INDOOR POT A GROWING ISSUE IN LEE COUNTY

Not since the 1980s, when the Drug Enforcement Administration called
Fort Myers the crack cocaine capital of the Southeast, have illegal
drugs generated such notoriety for Southwest Florida.

Lee County was second only to Miami-Dade County last year when it
came to grow house operations in Florida, according to a report
covering the activities of 40 sheriff's offices and 15 police
agencies in 45 counties.

Lee County was 13th in 2005.

Law enforcement, including city, county and state agencies, shut
down 95 grow houses in Lee County and eradicated 7,646 plants in
2007, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The
agency compiles an annual report on indoor marijuana growing with
assistance of the DEA.

The Lee County Sheriff's Office accounted for 70 of the shutdowns
and more than 4,000 plants.

Grow houses even have turned into a campaign issue between the
current and former sheriff.

Florida was the third most active state in 2006 for indoor marijuana
production behind California and Washington, according to the
National Drug Intelligence Center's 2007 report on marijuana cultivation.

Aggressive law enforcement statewide increased the number of grow
houses discovered and plants seized over the past three years and
might do so again this year, according to one law enforcement official.

"After 2008 we hope to see a decline," said Inspector Jeff Beasley
of the Florida DEA, which issues an annual report on indoor marijuana growing.

Various investigations under way are expected to produce results
this year, Beasley said.

Indoor growing

Indoor growing has become more prevalent over the past five years as
law enforcement became more effective at spotting outdoor farms.

Growers also realized they could produce four to six indoor crops
annually, compared to one outdoors, and they could grow more potent marijuana.

Sampling in 2006 done by the Research Institute of Pharmaceutical
Science at the University of Mississippi found that in grow house
marijuana, the average level of tetrahydrocannabinol, the
psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, was above the national average.

Lehigh Acres is emerging as Lee County's most fertile area for
finding grow houses.

The News-Press tracked Lehigh's grow house activity for the past six
months by following police reports and reviewing court and property records.

Authorities closed down 33 grow houses in Lehigh and seized 2,081
plants from Oct. 1 to March 31. One of the houses was already
abandoned when it was discovered.

The average number of plants found in the other grow houses was 65,
making the average crop value about $260,000.

One plant can have a street value of $4,000, said Lee County
Sheriff's Chief Deputy Charlie Ferrante.

Two men died during a grow house robbery and, in another case,
deputies were shot at when they arrived at a house.

Skill and luck

Deputies are busting more houses thanks to an unprecedented effort
against drugs, Ferrante said. The number of grow houses busted
increased from nine between 2000 and 2004 to 131 in the past three
years, Ferrante said.

That effort, Ferrante said, includes increasing the number of
detectives from nine to 30, increasing training for investigators
and making use of the resources provided by the National Drug
Information Center and the Marijuana Eradication program.

The sheriff's office uses traditional sources of information from
residents and other law enforcement agencies to root out marijuana
nurseries. But sometimes deputies stumble upon the houses while
investigating other kinds of complaints.

That happened Feb. 12 when deputies responded to a report of gunfire
on 19th Street Southwest in Lehigh. They didn't know beforehand a
grow house was involved, according to Sheriff Mike Scott. They
arrived to find two men -- later shot dead -- trying to rob a grow house.

Lehigh not alone

Cape Coral and Collier counties also are taking down grow house operations.

Cape police busted 25 suspected marijuana grow houses in 2006 and 25
in 2007, said police spokeswoman Dyan Lee.

"We have made a major push in the last couple years," Lee said.

Cape police have made three grow house busts this year, the most
recent April 3, when a warrant was served on a home at 1207 N.W. 21st Ave.

Lee said while Cape Coral has not seen as many grow house busts as
Lehigh Acres, police are carrying out a strategy to aggressively
attack the problem.

The March 27 cover story in the Collier sheriff's newsletter
reported $3 million in seizures from 13 grow houses. Deputies found
the county's 14th grow house April 8 with 33 plants. The department
used $3,000 per plant to estimate their value.

Grow house politics

Grow house busts are becoming an issue in the Lee County sheriff's
race between Scott and former sheriff Rod Shoap.

Scott has suggested Shoap gave pot growers a free pass while he was
in office from 2000-04.

Shoap has suggested Scott is lying to shift responsibility for the
emergence of indoor nurseries.

In Tallahassee, the House passed a bill April 2 to strengthen
penalties and make it easier to prosecute grow house cases. A
companion Senate bill was approved Wednesday by the Judiciary
Committee and is awaiting further action.

State Rep. Nick Thompson, R-Fort Myers, sponsored the House bill.

"In Florida, those who use grow houses to traffic drugs belong in
prison. Under this legislation we are clearly telling drug dealers,
'if you grow, you go!'" Thompson said when his bill, which has a
Senate companion, was unveiled with the state attorney general
earlier this spring.