DROUGHT CUTS INTO GROWTH OF FLORIDA MARIJUANA

TALLAHASSEE -- Florida's drought is helping the state hold down the size of
the outdoor marijuana crop.

The cultivation of outdoor marijuana was down slightly last year for the
second year in a row, largely because of so little rainfall and improved
aerial detection missions, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said
Monday.

Cultivated marijuana was found in 61 of the state's 67 counties in 1999 when
authorities made 466 arrests and eliminated 56,838 plants at an estimated
value of $56 million. Authorities also confiscated 89 firearms from the 573
growing sites.

Hardee County had the largest seizure in the past 10 years, a field with
18,249 plants, but the Panhandle region again produced the majority of
outdoor crops that were seized.

Authorities reported fewer discovered of marijuana grown indoors.

Statewide, police disrupted 211 indoor sites in 1999.

More than 1 million pot plants have been pulled in Florida in the last 19
years, since the state joined forces with the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration in an effort to curtail production of the crop.

The state has been using aerial spotters to locate marijuana crops for 10
years.