Cannitrol – Cannabis Control Agent

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El Paso deputies confiscate $13M worth of marijuana, guns in first three months of black market crackdown

large bags of marijuana
More than 110 pounds of marijuana and approximately 75 plants that were ready for harvest were seized April 4, 2018, from a home in the 16500 block of Stage Stop Road in Peyton, Colo. Photo provided by the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.

El Paso County sheriff’s deputies in the first three months of 2018 confiscated about $12 million worth of illegally grown marijuana plants, another $1 million in processed marijuana, made 16 arrests and seized more than a dozen guns under a state law designed to stop the diversion of legal pot to the drug’s black market.

The actions come under House Bills 17-1220 and 17-1221, signed in June last year to clamp down on illegal pot as well as rein in regulations that allowed for a “grey market” to prosper. The bills capped home-grows at 12 plants, down from 99, and allocated $6 million of pot tax revenue to black-market enforcement.

Between Jan. 1 and March 31, deputies served 30 search warrants and conducted another 30 “knock and talks,” as well as confiscated a marijuana trimming machine worth about $10,000, in its crack-down, the department said Friday.