HEAT PUTS POT UP IN SMOKE

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Marijuana growers are watching their crops go up in
smoke with the continuing heat wave plaguing Oklahoma.

And that has law enforcement officials quite pleased.

"One of the few good things about El Nino is that the pot crops are burning
up," said Mark Woodward, spokesman for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics.

Oklahoma typically ranks among the top ten states in the nation for
marijuana production, he said. But the same drought conditions that are
destroying Oklahoma's legal crops are wreaking havoc on marijuana growers
too.

Agents from the bureau as well as local law enforcement officers are
finding fewer crops, and those that they are finding are mostly in poor
shape, Woodward said. He said some growers who are able to irrigate have
been able to beat the drought, although they get into trouble with the law
when they are discovered.

Although the number of plants recovered overall by agents so far this
summer is roughly the same as last year -- about 17,000 -- Woodward said
the quality is so bad that agents believe pot peddlers are losing money.

Good plants have an estimated street value of $1,500 per plant, he said.

"It frustrates them," Woodward said. "But regardless of the weather, we're
going to keep after it. As long as they keep growing it we're going to keep
after it."

He said he wouldn't hazard to guess whether the poor quality of home-grown
crops is having any effect on the amount of marijuana imported into the
state.

"I think we'll continue to see people bringing their dope through Mexico,"
Woodward said. But, he added, those who buy from local growers are "just
going to have to do without."

Woodward said crews from the Bureau of Narcotics have been flying over the
state, mostly southern and central Oklahoma, since April. And while much of
what has been discovered so far has been poor quality, there are parts of
the state that have received substantial rain and may be producing better
plants, he said.

He said agents would soon be scouring those areas, looking everywhere from
people's back yards to public lands for the plants.