Law enforcement officials in Albany and Linn County say there’s been a decline in seizures of large marijuana operations during 2009, but they are growing increasingly concerned about abuse of the medical marijuana card system.

The Democrat-Herald talked with Det. Capt. Paul Timm of the Linn County Sheriff’s Office and Capt. Eric Carter of the Albany police about trends in drug enforcement.

Timm said his agency’s “top four” drug concerns are marijuana, meth, heroin and prescription drugs.

Here is a rundown of the year 2009 in drugs from the sheriff’s office:

Seized: Some 1,294 grams of meth, 9,905 grams of dried marijuana, 1 gram of heroin, 27 prescription pills and six MDMA (Ecstasy) pills.

In 2008, 336 grams of meth were seized as were 1,831 grams of marijuana, 1 gram of heroin, 3 grams of cocaine and 95 prescription pills.

During the summer, Linn County runs special marijuana eradication efforts. Of the 526 marijuana plants seized in 2009, only seven were in outdoor grows. In those cases, 21 arrests were made.

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