APPALACHIA'S CASH CROP Marijuana Growers Thrive As Region's Depressed
Economy Takes Root

EAST BERNSTADT, Ky. - Bob O'Neill stands on a secluded hillside in the
Daniel Boone National Forest. In the palm of one hand, the forestry
officer holds a dozen marijuana seedlings that could have grown to a
street value of $24,000.

Here in these rugged hills, known as much for their destitution as
their beauty, more than 40 percent of the nation's marijuana is grown
- - an estimated 1.6 million outdoor plants worth $3 .9 billion annually
in a region where the average household income has yet to break $8,000
a year.

"With marijuana growing, nothing surprises you - who's growing it and
who's selling it," said Knott County Sheriff Wheeler Jacobs.

Jacobs has arrested friends and acquaintances caught growing the
plants illegally, and he has faced the backlash from struggling
mountain communities where the drug money has become a financial lifeline.

Richard R. Clayton, a University of Kentucky professor who wrote a
report for the United Nations titled "Marijuana in the `Third World':
Appalachia, USA", says the region is the perfect drug-growing economic
model.

"You've got that large level of unemployment, you've got insularity
and you've got a need for cash," he said.

While the rest of the nation prospered amid record economic growth,
the region's endemic poverty, lack of high-paying jobs and ideal
growing climate feeds the illegal industry. Appalachia's rugged
terrain also provides a natural camouflage for the marijuana plants -
each worth a street value of about $2,000.

"It's tremendously profitable," said Joseph L. Famularo, U.S. attorney
for the eastern district of Kentucky. "Kentucky marijuana is very
prized, especially in the Northeast United States."

In 1998, the 65-county region was designated a High Intensity Drug
Trafficking Area by the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The
designation means $6 million annually in federal funding is used to
help law-enforcement agencies fight the problem. Since then, there
have been 1,952 arrests and 5,703 marijuana plots have been eradicated.

Some say the problem is a social one - that the offspring of
moonshiners have traded in their bootleg liquor sales for a more
profitable product.

While the product might have changed, the cat-and-mouse game between
growers and law enforcement officials still gets personal.

"I've been told I'm taking Christmas away from the kids . . . I've
heard it all," said Harold Sizemore, supervisory law enforcement
officer for the U.S. Forest Service.

The industry crosses social strata; Sizemore has arrested engineers
and even retired teachers for marijuana cultivation.

Mike Roution, who turned to growing when his pay check from Pizza Hut
couldn't support his cocaine habit, is nearing the end of a five-year
prison sentence for growing 185 plants in his Taylor County attic. He
was netting $165,000 every three months.

His wife, a Head Start teacher, filed for divorce while he was behind
bars. He has a 13-year-old daughter.

"I was one of the people who would've told you that marijuana is the
best drug in the world . . . now I know the adverse affects of it," he
said from the Kentucky State Reformatory in LaGrange.

The thriving cottage industry has also spawned corruption.

Freddie White, the drug-dog handler for the Perry County sheriff's
office, pleaded guilty in February to possession with the intent to
distribute marijuana, as well as other drug charges. Johnny Mann,
former Lee County sheriff, is serving a 24-year federal sentence for a
1991 conviction for accepting bribes to protect marijuana and cocaine
smuggling.

Law enforcement officers also acknowledge that the millions of dollars
generated by illegal marijuana sales are bolstering legitimate businesses.

In 1990, after 100,000 plants were eradicated in Leslie County, there
were widespread stories of grocery stores and car dealerships nearly
going bankrupt, Sizemore said.

Public lands are popular places to plant marijuana patches. By
planting on government property, growers avoid forfeiture laws and
make it more difficult to track the grower. In Boone National Forest
alone, 192,685 plants worth $384 million were eradicated last year.

Roution said marijuana growers often carry firearms, plant animal
traps and steal each other's bounty.

"You stumble onto someone's crop in the middle of the field, you're
liable to get shot," he said.