Pubdate: Sat, 22 Sep 2001
Source: Charleston Gazette (WV)
Copyright: 2001 Charleston Gazette
Contact:  http://www.wvgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/77
Author: Tom Searles

FEWER MARIJUANA PLANTS CONFISCATED

Summer Flooding, FAA Rules Ground State Police Efforts To Spot Pot From Air 
Saturday September 22, 2001

Despite being kept from the air by natural disasters and terrorists, State 
Police have worked hard to keep West Virginia from growing a bumper crop of 
marijuana.

Troopers, National Guardsmen and those who spot the pot in the valleys and 
mountains of the state have been grounded for a big part of the growing 
season and now into harvest time.

With slightly more than a month of marijuana eradication time left, State 
Police have confiscated about 6,000 fewer plants than last year. Though 
there's still time to find more, Federal Aviation Administration rules 
enacted after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington are 
keeping helicopters grounded.

"We are only flying for incidents that are law enforcement-related," said 
Trooper Jay Powers, a State Police spokesman.

The FAA flight rules require the choppers - both State Police and National 
Guard - to stay in constant contact with air traffic controllers, Powers 
said. That limits work on marijuana eradication projects because the 
low-altitude flying needed to spot the pot prohibits pilots from keeping 
contact with control towers.

'We really aren't exactly where we should be'

But that's only the current problem. When floods ravaged southern West 
Virginia in July, emphasis on finding pot patches declined while troopers 
and Guardsmen helped flood victims.

"We really aren't exactly where we should be," conceded Sgt. Steve Jones, 
head of the State Police marijuana eradication effort.

Last year, State Police confiscated 39,286 marijuana plants growing in 
fields and mountainsides throughout the state. So far this year, troopers 
have pulled about 33,544 marijuana plants from the ground.

"Obviously, the assistance given by the flood detail and the lack of air 
support has been a problem," Jones said.

Like a number of other Appalachian states, West Virginia's most valued cash 
crop became marijuana about 20 years ago. In 1997, the latest figures 
available, the illegal harvest was estimated at 86,246 pounds. That ranked 
the state, which was 35th in population, as the 16th highest in marijuana 
production in the nation, according to High Times magazine.

"Marijuana has become a substantial part of the local economy in the 
Appalachia region - it is the No. 1 cash crop here," the federal Office of 
National Drug Control Policy wrote in its 2000 report.

"An ideal climate for marijuana cultivation, poverty and a rural geography 
facilitates marijuana production and transportation across county and state 
lines. There are also 75 public and private airports in the Appalachian 
High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area."

The Appalachian HIDTA was created by the federal government in 1998 to 
combat pot growing in 11 southern counties of West Virginia, along with 
Kentucky and Tennessee, all considered the heart of East Coast marijuana 
growing.

Typically each summer, troopers work with State Police and National Guard 
helicopters, whose crews spot marijuana in remote hills and hollows, then 
direct troopers to it. The activity takes place from June through October, 
though late September begins the harvesting season.

High Times said West Virginia's 1997 pot crop was the 14th most valuable in 
the nation, estimated to be worth somewhere between $448 million and $718 
million if sold on the street. That was based on the magazine's 1997 
estimate of a price per ounce. West Virginians apparently were paying the 
highest average price in the country at $325.

That study estimated the state eradicated 25 percent of the crop that year, 
12th highest in the nation. With only 0.69 percent of the nation's 
population, the magazine estimated West Virginia captured 1.78 percent of 
the national illegal marijuana market.

'They're a little bit smarter now'

The outdoor crop has diminished almost every year, Jones said. "A few years 
ago, our biggest job was eradicating marijuana. Now our problem is finding it."

Past efforts have caused growers to move away from large fields and instead 
plant in smaller plots, Jones said. "I'd like to think it's the result of 
[State Police] having success," he said.

"They're a little bit smarter about [hiding plants] now," said 1st Sgt. Joe 
Parsons, a veteran of eradicating marijuana in southern West Virginia.

This year, troopers in the field have had to find a large amount of the 
crop by using foot power and informants.

That happened earlier this week when Lincoln County troopers found 294 
plants in a remote area near Big Ugly. Parsons said two men digging ginseng 
found the plants off a small trail that came off a gas line road on the 
backside of a state park.

Like most other efforts, last week's Lincoln County bust resulted in no 
arrests. Most growers don't plant the substance on their own land, Parsons 
said.

And unlike other parts of the nation, Appalachian pot distributors and 
growers tend to be "kin-based and family-oriented," the Office of National 
Drug Control Policy report says. They also have been known to be protective.

"An increase in competition in marijuana distribution has resulted in an 
increase in drug-related violence," the report said. "Growers have begun 
using firearms, explosives and booby traps, which has resulted in an 
increased threat to law enforcement."

Parsons has no doubt there is less marijuana being grown in the area where 
he works. "I think it's indicative that a lot of people are going to indoor 
growing," he said.

Could be, Jones said. "Last year we had a significant increase in indoor 
growing," he noted.
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