130,000 POT PLANTS SENT UP IN SMOKE

As 2006 draws to a close, drug-enforcement officials in Washington say
they have destroyed more than 130,000 marijuana plants this year as
part of a joint state and federal eradication effort.

That's nearly the same as last year, when a record 135,000 plants were
destroyed under the Washington Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression
Program, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration said in a news
release.

This year's seizures have led to more than 340 arrests and 190 weapons
seizures.

Officials attributed the number of destroyed plants to the movement of
drug traffickers from Canada to Washington in an effort to avoid
tightened border security.

"Washington state is susceptible to both outdoor marijuana growers,
who typically use and damage public lands to ply their illegal trade,
and previously Canadian-based indoor cultivators attempting to avoid
cross-border detection," said DEA special-agent-in-charge Rodney Benson.

Agents said growers have dammed streams, clear-cut forest lands, used
large quantities of insecticide and killed wildlife to aid outdoor
drug-growing operations.