West Virginia State Police say they achieved a record amount of marijuana confiscations in 2009. Including indoor and outdoor crops, police say they eradicated 222,621 plants, up from about 140,000 last year and 44,000 in 2007, Ben Adducchio of West Virginia Public Broadcasting reports. The total value of the confiscated plants, at $2,000 per plant (which can sometimes be an over-estimate), was almost $450 million.
State Police Cpl. Michael Smith told Adducchio that the state ranked in the top five nationally in marijuana confiscations. "West Virginia has a near perfect climate for cultivating marijuana. It has a moderate Southern latitude temperature range; it has ideal growing conditions," Smith said. "A lot of the texture of the state is remote. West Virginia has a culture that is familiar with farming, so there are a lot of areas where it can be grown." (Read more)
In September we noted a report from The Associated Press detailing how marijuana seizures were up this year in the major production areas of California and Central Appalachia. The AP reported California remains the No. 1 marijuana producing state. In November, Glenda Anderson of The Post Democrat of Santa Rosa, Calif., reported seizures in the state had already hit 4.4 million plants, up from 2.9 million in 2008. Is your state a leader?
No comments:
Post a Comment