Last year, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) seized 37% fewer cannabis plants than they did in 2016, according to the agency's annual Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program Statistical Report. In 2017, the DEA busted over 4,000 outdoor cannabis grows and almost 1,400 indoor grows, seizing over 3 million cannabis plants. In the previous year, the agency busted around 5,500 outdoor grows and 1,900 indoor grows, destroying over 5 million cannabis plants.
Nearly three-quarters of all of the marijuana plants seized last year came from California, the country's largest supplier of black market weed. The feds busted 1,514 illegal grow-ops in the Golden State last year, destroying nearly 2.5 million plants and seizing over $2.5 million in assets. The total number of seized plants fell 35% since 2016, when recreational cannabis was still illegal in the state. California still supplies the country's cannabis black market with over 11 million tons of weed annually, much of it harvested in illegal grow-ops that are poisoning the environment with pesticide runoff. >>>