DROUGHT'S BRIGHT SPOT: IT'S TOUGH ON POT

Texas, Oklahoma crops down, officials say

Call it a hunch.

Green seemed a little out of place amid the drought-parched fields of
central Oklahoma.

And when law enforcement officials investigated recently, they found a
patch of 72 marijuana plants near a dry creek bed. Apparently unknown to
the elderly farmer who owned the secluded spot, drug traffickers had
planted the illicit crop and hiked in every day with 5-gallon containers of
water to keep it from withering away.

"There's a chance we never would have picked up on it except for the fact
this farmer had already given up on his crop," said Kevin Stanfill, a Drug
Enforcement Administration agent based in Oklahoma. "And he just plowed it
under because it was so burned up." The marijuana patch, he added, "was
like an oasis in the middle of nowhere."

Throughout Texas and Oklahoma, marijuana crops have suffered: perhaps,
Agent Stanfill asserts, "the only good thing that came out of the drought."

Traditionally, the peak season for growing marijuana outdoors - and for
efforts to eradicate it - runs through the late summer and into early fall.
So far this year, just over 25,000 cultivated plants have been seized by
law enforcement in Oklahoma, compared with more than 85,000 cultivated
plants in all of 1997.

By mid-August, agents and troopers with the Texas Department of Public
Safety had seized about 2,100 cultivated marijuana plants, compared with
more than 16,700 over the equivalent period in 1997.

"Statewide, our seizures are down, and it's due to the drought," said
Walter Eeds, commander of the DPS narcotics service. "There's no doubt
about it."

Eradication efforts often focus not on wild marijuana but on cultivated
crops, which typically contain more tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the
psychoactive component of marijuana, and command a higher price on the
street. Such crops also are more likely to be raised by traffickers than by
small-quantity users.

Although the quantity of cultivated marijuana in Oklahoma appears to be
down, law enforcement personnel have seized more of what is described as
"ditch weed," "wild-grow" or "hope weed" - plants that grow wild or develop
from seeds that people scatter in fields or wooded areas and hope will
flourish. Last year, more than 566,000 of these plants were seized in
Oklahoma. This year, that number is up to about 3 million.

One reason for that increase is that with fewer cultivated crops to deal
with, those involved in marijuana eradication have had time to clear out
small patches of the lower-quality plants that once might have been
overlooked.

But Texas has seen a drop in seizures of uncultivated marijuana plants as
well. So far this year, about 199,000 uncultivated plants have been seized
by the DPS, compared with more than 1 million plants over the same period
in 1997.

"Even the wild-grow marijuana that we get up in the Panhandle is stunted
and smaller and not as much," Mr. Eeds said.

For law enforcement, the drought's impact on marijuana crops is a bit of
good news - but there's still plenty of bad.

Marijuana is still easily available on the streets, and the bad year for
Texas and Oklahoma growers hasn't had much of an effect on the price.
Marijuana from Mexico continues to cross the border in quantity in spite of
the widespread wildfires in Mexico that turned Texas skies gray with smoke
this year.

Other states that produce large marijuana crops - including Kentucky,
Kansas, Louisiana and Tennessee - weren't hard-hit by the drought.

"We've gone through a little bit of a drought for the last couple of weeks,
but prior to that, we had 16 inches of rain in June and July," said Rick
Sabel, a senior special agent with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.

And he doesn't think the recent dry weather would have much effect on what
has been a good year for Kansas marijuana growers.

"Those plants are well-established, and the plants are a weed anyway," he
said. "They can stand a lot of abuse by Mother Nature."

In addition to the apparently plentiful supply, law enforcement is facing
another problem. Recent studies have concluded that a growing number of
America's teenagers are smoking marijuana that is far more potent than what
their baby-boomer parents once toked.

Marijuana was the primary drug used by more than two-thirds of Texas
adolescents admitted to treatment programs, according to a recent study by
the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse. The National Household
Survey on Drug Abuse, released this month, also found that a growing number
of teenagers are using marijuana and perceive it as a low-risk drug.

"Probably one of the biggest problems is the perception of it being a
harmless drug," said Dallas-based DEA Agent Paul Villaescusa. "Parents make
comparisons of this drug to what was available two or three decades ago,
and it's an entirely different drug ... anywhere from 10 to 20 times
stronger.

"It's like comparing a computer from seven to eight years ago to a computer
today. They're both computers, but there's a world of difference in the
capabilities and the strength."

Using marijuana laced with other drugs or chemicals - including
formaldehyde, heroin, methamphetamines and PCP - also is popular with
adolescents. Some of these combinations, Agent Villaescusa said, can cause
serious brain damage.

Also, marijuana serves as a "gateway" drug to more serious substances.

"Definitely with the heroin problem in North Texas, we did see a
progression from tobacco, alcohol and marijuana to heroin," Agent
Villaescusa said.

About a decade ago, alcohol was the primary drug used by adolescents
admitted to treatment programs in Texas. "Now it's marijuana, and this is a
phenomenon nationwide," said Dr. Jane Maxwell, chief of research for the
drug abuse commission. "We know from school surveys that the kids perceive
it as less dangerous to use, and they perceive it as more available," Dr.
Maxwell said. "It's easier to get, it's cheaper to get .. their peers are
using it"

Also, parents may be loath to talk about it.

Especially with the increased potency, Dr. Maxwell said, "We need to help
parents understand that because they did it 20 or 25 years ago, that
doesn't make it all right for their kids to do it."

Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson