BUMPER CROP OF POT SEIZED

Almost A Third Of Seized Plants Found In Madison County

Despite having its helicopters grounded in the weeks following the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks, the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics seized 10,080
illegal marijuana plants during its annual eradication program.

The seizures, worth up to $11 million on the street, represent an 83
percent hike over the 5,517 pot plants found outdoors in 2000 by the
bureau's pilots and spotters, said Jimmy Saxton, group supervisor of the
MBN's marijuana eradication and suppression program.

"People say, 'Well, it's just 10,000 plants,' " Saxton said. "But you have
to look at the size of Mississippi and realize the majority of the pot is
being sold here."

The May 1-Oct. 13 bumper crop shocked veteran agents, not so much for its
size as for its location in Madison County. Agents were taken back when a
rookie MBN spotter found 2,689 plants May 10 down an old country road near
Lake Caroline.

Two months later, agents uprooted 479 plants four miles from the Madison
airport on Old Canton Road.

"Previous years, we did not find that much marijuana in Madison County,"
Saxton said. "We don't know who planted it. At least, not yet."

The 274 plants gathered by MBN agents in four fields in Holmes County Sept.
10-13 reached a mature height of 20 feet, which meant the plants grew for
at least 22 weeks, Saxton said.

"It was a significant find," he said. "Those plants weighed 40 pounds each
and would have produced approximately a pound of pot apiece. We were lucky
the violators hadn't started to pull the dope."

An estimated 11.5 million Americans smoke pot, long considered a gateway
drug leading to the abuse of cocaine, methamphetamine and Ecstasy,
according to a September report on U.S. drug trafficking by the Drug
Enforcement Administration.

Holmes County Sheriff Willie March says local law enforcement officers are
grateful any time drugs are taken off the streets.

"Every year, the bureau finds quite a lot of marijuana in Holmes County,"
March said. "It doesn't stop people from planting it here. People still
take a chance on getting caught because it's profitable if they get away
with it."

The state's 2001 marijuana crop had the potential of competing with cash
receipts for last year's legal crops of wheat - $30.9 million - and sweet
potatoes - $25.5 million - according to figures provided by Serial
Kenerson, a deputy statistician at the Mississippi Agricultural Statistics
Service in Jackson.

"Your older generation of pot growers were more laid back," Saxton said.
"They may have grown three or four plants here or there. We are now seeing
a new trend of younger dopers growing huge fields."

Agents busted 61 "agri-dopers" this year, a 49 percent jump over 41 arrests
in 2000. The lure of harvesting a crop reaping as much as $1,100 a pound
can outweigh the risk of facing a state felony punishable by up to 30 years
in prison. The penalty is the same, no matter the number plants, Saxton said.

"We catch a lot of them harvesting the dope," Saxton said. "They can't
outrun that helicopter."

The MBN ran this year's marijuana eradication with a $315,000 DEA grant.
The federal government lent another hand with two National Guard pilots and
helicopters, said Col. Danny Pepper, commander of the Counter Drug Task
Force for the Mississippi Army National Guard.

"Our pilots have special training at reconnaissance and aerial
interdiction," Pepper said. "We make two helicopters per week available to
the Bureau of Narcotics and fly over the grids they mark."

The MBN owns three Vietnam-era helicopters that have been in use from the
eradication program's 1988 inception. At $175,000 in annual maintenance,
they need to be replaced, said Bill Taylor, the MBN's air operations commander.