La Pine man indicted on illegal marijuana grow charges

A La Pine man who allegedly grew far more than the legal number of medical marijuana plants has been indicted on two criminal counts after a raid in a snowboard theft case turned up nearly 160 plants on one property. Deschutes County officials said Tuesday it underscores their concern that the state is not adequately enforcing marijuana laws, fueling a black market that has drawn federal scrutiny.

Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel made the announcement at a news conference Tuesday afternoon with Sheriff Shane Nelson and Deschutes County Commission Chair Tony DeBone.

Hummel said sheriff’s deputies were executing a search warrant last month in the 15000 block of Liberty Road in La Pine as they were investigating the theft of a snowboard.

During the raid, officers discovered 98 mature marijuana plants in one room of the home and 63 immature plants in a separate space on the property.

Blake Edward Pyfer, 27, of La Pine, has a medical marijuana growing license and also was growing marijuana for another patient.

Pyfer was indicted on charges of illegal manufacture and possession of marijuana.

State law allows medical marijuana patients to grow up to 12 mature and 24 immature plants at a time.

The Oregon Health Authority is in charge of inspecting the medical marijuana grows across the state.

According to Hummel, the agency has five inspectors who perform the inspections, but he said no inspections took place in the county last year.

Hummel said there are 20,000 medical grows in the state and 984 of them are in Deschutes County.

The district attorney’s office has sent a letter to the OHA, asking that the state provide a list of medical marijuana grow sites within the county.

“My preference would be that the Oregon Health Authority conducts surprise inspections of most grow sites each year,” Hummel said.

Hummel said the state is falling down and the county needs to step up locally to aid them in making sure medical growers are following state laws.

“They have a policy that they provide the cardholder with 10-day written notice that their property is about to be inspected. That’s ridiculous, That’s outrageous,” he said.

Hummel said the notice only gives growers time to get rid of the excess plants.

“It would take a complete idiot to not get rid of the excess plants prior to the to the Oregon Health Authority coming,” he said.

Hummel said the county recently asked OHA for a list of medical marijuana grows “to aid us in our own enforcement efforts,” but has not yet heard back.

“I’m going to work within the system,” the DA said, “and then, if I’m unable to get the response I need within the system, I’ll go to the next level” and possibly contact Gov. Kate Brown or lawmakers.

Nelson is asking people living in the county to report any suspicious, possibly illegal grows.

“I respect the voice of the voters (to approve medical and recreational marijuana, but in order to have true regulation of marijuana, you’ve got to have an enforcement arm that’s effective,”Nelson said. “We do not have that right now, so nobody is watching the production, and it’s going to fall on the back of law enforcement officers to try and track down illegal activity and hold people accountable.”

“We are only as good as the citizen input we receive,” the sheriff said. “We respond to every call for service we received.”

DeBone noted county commissioners have held a series of meetings with state agencies and others to get more details on the current status of the marijuana industry and its regulation.

Pyfer is scheduled to be arraigned on Mar. 6.