DROUGHT'S BOON: FINDING MARIJUANA

Washington Post - The drought that's aggravating home gardeners, pool owners
and golf-course caretakers in the East has been a boon to at least one
group: police officers who hunt out marijuana plants.

With the shrubs and underbrush that generally conceal marijuana turning
brown in the sweltering heat, carefully tended -- and religiously watered --
pot plants are sticking out like very sore, very green thumbs, law
enforcement officials say.

Police in Maryland and Virginia regularly embark on airplane flights over
private property and public parks in search of illicitly grown marijuana.
Sgt. Kirk Holub, head of the Montgomery County, Md., Police Department's
narcotics division, said that from above, the "emerald green" of marijuana
stands out in a field turned barren from lack of rain.

"It's made it easier to identify the crops. It's just a lot harder to find
cover," Holub said. This week alone, officials in Maryland have seized more
than 100 marijuana plants. Arrests have nearly doubled, from 54 last year to
about 100 so far this year.