AUTHORITIES ERADICATE 18,751 POT PLANTS IN ALABAMA THIS YEAR IN
ONGOING DRUG SEARCH

After a lean 2007, Alabama's marijuana crop on the rebound Wednesday,
July 16, 2008 GINNY MacDONALD News staff writer

Alabama drug agents are finding a bumper crop of marijuana this year
after a lean 2007.

"We found a good bit early in the season last year," said Agent Doug
Howard. "But the drought affected all the farmers - legal and illegal
ones."

The Alabama Department of Public Safety's marijuana eradication units
annually sweep each of the state's 67 counties looking for the illegal
weed. The searches cover woods, swamps, public land and private homes.

Through last Friday, the units had destroyed 18,751 pot plants with a
street value of $37.5 million this year, Howard said. Last year,
28,372 plants with a value of $56.75 million were destroyed. In 2006,
there were 47,896 plants found and destroyed, valued at $95.79 million.

Summer is a busy time for the units. The searching begins in May and
usually ends in October. The statewide eradication program began in
1982.

Local authorities are notified when counties are scheduled to be
searched. Each of the two-unit teams spends several days in the county
selected. The unit is made up of three to nine state agents, and the
teams work across the state. City and county officials sometimes join
the team because they know the areas. Federal officials join in if the
county includes federal lands.

As many as five helicopters can aid in each search. The choppers are
from the Alabama Army National Guard, based in Birmingham, and DPS's
aviation unit. They fly the entire area looking for marijuana; when
they find it, they radio GPS coordinates to ground crews.

Trooper Pilot Lee Hamilton said pilots are trained in-house to spot
marijuana. "You have to know what it looks like while flying,"
Hamilton said.

After coordinates are radioed to the ground crew, the crew finds the
location on a map, and is led to the scene by either local authorities
or federal officials.

Helicopters hover above their discovery until ground crews
arrive.

Getting to the scene can be a challenge. A caravan of four-wheel-drive
vehicles pulls trailers loaded with all-terrain vehicles as close to
the site as possible. The ATVs are used if terrain allows it. If not,
the team walks.

The agents encounter ticks (that crop is good this year, too), snakes,
red bugs and other wild creatures while trekking through thick, wooded
areas and sometimes swamps in search of marijuana.

The plants are pulled up, roots and all. Machetes are used to chop the
roots off and the plants are piled up. The pile is then covered with
diesel fuel and burned.

If marijuana plants are found at a residence and local officials make
an arrest, the plants are kept as evidence.

The agents say they have found stolen vehicles, ATVs and farm
equipment abandoned in the woods while searching for the marijuana.

The farmers sometimes surprise even the agents. One agent recounted
destroying marijuana at a house owned by an elderly man with multiple
sclerosis.

"The man had heard on TV that marijuana would help his MS, so this old
guy was growing it," the agent said.