Mary Jane confiscations up this year

After a few years of low-level marijuana busts, Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement (JADE) officers recently confiscated what they price as roughly $4.8 million worth of the drug—one of the biggest hauls in JADE history. Officers found 4,400 pot plants surrounded by bamboo on property near Scottsville, charging Gary Peck with manufacturing marijuana with the intent to distribute.
    With that bust alone, JADE will likely topple last year’s total, a mere five pounds. Because the yield of marijuana plants widely varies, valuations based on pounds are hard to calculate, but street prices of $200 per ounce would translate that amount to only around $16,000.
    “We’ve seen a reduction in growing operations over the years,” says JADE officer C.R. Smith. Though Smith is uncertain why numbers would be up this year, she speculates that a lull in recent confiscations made growers less cautious.
    Anonymous tips are JADE’s primary source, says Smith. “There are also indicators like high electric and water bills that might tip you off if they’re growing indoors. Or neighbors might notice the odor.” Random fly-overs, not nearly as useful as tips, are done too, according to Smith.
    Bamboo is often used to camouflage marijuana, but few have the audacity to grow the drug in a large patch, as Peck did. Smith says it is more common to find plants mixed into vegetation at intervals of several feet.