveras County Sheriff Rick DiBasilio said during the operation near the Sierra foothills town of Copperopolis, about two hours east of San Francisco.
Authorities this year have cut down close to 30,000 plants grown without permits in a county that is reconsidering its embrace of marijuana cultivation on the eve of statewide legalization.
Authorities this year have cut down close to 30,000 plants grown without permits in northern California alone
Sheriff’s deputies seize marijuana from a growing operation in unincorporated Calaveras County, Calif. Marijuana has deeply divided the Northern California (Pictured: Sept. 29, 2017)
A sheriff’s deputy guards three men arrested for allegedly cultivating marijuana in unincorporated Calaveras County, California
‘There are just so many of them,’ the sheriff said of the illegal farms. ‘It’s never-ending.’
Marijuana has deeply divided the financially strapped county, among many where growers are increasingly open about their operations and are starting to encroach on neighborhoods.
DiBasilio estimates the county – population 44,000 and about the size of Rhode Island – has more than 1,000 illegal farms in addition to the hundreds with permits or in the process of obtaining them.
The influx has caused a backlash among residents and led to the ouster of some county leaders who approved marijuana cultivation.
Calaveras County Sheriff Rick DiBasilio gestures while raiding a marijuana growing operation
Pot farmers operating legally, meanwhile, say they are helping the local economy, and have threatened to sue over attempts to stop them.
California is set to issue licenses in January to grow, transport and sell weed for recreational purposes, nearly 20 years after the state first authorized the drug’s consumption with a doctor’s recommendation.
Farmers can legally grow marijuana for recreational consumption next year but are required to get a local permit before applying for a state license, which has sparked a boom in pot-friendly counties.
Calaveras County legalized medical marijuana cultivation last year, seeking to tax the hundreds of farms that popped up in the region after a 2015 wildfire destroyed more than 500 homes.
A man arrested for allegedly cultivating marijuana smokes a cigarette while awaiting transport to jail
Empty beds for marijuana plants line a clearing after sheriff’s deputies raided a growing operation in unincorporated Calaveras County
A sheriff’s deputy arrests a man for allegedly cultivating marijuana in unincorporated Calaveras County
County officials expected to receive about 250 applications by the 2016 deadline. They got 770. About 200 applications have been approved, a similar number rejected, and the others are still being processed.
The sheriff gets some of the nearly $10 million in fees and taxes paid by legal farmers to crack down on illegal grows, many of which the department has mapped from the air.
The new pot farms have brought a bustling industry that includes the sounds of generators, bright lights illuminating gardens at night, water trucks kicking up dust on their way to grows, the distinct odor of marijuana, and tents, trailers and other temporary housing for migrant workers. Local hardware stores’ gardening sections are now stocked with pot farming supplies.
Law enforcement officials say they have raided farms where they’ve found pesticides that are banned in the U.S.
‘It has changed our way of life,’ said Bill McManus, head of an organization seeking to ban marijuana in Calaveras County. ‘The environmental impacts are atrocious.’
To the north, even the fabled pot-growing mecca known as the Emerald Triangle has been thrown into political turmoil as more farmers set up shop ahead of legalization.
The California Growers Association estimates about 3,500 farmers in Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties have applied for local permits and will be in position to receive a state license. Another 29,000 farmers there haven’t bothered with the paperwork, according to the group.
Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman complained his county’s laws allowing cultivation are too ‘gentle’ and attract violent crime, including a farmworker’s recent homicide.
A man arrested for allegedly cultivating marijuana pets Ace, a dog who lives at the farm, while awaiting transport to jail
Marijuana hangs on a line while drying at a growing operation in unincorporated Calaveras County
In Siskiyou County, leaders declared a state of emergency and called on Gov. Jerry Brown to help with an influx of marijuana farmers, who have snatched up inexpensive land for planting even though pot cultivation is illegal there.
Two growers were arrested and charged with offering Siskiyou County Sheriff Jon Lopey $1 million to leave their farms alone.
‘That’s all you need to know about the type of money involved,’ Lopey said. ‘This isn’t confined to the state. There’s a big market outside of California they are supplying.’
In Calaveras County, voters in January replaced four of the five supervisors who voted to legalize marijuana.
The new majority has vowed to repeal legalization and institute a strict ban. But a formal vote has been delayed several times amid threats of lawsuits from farmers.