WINGETT RUN - Local law enforcement agents say more marijuana has been confiscated from growing operations this month than in the past five years combined.
The latest bust came Monday when officers claim they discovered large marijuana plants growing along with vegetables in the garden of 60-year-old Douglas White of Wingett Run.
The plants were discovered during a state-sponsored helicopter eradication effort. Agents of the local Major Crimes Task Force searched the property and residence at 1919 Wingett Run Road, finding five marijuana plants weighing more than 43 pounds, according to Washington County sheriff's Maj. Mark Warden.
White appeared Monday in Marietta Municipal Court, charged with a third-degree felony count of illegal cultivation of marijuana. He is being held in the Washington County Jail on $15,000 bond. White has no prior criminal record, according to police.
He is expected to appear for a preliminary hearing at 3:30 p.m. Sept. 8 in Marietta Municipal Court.
Marijuana generally sells for $1,500 a pound once it is processed and packaged, meaning the plants seized this week could have had a street value of more than $60,000.
It was the second significant cultivation bust in the last month. On Aug. 17, a 60-year-old Lawrence Township woman was charged with cultivation after a separate fly-over led to the discovery of more than 350 marijuana plants at her residence.
Retired nurse Ronda Sue Rublee, 60, of 2480 Reed Road, Marietta, was charged with felony cultivation out of the Aug. 17 fly-over. Her case has been bound over to Washington County Common Pleas Court for possible grand jury indictment.
Both area residents have claimed the grow operations were for personal use, according to police. They each face up to five years in prison and $15,000 in fines if convicted.
Washington County sheriff's Sgt. Josh Staats said officers have discovered more marijuana grow operations this year than in the past five combined.
"I'm not exactly sure why that is," he said. "We found about 30 plants during all of last year. This month we've found almost 1,000."
Across the state, authorities reported finding more than 40,000 marijuana plants in August - almost as many as were uncovered in the state in all of last year.
According to the Ohio Attorney General's Office, annual statistics show the number of marijuana plants seized around the state is on the rise. In 2009, 48,000 outdoor marijuana plants were eradicated in Ohio. That number represented an increase from 40,158 in 2008, 37,835 in 2007 and 33,265 in 2006.
The southeastern portion of Ohio routinely contains the largest concentration of outdoor marijuana plants seized (27,749 last year). Southwestern Ohio often ranks second, with 6,995 plants seized last year.
Sheriff's Sgt. Carrie Smithberger said she isn't sure if people are being more carefree with their grow operations or if the economy or other factors are enticing people to grow marijuana in hopes of cashing in on a good harvest. One mature marijuana plant can bring as much as $2,500 on the street, according to police.
"I think some - like these two recent arrests - are probably people we've just missed in the past," she said. "But there are all these other grows we've found where it seems people are just a lot more lax about where they're planting."
Smithberger said officers are still working to identify the persons responsible for other large crops that were confiscated. One of those grows involved more than 200 plants that were taken from property owned by a local business in western Washington County.
"Instead of finding one plant here and one plant there, we've been finding several groups of 50 plants or more," Smithberger said.
Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation special agent supervisor Scott Duff told the Associated Press he expects those numbers to increase in the coming years as outdoor pot-growing operations are becoming more common in places like rural Ohio, where rich soil, hilly terrain and smaller police forces make it ripe for growing.
Washington County Sheriff Larry Mincks announced this summer his office was abandoning its aviation unit, citing budgetary concerns. The unit consisted of two helicopters that were often used for drug eradication efforts.
BCI&I agents have contracted with the sheriff's office to provide air support for eradication efforts. Those agents, in conjunction with the local Major Crimes Task Force, have accounted for all of the plants confiscated this month.
Drug Enforcement Agency special agent Rich Isaacson recently told the Associated Press that outdoor pot-growing operations are becoming more common in the U.S. - and moving out of their traditional locations on the West Coast. Still, Isaacson said most of the marijuana in the U.S. crosses the border from Mexico.
