California AG Rob Bonta announces new year-round campaign to crack down on illegal marijuana

California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Tuesday announced an overhaul of his office’s Illegal marijuana enforcement program, with a new emphasis on issues like environmental damage, tax evasion and organized crime.

Bonta, a Democrat who is running for election to his first full term next month, announced that the Department of Justice’s annual, summer-long “Campaign Against Marijuana Planting” (CAMP) is being upgraded to a year-round program and re-named “Eradication and Prevention of Illicit Cannabis,” or EPIC.

He also announced the results of the 2022 CAMP action: more than 973,000 plants eradicated, more than 203,000 pounds of illegally processed cannabis and 184 weapons seized across 449 operations in 26 counties around the state.

In addition, law enforcement found people who were victims of human trafficking, Bonta said.

“They are cogs in a much bigger, more organized machine and to be clear, they are being exploited,” he said.

CAMP, which has been around since the early ‘80s, is comprised of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies that work to uncover and eradicate the illegal cannabis grows that fuel a multi-billion-dollar industry in California.

Last year, CAMP eradicated nearly 1.2 million illegally cultivated marijuana plants during nearly 500 operations. At the time, Bonta announced that his office would conduct a six-month review of CAMP “in light of changes to the law since the program was first initiated with the goal of building on existing efforts to address the environmental, labor, and economic impacts of illegal cultivation.”

Bonta said that EPIC will focus on environmental damage, labor exploitation and tax evasion and organized crime.

“EPIC represents an important shift in mindset and in mission to reflect some of the gravest harms, most egregious harms arising from these illegal operations,” Bonta said.

The attorney general said that the change is necessary because the law and culture around marijuana has changed since CAMP first began.

“CAMP was created in 1983, during what was then a very different time, a different era, a different moment, during the failed War on Drugs and a time when cannabis was still entirely illegal here in California. Our laws have since changed and so has CAMP,” Bonta said.

This story was originally published October 11, 2022 at 3:08 PM.