Marijuana prohibition has officially ended in California, but you might be forgiven for thinking otherwise given the continued crackdown on grow operations across the state. On Monday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the seizure of 1.2 million illegally cultivated marijuana plants and 180,000 pounds of processed marijuana as part of the state's Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) program.
The CAMP program dates back to the "just say no" days of the 1980s. It's been kept alive since the legalization of recreational sales in 2018. Its new target is the marijuana black market that has persisted outside the state's legal, but heavily taxed and r egulated, cannabis industry.
"Illegal and unlicensed marijuana planting is bad for our environment, bad for our economy, and bad for the health and safety of our communities," said Bonta. "From dumping toxic chemicals in our waterways to cheating the state out of millions of tax dollars, illicit marijuana grows have far-reaching impacts and unintended consequences."
A press release from Bonta's office says that this year's seizures were the result of 491 raids conducted by federal, state, and local agencies in 26 counties. In addition to the untaxed marijuana, these operations also netted illegal pesticides and 165 weapons. That's about one gun per every three raids, suggesting the state isn't nabbing a lot of Pablo Escobars.
Despite the herculean effort put into the CAMP program, the black market cannabis industry doesn't appear to be any worse for wear. In fact, these raids are bringing in an increasing amount of dangerously untaxed marijuana each year.
In 2020, CAMP operations seized 1.1 million illegal marijuana plants. That's up from just under 1 million plants seized in 2019, and well above the 614,267 plants taken in 2018, reports the Sacramento Bee.
If the CAMP program were an effective means of eliminating a marijuana black market, one would expect the number of plants seized to be going down, not up.
Indeed, just as a black market existed under the state's formal, blanket ban on marijuana, illegal grow operations are likely going to continue in the new post-prohibition regime. That'll be true as long as these growers can undercut the prices of the formal cannabis economy, with all its red tape and taxes. Because this is California, land use regulations and confusing licensing regimes often make it difficult for budding entrepreneurs to enter this heavily regulated legal market in the first place.
It doesn't look like state officials are rushing to deregulate the cannabis industry any time soon. Bonta said that he is launching a six-month review of the CAMP program. But that review is to refocus the state's efforts on addressing "the environmental, labor, and economic impacts of illegal cultivation."
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