A lot of who they enforce it on is dependent on asset forfeiture.
This often means they go after larger grows because people doing larger grows typically have land.
However they can also go after home owners too.
You see property involved in illegal drug production under the law can often be seized.
Most assets in the home, and cars etc can also be seized if they merely claim they were at least partially paid for by illegal drug income, and the drug producer cannot refute that.
These crimes are also accompanied by hefty fines, fines that are so high they may also take even what they cannot outright seize as partial payment, like if say the person has gold or other very valuable liquid assets.
Bottom line is they can come in and take a lot or in some cases most of what a person owns just because they are illegally manufacturing.
If you consider the average home is worth hundreds of thousands many places, home owners are a gold mine. They will often at least pay for the prosecution or a good portion of it, if not make income for the agency involved.
Now the reverse is also somewhat true, those with no assets typically can't afford decent lawyers and so are easy to prosecute. So they do that sometimes too, but asset forfeiture is much more attractive.
Remember when the ATF bulk ordered the multitools with 'Always Think Forfeiture' engraved on them as a cute play on their acronym? Well it is not just the ATF that thinks like that.
Many local, state, and federal agencies obtain a good portion of budget from seizing assets.
I have lived places where the Sheriff had entire fleets of vehicles that were seized assets, repainted and used for official duties. Like seized offroad vehicles used to patrol offroad, seized boats used, etc
With many more sold in auctions for profit.
The worse the financial situation of the County or city the more interested they were, and I imagine now with a lot of budgets hard to balance it is even more attractive to law enforcement.
than it normally is.
In California what state and local officials also do to arrest and prosecute people that are abiding by state law is they have a Federal Agent technically do the arrest. A couple federal agents will be 'assisted' by dozens of local law enforcemnt to raid a place legally growing or selling marijuana under state law.
This means when the local Sheriff is not favorable to marijuana they just place a call to the local Federal agents in the region and plan a date.
In all reality it is really the Sheriff doing the raid, initiating it, and providing most of the manpower for it, but technically it is the Feds and it is handled in Federal court.
Many state and local outfits can apply for various federal funding to combat drugs, and proactively doing such things can make it easier to get additional federal funding.
While they typically weigh the plants at wet weight (drug is much lighter at dry weight) and multiply or estimate for the crop, and count all the parts that would not even be used or sold like the primary stem, roots, etc, and then factor that weight as if it was worth the highest estimate for street sales they can find (often beyond value of even much higher quality) to arrive at some insane street value.
They then quote this street value as thier accomplishment.
It is pretty comical. But it is how they show they are getting a lot done, and justify getting a lot of funding to do even more in the future.
This often means they go after larger grows because people doing larger grows typically have land.
However they can also go after home owners too.
You see property involved in illegal drug production under the law can often be seized.
Most assets in the home, and cars etc can also be seized if they merely claim they were at least partially paid for by illegal drug income, and the drug producer cannot refute that.
These crimes are also accompanied by hefty fines, fines that are so high they may also take even what they cannot outright seize as partial payment, like if say the person has gold or other very valuable liquid assets.
Bottom line is they can come in and take a lot or in some cases most of what a person owns just because they are illegally manufacturing.
If you consider the average home is worth hundreds of thousands many places, home owners are a gold mine. They will often at least pay for the prosecution or a good portion of it, if not make income for the agency involved.
Now the reverse is also somewhat true, those with no assets typically can't afford decent lawyers and so are easy to prosecute. So they do that sometimes too, but asset forfeiture is much more attractive.
Remember when the ATF bulk ordered the multitools with 'Always Think Forfeiture' engraved on them as a cute play on their acronym? Well it is not just the ATF that thinks like that.
Many local, state, and federal agencies obtain a good portion of budget from seizing assets.
I have lived places where the Sheriff had entire fleets of vehicles that were seized assets, repainted and used for official duties. Like seized offroad vehicles used to patrol offroad, seized boats used, etc
With many more sold in auctions for profit.
The worse the financial situation of the County or city the more interested they were, and I imagine now with a lot of budgets hard to balance it is even more attractive to law enforcement.
than it normally is.
In California what state and local officials also do to arrest and prosecute people that are abiding by state law is they have a Federal Agent technically do the arrest. A couple federal agents will be 'assisted' by dozens of local law enforcemnt to raid a place legally growing or selling marijuana under state law.
This means when the local Sheriff is not favorable to marijuana they just place a call to the local Federal agents in the region and plan a date.
In all reality it is really the Sheriff doing the raid, initiating it, and providing most of the manpower for it, but technically it is the Feds and it is handled in Federal court.
Many state and local outfits can apply for various federal funding to combat drugs, and proactively doing such things can make it easier to get additional federal funding.
While they typically weigh the plants at wet weight (drug is much lighter at dry weight) and multiply or estimate for the crop, and count all the parts that would not even be used or sold like the primary stem, roots, etc, and then factor that weight as if it was worth the highest estimate for street sales they can find (often beyond value of even much higher quality) to arrive at some insane street value.
They then quote this street value as thier accomplishment.
It is pretty comical. But it is how they show they are getting a lot done, and justify getting a lot of funding to do even more in the future.
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