50 MARIJUANA PLANTS CONFISCATED

PETERSBURG -- Police cut down 50 marijuana plants, some of them 10 to 12
feet tall, from a field near Halifax Road and Interstate 85 after watching
the plants grow for four months.

The weed, worth an estimated $50,000 wholesale, was confiscated Wednesday
afternoon. Police waited to make their move because they were trying to
determine who was growing it, said Petersburg Police Lt. John Corrigan. No
one has been arrested and Corrigan declined to say whether there were any
suspects. He also declined to detail police surveillance methods used in
the operation.

Petersburg is mostly urban, but there are some more rural, secluded spots
in the city's west end, where the marijuana was discovered by police after
they received information of its whereabouts in May. A joint investigation
by the Richmond Drug Enforcement Division of the Governor's Initiative
Against Narcotics Trafficking Task Force, the Central Virginia Regional
Narcotics Task Force and the Petersburg Police Narcotics Enforcement Unit
followed.

After photographs and samples are taken to be used as evidence, the
marijuana will be burned, Corrigan said.

The field in Petersburg represents only a small part of Virginia's
underground pot production. The Washington-based National Organization for
the Reform of Marijuana Laws, which advocates the legalization of
marijuana, estimates that marijuana is the commonwealth's largest cash
crop, surpassing even tobacco.

Based on eradication data of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, the reform
organization estimates that Virginia pot growers in 1997 harvested more
than 121,600 plants worth $197 million. Nationwide, pot wholesale revenues
ranged between $15.1 billion and $26.3 billion.

Growing marijuana is a felony in Virginia, punishable by up to 30 years in
prison and a $10,000 fine.