SMOKING OUT POT GROWERS

Call it an elaborate game of hide and seek. That's how Kentucky law
enforcement officials are describing the patterns of the state's
marijuana growers.

Police have noticed that areas of high concentrations of marijuana
plants are dwindling. More than a decade ago, it was common for police
to find about 5,000 plants per plot. Now they'll find 100 plants in 20
different plots, said Capt. Brad Bates of the Kentucky State Police.
"It's less risky for growers," he said.

Higher prices . Police said Mexican growers like to blend their
product with the traditionally more potent Kentucky marijuana, because
that brings higher prices. . The street value for one pound of
marijuana is now about $1,700.

The state's marijuana eradication program has forced growers to use
smaller plots and place them in areas where police helicopter flyovers
can't see them.

In recent years, growers have used public lands, such as state parks,
where it's hard to trace who's responsible for marijuana if it's
discovered. Bates said the Daniel Boone National Park in eastern
Kentucky has become a hotbed for growers.

Plants are now commonly found near power lines and underneath tree
canopies.

The scattering of plants has made it more difficult to find marijuana
plots.

In a bust in Grant County on May 28, more than $2 million worth of
marijuana in 1,000 plants was eradicated by law enforcement officials
near a wooded area. Each plot contained 10 to 25 plants, and they were
scattered around a 50-acre area, said Jim Liles, director of the
Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force.

"I think that is what you are going to start seeing," Liles
said.

In addition to crafty landscaping, growers are planting more in
houses, using both soil and hydroponics methods.

"They'll do it anywhere they can," Liles said.

Indoor-grown marijuana costs more because growers have to cover the
cost of water pumps, lights and chemicals.

"It's forced the price to go up, which is good," said David James,
chief investigator for the Kentucky Attorney General's office. "It
makes it harder for people to purchase."

With eradication efforts putting a dent in Kentucky production, police
are seeing more elaborate importation schemes -- like the one in Owen
County in which five people were convicted last week. In that ring,
police said more than a dozen people brought in hundreds of pounds of
weed from Mexico to Owen County. The middle-aged husband and wife
prosecutors said were leaders of that ring were each sentenced to 60
years.