Highway pit stop nets hashish

A Sebastopol man had 9 pounds of hashish in his trunk when he was arrested on Highway 20 in Sutter County, a drug enforcement official said Thursday.

The hashish, or concentrated marijuana, that 32-year-old John Caleb Marks had was produced by rubbing about 900 pounds of marijuana buds between the hands and scraping off the accumulated resin, said Mike Hudson, commander of the Yuba-Sutter Narcotic Enforcement Team.

Marks stopped to urinate along eastbound Highway 20 at the Wadsworth Canal about 5 p.m. Wednesday and had the trunk of his car open. A Sutter County Sheriff's Department deputy stopped and noticed a strong smell of marijuana, said Hudson.

Marks told the deputy he had only a small amount of marijuana in his glove compartment. But the deputy found 13 packages of hashish in the trunk, Hudson said.

"Hashish producers often compare the production of hashish to gold mining in that it takes removing tons of earth to find a small amount of gold. It takes truckloads of marijuana to produce a small amount of hashish," said Hudson.

"I can't remember a time when we seized this much," he said.

Hudson estimated the hash had a street value of $900 per ounce, about the same as gold. The total value of the 9 pounds was more than $122,000, he said.

Marks, who has several prior drug arrests, admitted being a hashish supplier, Hudson said.

Another common method of producing hash involves putting all or parts of marijuana plants in water. The resin dissolves and is then extracted from the water, he said.

"The appearance of this form of hashish is quite different from the hashish that Marks had," Hudson said.

Marks was being held Thursday in Sutter County Jail on $50,000 bail.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Rob Young at 749-4710 or at ryoung@appealdemocrat.com.