DRUG DANGER IN U.S. FORESTS

WASHINGTON -- Drug seizures on federal forestlands from California to
Appalachia are reaching near-record levels this year, and U.S. authorities
increasingly are worried about the dangers posed to tourists by renegade
marijuana growers protecting their turf. Through October, marijuana
seizures on forestlands already were up by nearly 30% from last year,
according to new U.S. Forest Service reports, a haul representing more than
1.3 million pounds of the plant. Authorities believe street value of the
pot could run as high as $3,000 per pound.

Forestry officials say they fear that those growing marijuana in public
forests are increasingly establishing links with international drug
traffickers. The officials say they have seen signs that the renegade
operations are using violence, or the threat of it, to protect their crops.

In California, where more than 500,000 pounds have been seized this year,
agents have discovered large "farms" protected around the clock by armed
guards. Earlier this year, a man and his 8-year-old son were critically
wounded in northern California while tracking deer across a large marijuana
garden in the El Dorado National Forest.

"The risks to the public and our employees in California alone are
frightening," says Kim Thorsen, the Forest Service's deputy director of
enforcement.

In the Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky, supervisory law
enforcement officer Harold Sizemore said marijuana seizures and arrests are
at their highest levels in 10 years.

Authorities have seized more than 200,000 plants in the Boone forest so far
this year, up nearly 5% from 1999.

"We busted one family -- a father and five kids in April -- who were doing
more business than a Wendy's hamburger stand."

Marijuana isn't the only crop being grown illegally in the USA's forests.

Seizures of methamphetamine operations are up 150% this year, Forest
Service reports show. Those seizures have included working laboratories and
related chemical dumpsites that threaten forestlands' water sources.

Methamphetamine seizures have been concentrated in the Mark Twain National
Forest in Missouri, where drug producers have found a perfect combination
of deep cover and proximity to interstate highways.

Remote areas of the national forests always have been attractive to illegal
drug operations. But authorities say they have not seen drug activity like
this in perhaps 20 years.

Bill Wasley, the Forest Service's director of law enforcement , says
traffickers are seeking increased cover as law enforcement efforts have
intensified in U.S. cities and suburbs.

The Forest Service has asked Congress for an additional $10 million in its
2002 budget for more drug agents and equipment.