The New York State Police in Elbridge seized nine marijuana plants during a helicopter patrol just south of Skaneateles Sunday, officials said.

The patrol, which was part of the kickoff of a statewide program to find and eradicate marijuana, discovered the 6- to 7-foot tall plants in a cornfield along Otisco Valley Road in Spafford at 7 p.m., troopers said.

While there was no immediate value placed on the seizure, troopers said the plants were well grown and developed, and could have been refined into a high-quality drug.

Lt. Glenn Miner, a public information officer for the state police, said the plants are often placed into a field for concealment in addition to the natural sunlight and rainwater provided by nature, which could result in a better marijuana crop.

Statistics released by the DEC and by the University of Mississippi show that the level of THC, the psychoactive drug that gives marijuana its potency, has steadily increased during the past three decades as producers continue to refine their growing procedure. Some of today's marijuana has a potency of 37.2 percent compared to nearly 2 to 5 percent in the 1970s.

“Today's marijuana plants are often bred for increased THC,” Miner said. “In general, the running joke is today's marijuana isn't your father's marijuana.”

Investigator Paul Kelly, who is with the state police's narcotics enforcement team, said the patrols often start in late August and run into September until the corn has been harvested. It's usually not until late summer that the plants become visible from the air because they have grown taller than the surrounding corn, which was the case in Spafford.

According to state police records, which only go up to June, 65 marijuana plants have been found in Cayuga County this year as a result of various investigations, Miner said. Statewide, 2,645 have been found. Nearly 256 plants were found last year in the county and 10,500 were found in the entire state.

But not all aerial finds come from an eradication patrol, Kelly said. Troopers are trained to observe fields and write down the coordinates of anything suspicious as they perform other missions such as medevacs.

And even when the plants are found, filing charges against the owner can be difficult.

“The assumption is, if (marijuana) is in your house growing under a light, it's yours,” Miner said. “If it's in a field, it's often hard to find out who it belongs to. Often times it does not belong to the farmer.”

While the state police in Elbridge are conducting an investigation to find out who owned the nine plants, Kelly said most of the time the plants are destroyed because they will never be used as evidence.

Troopers urge that anyone who saw any suspicious activity in the fields along Otisco Valley Road to call the Elbridge barracks at 689-6334.

Staff writer Nate Robson can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 248 or nathan.robson@lee.net