POT RANKS HIGH AS CASH CROP IN COLORADO

LA Plata County Growers Keep Operations Inside

A recent article published by Tribune Newspapers and the Los Angeles
Times cites statistics by a Virginia researcher that says marijuana
is now the nation's No. 1 cash crop, and the fourth most lucrative in
Colorado behind only hay, corn and wheat.

Information about Southwest Colorado is sketchy, but it's definitely
a business here for some.

Jon Gettman, who owns a research and consulting firm in Lovettsville,
Va., compiled the report by tracking the amount of marijuana
confiscated by government agencies and making state-by-state
estimates for what the police don't find. The entire report can be
found at www.drugscience.org

Gettman estimates the value of Colorado's marijuana crops at $126
million, $15 million more than the state's vegetable output combined.
That still puts Colorado at only No. 24 in the nation, far behind the
staggering $15 billion pot industry of the top producing state, California.

Here in the southwest corner of Colorado, the numbers are a bit more
modest and harder to estimate. An investigator with the inter-agency
Southwest Drug Task Force discussed the local pot crop, but only on
condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the task
force's work.

The investigator said that in 2006, the task force has seized 43
pounds of marijuana with an estimated value of $484,350. Those
seizures include vehicle stops and pot seized from outdoor and indoor
growers. The agent said his office does not compile statistics
relating to estimates for those who have thus far evaded the law.

Dan Bender, spokesman for the La Plata County Sheriff's office, said
that locally, law enforcement has observed a pattern among the
pot-growing community.

"The cultivation of marijuana with the climate that we have here has
moved indoors, and that's not really a recent thing," Bender said.
"We don't have that many outdoor growers, and when we come across
them they're not usually very large. I imagine that would be
different in warmer climate states."

Recent history supports Bender's claim. In 2000, an Oxford woman
received four years in prison for housing an indoor operation that
authorities estimate earned her $700,000 that year. And in 2004,
three Durango residents received varying jail terms for growing more
than 100 plants inside a home in Forest Lakes during 2003. However,
the largest bust in La Plata County history came from an outdoor
operation where a man was convicted of growing more than 1,000 plants
on a ranch south of Ignacio.

Despite that and another high-profile case involving a growing
operation on San Juan National Forest land east of Haviland Lake in
2005, Gettman's research upholds Bender's observation. Of the $126
million total, Gettman says just less than $79 million of Colorado's
marijuana is grown indoors, which ranks 11th nationwide. And the drug
task force investigator said that indoor growing arrests outnumber
outdoor by a 4 to 1 ratio. He said catching them all is a tough task
compared with tracking down other drug dealers.

"Marijuana traffickers are more sophisticated and have a little more
intelligence than the guys that are slinging methamphetamine and
cocaine out there," the investigator said. "A lot are better
educated, believe it or not, and these guys that are distributing pot
seem to put the money in real estate or vehicles, or other
investments, instead of being flashy about it."

The numbers cited in Gettman's report and by local agencies should
not surprise anyone who followed November's election in Colorado.
Although Amendment 44, which would have made it legal to possess up
to one ounce of marijuana, was defeated 60 percent to 40 percent,
more than 557,000 voters supported the measure statewide.

In La Plata, San Juan and San Miguel counties in Southwest Colorado,
the ballot measure was supported by more than 50 percent of voters.
That may be a factor in why the local drug task force has made pot
busts less of a priority than some other drugs, but the investigator
said that doesn't mean they'll look the other way when it comes to enforcement.

"A street-level pot dealer, we're not going to be targeting that
individual, but if it's a street level heroin dealer, yeah, we're
going to go after that guy, because personally, heroin is a more
dangerous drug," the investigator said. "But we would investigate any
street level dealer if we thought it would lead to a larger dealer.
If we have knowledge of a grower or a ton of marijuana, we're not
going put that any lower on the list than anything else."