OFFICIALS ATTEMPT TO ELIMINATE MARIJUANA

Narcotics agents from the Cumberland County Sheriff's Department came up
empty-handed Tuesday during what probably will be the last marijuana
eradication of the summer.

Although the daylong search throughout the county didn't lead agents to
fields of marijuana, Capt. Jack Watts said he isn't naive enough to believe
people have stopped growing it.

"We just didn't fly over the right spot at the right time," he said.

This summer, agents searched the county about half a dozen times and found
more than 300 plants.

Almost all the plants were found during a July 21 search off Beard and
Underwood roads near Stedman.

About 75 plants were found off Camden Roads near Hope Mills.

Agents have found about 300 plants a year in each of the past couple of
years, Watts said. That might not seem like a lot, but 300 plants can be
worth between $500,000 and $600,000.

"It's still worth doing year after year," Watts said. "If we don't do it,
it'll get out of hand. Marijuana is so readily available already."

It isn't unusual for officers to find nothing during eradications, he said.
Cumberland County is big, and spotters can't search all of it. It is hard
to spot marijuana from the air, and some people are better at it than
others, Watts said.

"You've got to be good at what you're doing," he said.

Agents especially like going out with National Guard helicopter pilots.

The pilots are trained to look for marijuana. They look for it from the
sky, while agents follow on the ground.

"We only get so many fly dates a year with them," Watts said.

National Guard pilots spend the summer helping agencies all over the state
look for marijuana.

In August, agents and pilots spent much of a day looking for marijuana
plants without finding one. Just as they were about to go home with
nothing, agents came upon five plants growing in a wooded area north of
Fayetteville off Slocomb Road.

"I've seen them spot one plant," Sheriff's Lt. David Cowart said. Despite
the find, the agents were disappointed. "(In July), we found it everywhere
we went," Sgt. John Smith said as he wiped sweat from his face.

Photographs of agents posing among the 12-foot-tall plants they found hang
on office walls.

"This is just another day for us," Cowart said. "Next time, maybe we'll get
300 to 500 plants."

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski