By Mary O’KEEFE

On Saturday at the La Crescenta Avenue off-ramp of the 210 (Foothill) Freeway members of the community found something they had never found before during their monthly clean up – bags, garbage bags, full of marijuana.

On the second Saturday of every month members from the community, including Crescenta Valley Chamber of Commerce and CV Town Council, get up early, grab gloves and garbage bags and head over to the La Crescenta Avenue off-ramp to clean the roadside.

“This was started by Steve Pierce,” said CVTC Vice President Mike Claessens. “Steve brings the tools, [safety] vests, helmets and big garbage bags.”

In the past, Claessens said they have found a lot of empty liquor bottles, tires, containers of what appeared to be urine and often the empty prescription bottles that medical marijuana is packaged in. But last Saturday was a new discovery.

“[One bag] was half way down [the slope toward the freeway], on the edge of the roadway and the larger bag was 20 feet down the slope,” he said.

He saw the first large black garbage bag, not too unusual, but then opened it to find it filled with what appeared to be marijuana.

A little bit farther down the hill was another black bag that held two white garbage bags, also containing marijuana, then another black bag was found.

Claessens called the CV Sheriff’s Station right away to let deputies know of his findings. To him, it looked like someone had dumped the marijuana on the side of the road.

“I thought maybe someone may have been nervous about having it in their car,” he said.

Maybe a driver was being stopped and wanted to dump the bags; whatever the reason, Clasessens wanted it gone and into the hands of law enforcement.

“It appears to be remnants of a marijuana grow,” said Sgt. Jim McGee, Los Angeles Sheriff’s Narcotics Bureau. “We don’t know whether it fell out of a vehicle or was [tossed].”

He added the marijuana appeared to be trimmings called “shake,” the vernacular term for marijuana leftovers. The amount found, he said, has no real street value.

With the legalization of marijuana for private use, the bags could be considered found property, although law enforcement is not really expecting the owners to come retrieve their property anytime soon.

Finding large bags of marijuana trimmings is not as unusual as it seems, McGee said.

“Sometimes we find it in dumpsters, sometimes in dumpsters in front of a house,” he said.

There are rules and regulations that are supposed to be followed by marijuana distributors and growers, like regulations that pharmacies follow with outdated prescription drugs. Some who deal with outdated medication might looks for ways to work around the sometimes expensive disposal systems and instead dump pills into bins like those at the LASD or even in dumpsters. Although it is not known if this type of practice is being used within the marijuana industry, McGee said his agency is seeing more and more found marijuana property similar to that found at the La Crescenta Avenue off-ramp.

Claessens said he is surprised how the story of this discovery has taken off. He has been fielding calls from media as far away as New York. For him, although unusual for this area, it is just another find at the La Crescenta Avenue off-ramp, which is why he feels it is so important to keep this program going and invites others to help.

“I have never really felt afraid while cleaning the [area]. The real reason I do it? I like going down there … I pick up a large Caltrans garbage bag and start cleaning. It is a direct action for the community instead of just meeting in a committee,” he said.

Anyone who would like to help clean the La Crescenta Avenue off-ramp is welcome to join the community members on the second Saturday of each month. Just bring gloves; everything else is supplied. Cleanup begins at 8:30 a.m. and lasts about 45 minutes, although any amount of time that can be given is appreciated.