POT PATROLS FAN OUT FOR ANNUAL EFFORT

Bittner State Correspondent WOODWARD -- While Oklahoma farmers focus on
bringing wheat out of the fields, an army is zeroing in on another premier
state crop -- marijuana.

The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control is teaming up
with the Oklahoma National Guard again this summer to declare war on
hundreds of thousands of marijuana plants growing wild in the state.

Agents and Guard troops were in Woodward County on Tuesday, methodically
spraying herbicide on pot plants springing up in pastures, bureau spokesman
Mark Woodward said.

The target area is between Woodward and Enid and north to the Kansas state
line.

The annual project started recently in northern Oklahoma. Weed sprayers will
work their way south as summer progresses, Woodward said.

To battle the weed, Guard troops armed with chemical-laden backpacks plod
through pastures, spraying the herbicide.

The procedure is immensely faster and more efficient than the traditional
chopping, stacking and burning that drug agents and Guard troops carried out
for several years before adopting the spray method in 1995, Woodward said.

"Fifteen people spread out over 100 acres and they literally can spray 20
plants in 10 seconds," he said. The plants die in a week or less.

Last year, the army of marijuana eradicators sprayed 12.5 million plants
throughout Oklahoma, Woodward said. That was a massive jump from previous
years, in which a steady decline had indicated marijuana wasn't reseeding in
sprayed areas. In 1995, 2.1 million plants were sprayed, followed by 1.3
million the next year and 566,000 in 1997, Woodward said.

Last year's jump reflected spray use in some previously undetected sites, he
said.

Usually, local farmers report the marijuana patches to their county
sheriffs, who pass the word on to state drug agents, Woodward said. The
program has been a help in areas like Woods County, where Sheriff Rudy
Briggs Jr. reports wild pot prevalence is down.

Troops spray the pot not only to rid the area of an illegally growing
substance but to help clear farm land that could be used for more productive
agricultural purposes, Woodward said.

Some farmers, though, hesitate to report unsolicited marijuana growth,
fearing prosecution. That's not a threat, Woodward said.

"These are not cultivated plants where we are looking for arrests," he said.
"It's not going to take us two seconds to figure out whether it's wild or
people are growing it."

Oklahoma's rogue pot mostly dates back to World War II, when farmers grew
the plant for its hemp fibers used to make rope. New technology did away
with hemp demand but deserted plants were left to reproduce on their own.

"Forty plants in the 1940s are 400,000 plants now if they've been ignored,"
Woodward said.

Pot grown wild with easy access to pollination produces a much weakened
potency for those smoking the wild weed in hopes of getting high, he said.

"It's worthless," Woodward said. "We call it ditch weed. It looks like
marijuana, but it's not going to smoke like it."