California's marijuana seizures at all-time high

California's pot police have again shattered records for confiscating marijuana.

The state's Campaign Against Marijuana Planting seized 4.4 million marijuana plants during this year's eradication operations of four-and-a-half months, up from last year's take of 2.9 million, officials said Wednesday.

State Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement spokeswoman Michelle Gregory attributed the hike to increased cultivation and more comprehensive eradication.

“We think they're growing larger gardens and we're getting better at finding them and being able to access them,” she said.

Critics say the increase in marijuana seizures is an indication the war on pot production has failed.

Confiscation records were also set in Lake and Mendocino counties, two of the top five pot producers in the state. But after three years in the top spot, Lake County fell this year to second place, despite the seizure of 506,506 plants, up from 499,508 last year.

Shasta County, where law officials seized 557,862 plants, took its place for the most pot seized.

State officials, together with local law enforcement, seized 440,689 pot plants in Mendocino County, up from 231,802 last year. In Sonoma County, just over 100,000 plants were seized, compared with 71,364 last year.

The state's figures do not include the number of pot plants seized by local officials the rest of the year and without assistance from the state program, called CAMP.

Most of the seized marijuana — over 75 percent — was growing on public, state or federal land. And much of it is grown by Mexican drug cartels, state law officials said.

The gardens are causing deforestation, damage to wildlife habitat and streams and leaving behind chemical pollution, they said.

Armed gardeners pose a risk to people utilizing public lands for recreation, said George Anderson, director of the Justice Department's Division of Law Enforcement.

CAMP seized 89 weapons and made 111 arrests during the operation.