Monterey County holds the top spot statewide as the county with the most illegal cannabis destroyed during the last quarter, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office. On Oct. 21, they reported 76,166 pounds of allegedly illegal cannabis were destroyed with a value of more than $125.6 million, making up over half of the total illegal cannabis seized in the state over the months of July, August and September. Los Angeles was a distant second, with 16,340 pounds of illegal cannabis destroyed valued at $26.9 million.

“The bigger you are, the harder they fall,” says Michelle House, Monterey County’s Cannabis Program Manager.

She attributes a large part – if not all – of those numbers to a cannabis bust that occurred in July near Pajaro, at 1400 San Juan Road. According to planning records, Ladybug Farms, LLC was granted a use permit for approximately 715,000 square feet of medical cannabis cultivation in existing greenhouses, as well as approximately 6,000 square feet of non-volatile processing.

House explains that illegal cannabis can appear a lot of different ways, including growing cannabis on a legal farm but not going through proper tracking mechanisms.

The investigation into that site was led by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department in collaboration with the Unified Cannabis Enforcement Taskforce, a multi-agency taskforce under California’s Department of Cannabis Control.

While House doesn’t investigate illegal activity, her focus is to ensure ordinances and the correct processes are met on farms trying to transition to legalization. “From seed to sale,” she says, “it has to be tracked.”