POT, OR NOT?

Three Fields Of Plants Found Off Herman Ladner Road

HARRISON COUNTY -- More than 500 suspicious plants found Monday in West
Harrison County could prove to be the region's largest crop of marijuana in
several years, said Sheriff George H. Payne Jr.

However, Payne said he can't confirm if the plants were marijuana until lab
results come back. Narcotics agents saved samples for tests and evidence,
but destroyed the rest at an undisclosed location.

The plants, some as high as 15 feet, were found in three fields off Herman
Ladner Road. The land is leased for hunting, Payne said.

The plants could be a type of hemp plant grown for deer food, he said.

But if the samples test positive for marijuana, the number of plants seized
is about one-third of the total number of marijuana plants confiscated
statewide in the 2003 fiscal year that ended in July.

"We had 30 state inmates out there helping to cut it down," Payne said,
"and they all said it looked like marijuana to them."

The average street price for a marijuana plant is $1,500, according to the
state Bureau of Narcotics. A crop of more than 500 plants would be worth
more than $750,000.

Payne said a caller reported the plants to the Sheriff's Department.
Officers walked through boggy woods while a narcotics officer went up in a
helicopter to search.

"We had to bring in our Hummer and five-ton trucks to get in and get it
out," Payne said.

Officers assigned to the DEA's High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, or
HIDTA, also are investigating the case, along with the Coastal Narcotics
Enforcement Team and the Bureau of Narcotics.

Anyone with information about the crop on Herman Ladner Road is asked to
call the Sheriff's Department at 865-7060.

The MBN confirmed that 2,471 marijuana plants were confiscated around the
state last year, compared to 5,210 plants seized the previous year.