BETTER SEARCHES, LUCK MAY BE REASON WHY POLICE FIND MORE MARIJUANA

PITTSBORO -- Authorities across the state have found and destroyed more
marijuana than usual this year, but they said it doesn't mean that the
state has become a hotbed for cannabis growth.

The finds may be nothing more than the result of better searches or even luck.

"I think we're finding a higher percentage of dope in our state," said
Special Agent Billy Denney of the Drug Enforcement Agency in Greensboro.
"We like to think it's because we've revamped the program. We have really
pulled a lot of agencies together under the SBI."

In Chatham County, officials seized 23,000 marijuana plants on July 13,
marking the state's largest find and eradication in recent years. County
authorities have seized more than 26,000 plants this year.

Last year, Wilkes County led the state with 10,291 plants seized as North
Carolina ranked seventh nationally in marijuana growth.

Each year, the DEA gives the State Bureau of Investigation a grant for
aerial searches. The money is allocated to the state Highway Patrol and
individual counties to pay for airplane and helicopter fuel, machetes,
boots and safety equipment.

It is difficult to predict how much marijuana is growing in a county in any
given year.

"One year you might get three plants -- that's it," Denney said. "And the
next year you might get 20,000. These guys move around."

Luck also plays a role.

"You've got to be looking at the right place at the right time," Denney
said. "We hit all 100 counties. These people, they'll grow in their back
yard, and they'll go miles and miles and grow. It's a shot in the dark
every year."

In Madison County, which ranked second in the state last year with 3,939
plants seized, deputies might fly 15 days during the growth season from
April to October, Deputy Billy Osteen said.

Before they fly over to see it, deputies often know about a marijuana patch
because they have received a tip.

In counties such as Wilkes, Madison, Warren and Chatham -- the top four
marijuana-producing counties in 2000 -- the rural land appeals to growers,
Osteen said.

When Madison deputies locate marijuana, they sometimes must drive high into
the Appalachians, strap on backpacks and machetes, and hike several miles
to the site, which might be a tiny crop terraced into a steep mountainside.

In such rural areas, the odds of catching the grower are remote because the
grower often doesn't own the land.

"Why grow it on your land?" Osteen said. "If you catch their crop, all they
lose is the crop. They don't get caught, and they don't get their land seized."

The five landowners who own the plot where Chatham deputies found marijuana
last month use the land for timber. Only one lives in the county.

Harry Isley, who lives in Asheboro, owns 91 acres in the area and said he
visits his parcel occasionally. When law enforcement agencies chopped down
the plants near his land, Isley read about it in a local newspaper. "To
tell you the darn truth," Isley said, "I wouldn't even know what marijuana
looks like growing out in the field."