Low Penalties, Big Profits Help Fuel Marijuana Cultivation : Law enforcement: More indoor and outdoor pot operations have been found in the last six months than in any similar period, an official says.

Small penalties, coupled with large profits, have spurred an increase in marijuana cultivation in Ventura County, law enforcement officials say.

More operations--both indoor and outdoor--have been discovered this year than in any other six-month period, Sheriff’s Sgt. Gary Pentis said.

“We’ve seen an increase in pot-growing throughout the county over the past year,” said Pentis, a member of the Sheriff’s Department’s narcotics division.

Several thousand plants have been seized countywide since January, including 800 plants last week at two locations, authorities said. More arrests are expected as the summer harvest season approaches.

Several factors have combined to spur the increase, but jacked-up pot prices may be the leading cause, Pentis said. Marijuana is the biggest cash crop in the state, yielding a $2.5-billion annual harvest.

In the past three years, the price of a pound of high-grade sinsemilla marijuana--known as “one-hit weed” to smokers--has risen from about $2,500 to $5,000, Pentis said.

“Since your average plant yields about three pounds when fully matured, it’s a pretty good deal,” Pentis said. “I think more people are realizing its (marijuana cultivation’s) profitability.”

The first recent seizure resulted from an anonymous tip, authorities said.

Albert Pettis, 59, of Oak View was arrested June 24, accused of growing more than $460,000 worth of sinsemilla behind a wooden lean-to shack in a dried-up portion of the Ventura River bottom. Pettis reportedly camouflaged 230 four- and five-foot-tall plants by attaching flower stems to their tops. The district attorney’s office is still weighing charges in the case.

A 550-plant haul on June 25 also came by way of tipsters, authorities said. At least a million dollars of “well-cared-for plants” were taken from a ravine near Yerba Buena Road off the Pacific Coast Highway.

No one was arrested in that case, and Pentis predicted that the elusive growers won’t be found.

“If it’s not on their property, there’s really no way to catch them,” Pentis said.

All the marijuana confiscated in the county is destroyed, Pentis said. The plants are stored at the East Valley sheriff’s substation until they are dry enough to burn.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregory G. Phillips said relatively light prison terms make operating a pot farm safer than selling cocaine or heroin, both of which carry sentences of up to 20 years in prison.

No matter how large or small the operation, the maximum sentence for marijuana growing is three years in prison, the prosecutor said.

“Growing five plants carries the same penalty as growing 500 plants in this state,” Phillips said. “And first-time growers almost never do time--regardless of the size of the potential harvest.”

However, recently adopted federal forfeiture laws may result in the confiscation of property.

In addition to jail time, Jack Francis Toggenberger, a Camarillo stockbroker, was forced to turn over his four-bedroom home. He was convicted Wednesday in Ventura County Superior Court of growing 20 1/2 pounds of high-grade pot in his home. Court records show that Toggenberger, who used a hydroponic feeding system to grow 15 plants, was sentenced to 150 days in County Jail.

Phillips called sentences such as Toggenberger’s unfair because they lump small-time “personal-stash” operators in with the commercial growers.

“That’s the state Legislature,” he said.

Overall, pot is regaining popularity, experts say, because it is considered a more socially acceptable alternative to harder drugs. Cocaine and heroin, they say, “are becoming morally and ethically reprehensible,” while pot is considered natural and organic.

According to a report compiled by the state Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, there has been a 19.6% increase in the number of marijuana addicts admitted to public treatment centers over a three-year period.

In 1987, 4,684 patients were admitted to centers. That figure jumped to 5,602 in 1990, the report said.

At the same time, there has been a decrease in marijuana-related arrests statewide.

In 1985, about 65,000 smokers were arrested in the state. In 1989, only 42,000 were arrested on pot charges.

Figures from the state Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs show that marijuana is the most widely used drug next to alcohol.