PROPOSAL TO TOUGHEN MARIJUANA GROWING PENALTIES

Authorities Say Drug Cultivators Are Keeping Their Crops Small to
Avoid Felony Charges

Marijuana cultivators in Southwest Florida know that numbers are a
very important component to their business plan.

But instead of focusing on the bottom line, they are planting smaller
crops to skirt drug trafficking laws -- and bypass potential prison time.

Law enforcement officials say drug traffickers' savvy has made it
harder to prosecute them, contributing to the proliferation of
marijuana "grow houses" in the area.

But help in the fight against the facilities may be on the way. The
Florida attorney general and two state lawmakers have created
legislation to stiffen the penalty for marijuana cultivation,
lowering the number of plants needed to charge someone with drug
trafficking, a first-degree felony.

The bill also contains penalties for owners of "grow houses" as well
as paid caretakers. And it would let detectives videotape and
photograph equipment and marijuana plants seized from grow operations
and destroy the evidence, rather than storing it until trial.

Lawmakers will not consider the legislation until next spring, but
law enforcement officers are already talking about its potential to
help their efforts to combat the large-scale drug operations.

"Someone is finally listening to what detectives are saying and what
problems they're having," said Kathy Ayers, a detective with the
Charlotte County Sheriff's Office.

Currently, cultivators often have just under the number of plants
needed to charge them with trafficking, reflecting their awareness of
state and federal statutes against their trade. As a result, they
face lesser charges and, often, a probation sentence.

In Florida, growers can only be hit with a state trafficking charge
if they grow 300 or more plants. Federal trafficking laws require 100
or more plants for the same offense.

If the "Marijuana Grow House Eradication Act" passes, the state
threshold will be lowered to 25 plants.

Instead of a third-degree felony, growers will face a first-degree
felony, which carries at least a three-year sentence.

"The laws right now are inadequate," said Florida Attorney General
Bill McCollum, who is working with Sen. Steve Oelrich, R-Gainesville,
and Rep. Nick Thompson, R-Fort Myers, on the bill.

Ayers said that many of the grow houses busted in Charlotte County
had 99 or fewer plants, just under the federal trafficking threshold.

Prosecutors often have no choice but to charge growers with intent to
distribute, which often carries a probation sentence with no jail time.

State and federal officials have busted 30 grow houses this year in
Lee County alone. There have been another 12 in Sarasota County --
mostly in the city of North Port -- and 11 in Charlotte County.
Manatee County Sheriff's Office spokesman Dave Bristow said he could
not recall any recent grow house busts there.

Last year, only three were busted in Charlotte County.

The increase has been attributed to a migration of cultivators from
Florida's east coast to take advantage of the glut of cheaper housing
in a slack real estate market.

"What they're looking for is ... an isolated location in a low-cost
market," said Sarasota County Sheriff's Capt. Jeff Bell, head of the
special investigations unit. "Those are definitely things that they
can find in North Port."

Once inside, cultivators convert the home into a sophisticated
growing operation. Some use only the garage, while others even knock
down bedroom walls to help grow plants up to 6 feet tall.

Electricity is diverted to bypass the meter, allowing growers to
steal thousands of dollars of power monthly for high-watt lights and
irrigation systems, both set to timers.

Large fans and several air-conditioning units also counter the heat
from the lights.

As law enforcement agencies make more arrests, their evidence rooms
have become crammed. In Sarasota County, the Sheriff's Office rents
storage units to hold the equipment seized from these operations,
said Sarasota County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Jim Minchin, part of an
eight-member narcotics task force.

Charlotte County is similarly running out of space, Ayers said.

The proposed law would let detectives use video and photographic
evidence of a grow house's contents, along with a sample from each plant.

Marijuana cultivators can fetch between $3,000 to $4,000 a pound on
the local wholesale market and upwards of $7,000 in northern markets,
such as New York and New Jersey.

"These are very elaborate money-making ventures," said Bell, adding
that the operations are "deteriorating our community."