POT CALLED STATE'S 4TH-LARGEST CASH CROP

Colorado growers produce about $140 million a year in marijuana, making the
illegal plant the state's fourth-largest cash crop, the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws said Thursday.

The figures are contained in NORML's 1998 Marijuana Crop Report, which
evaluates marijuana production, value and eradication efforts in the U.S.

The figures are based on Drug Enforcement Administration information
gleaned from the public record, said Allen St. Pierre, executive director
of NORML in Washington, D.C.

"The problem with the figures is that unless (marijuana) is a regulated and
taxed product, no one knows for sure how much is out there," he said.

DEA spokesman Mark Holm declined to discuss the NORML report, saying he
isn't familiar with the methodology.

"Unless you are familiar with their methodology, you really have a
difficult time commenting on the validity of their study," he said.

NORML's report says the retail price of marijuana in Colorado is $288 an
ounce. St. Pierre said most of the production is in small garden plots or
in homes, much of it by users.

Marijuana ranks behind hay, wheat and corn as cash crops in Colorado and in
the United States as a whole, NORML said.

Nationally, marijuana growers harvested at least 5.5 million pounds, NORML
said. That amount would be worth $15.1 billion to growers and $25.2 billion
in the street market.

The nonprofit research organization, which has been active for nearly 30
years, advocates taxing and regulating the drug.

NORML said the bulk of the enforcement efforts are directed at eradicating
"ditch weed," a wild-growing variety of hemp that has little value to pot
smokers because of its low potency.

"That's simply not true," said Holm of the DEA. "That's not being harvested
for sale. We're interested in the highly cultivated plants that are sold
for consumption."

Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer Michael O'Keeffe contributed to this report.

Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson