IT'S TIME AGAIN TO SEEK AND DESTROY

Heaven Forfend West Virginia Weed Mature Unmolested

In the weeks to come, you're going to hear about the exercise in
futility known as the marijuana harvest, not by those who grow it but
by law enforcement officers who have better things to do. They'll
spend millions tracking down the plants with airplanes and
four-wheelers and millions harvesting and burning them. And with all
that effort, they'll get maybe 10 percent of the crop.

First and foremost, I am not a pot smoker. I used to be, just as I
used to drink gallons of beer and smoke a couple of packs of
cigarettes every day. Now my only addiction is nicotine chewing gum.

I suppose I have a bit of an addictive personality, but if I can limit
my addiction to chewing gum, I feel blessed.

I don't advise anyone to smoke pot, but I know that perhaps 80 percent
of all the kids in America are going to try it and, unlike President
Clinton, they'll inhale.

I also know that, contrary to popular belief, smoking a joint isn't
going to lead to harder drugs for the vast majority of them.

I also know that most of those who overindulge will simply eat four or
five bags of potato chips and go to sleep. Some will do things under
its influence to get them into trouble. That's why it's best to avoid
the weed.

For kids in this area, access to marijuana is abundant, especially
rural kids who can drop a few seeds beside a meandering creek in May
and return in September to harvest the crop.

The old hippie adage "God grows his own," is more than appropriate
here in Mountain Mama.

In case you don't know it, the climate in these hills and hollows is
perfect for marijuana cultivation. Plenty of rain, plenty of heat and
humidity at the correct time in late summer and plenty of cover to
disguise the plants makes for a great harvest most years.

Word on the street is that this will be yet another bumper crop
year.

My son was never more surprised than when he was in a Detroit watering
hole a few years ago where marijuana was as available as beer. An
entrepreneur brought a bag of pot into the establishment and announced
it was "Meigs County gold," after which he heard the approbations of
the assemblage.

For the uninitiated, the marijuana that comes from Meigs County, Ohio,
just across the Ohio River from Mason County, W. Va., is legendary,
especially in northern climes, as my son learned that day in Detroit.

Considering how little marijuana is actually found and destroyed by
local gendarmes, is the money spent on the seek-and-destroy missions
really worth it? Couldn't that money be better spent on programs aimed
at teen use of drugs, particularly the really dangerous drugs?

Or perhaps other dangerous teen practices such as riding four-wheelers
without a helmet or unprotected sex? I suspect more teens are
endangered by those practices than smoking a joint or two.

A few police officers have leveled with me and told me they're not
convinced the late summer hunt for pot is worth the time and money
that's invested. But they get money earmarked for marijuana
eradication and they must use it that way.

What a waste.