POLICE TARGET THIS GROWING PROBLEM

Police Finding More Plants In Searches Throughout State

Through the first nine months of 2003, State Police have seized and
destroyed 73,079 marijuana plants. That's more than double the number of
plants seized in all of last year.

Authorities also have arrested 83 people on drug cultivation charges, said
1st Sgt. Steve Jones of the State Police's Bureau of Criminal Investigations.

Jones attributes the jump in plant seizures to increased flight
surveillance by troopers and solid aerial support from within the agency,
the Army National Guard, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and the state's
Civil Air Patrol.

"They've given us a lot of time up in the air to look for this stuff,"
Jones said.

Nearly every day that weather permitted this summer, officers were looking
to get in the air so they could locate marijuana patches, he said.

Although pot busts take place year-round, Jones said investigators begin
looking for major outdoor patches in May and June. In late July and August,
officers take to the ground and start chopping down the plants.

That's not an easy task.

Most of the plants are in remote, hard-to-reach places.

"They're in the middle of nowhere," Jones said.

Jones said once officers locate a patch, they start out by car or truck and
go as far as the road takes them. They then mount all-terrain vehicles and
go as far as they can. After that, "we'll use a machete and go the rest of
the way. It's hard, sweaty work."

Growers tend to favor cleared land in the middle of very dense foliage, but
Jones said, "They'll grow anywhere."

As if the getting there wasn't hard enough, those who grow the illegal
plant are picky about who comes calling.

Although the traps set by state growers are rarely lethal -- that has not
been the case in other states -- Jones said they could be dangerous. Among
the favorite defensive mechanisms employed by growers is stringing clear
wire around the plants at eye level and then draping them with fishhooks.
They'll fasten razor blades to the bottom of the plant and strategically
place animal traps around their cultivation sites.

Although this year's rainy spring and warm, wet summer may have been more
conducive to growing, Jones said it really doesn't matter if the weather is
supportive or not. Growers are always willing to give it a go.

"I don't think the weather had any effect at all on how many people put
plants out. The weather assisted them because the plants did well."

While the climate may have helped to produce a better harvest, Jones said
tall, mature plants are easier to see and police were able to spot more.

Finding the plants is not an exact science. Jones said if marijuana is seen
in one area one year, it likely can be found in the same general area the
following year.

Most of the mature plants found in the state seem to come from the
southwestern counties. Historically, Boone, Logan and Wayne counties have
yielded large crops.

That also seems to be the trend this year, although Jones did not have
specific numbers for each county.

In addition to the number of plants, the actual growing area seems to have
been increased this year.

In 2002, officers raided 693 plots. This year, they've destroyed plants
from 788 plots.

Jones first started using helicopters to find plants in the early 1980s. He
said the patches are not as large as what they once were and they usually
don't harbor as many plants. However, there seems to be a larger number of
smaller growing areas.

He compared this year's haul to the number of plants destroyed when law
enforcement officials first began scouting from the sky.

In the early 1980s, Jones said there were multiple years when officers
destroyed more than 70,000 plants.

Although there was more aerial support from the National Guard this year,
he said there were no guardsmen available to help with the actual removal
of the plants because of the war in Iraqi.

Jeff Wallenstrom, the resident agent in charge of the Charleston division
of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, attributed the high number of plant
seizures to teamwork between federal, state and local authorities.

"There's been great effort," Wallenstrom said.

Wallenstrom said some of the pot grown in the state must be sold elsewhere.

From the last numbers he saw, Wallenstrom said West Virginia ranked in the
top states in the country for exporting marijuana.

However, Jones thinks the program is at least somewhat successful in
stemming the tide of pot actually crossing state lines.

He says busts often involve people bringing pot into the state, but police
rarely find those moving it out of state.

Jones said police would continue focusing on large outdoor patches and also
try to track down more clandestine indoor operations.

The indoor plants, for obvious reasons, are harder to locate, but Jones
said technology now gives investigators an edge.

Other than thermal imaging cameras, Jones declined to say what kind of
tools authorities use, for fear it might tip too much of their hand, but he
said it was cutting-edge stuff.