'Just Growing Marijuana'

SOME SAY ANTI-POT MONEY SHOULD BE SPENT ELSEWHERE

HAZARD - As he prepared for another workday scrambling around Eastern
Kentucky's hills, cutting and burning marijuana, state police Trooper Chris
Clark pondered the future.

"I feel like I'm going to show my kids photos one day -- 'Look at me
burning this marijuana' -- and it'll be like Prohibition, like I was
busting liquor barrels," said Clark, a one-year veteran of the
most-questioned front in Kentucky's drug war.

Clark is part of an annual effort by state police, the National Guard and
the U.S. Forest Service to cripple the state's giant marijuana industry.

The strike-force campaign in Kentucky costs taxpayers about $7 million a
year. It patrols the mountains in helicopters, Humvees and pickups on a
search-and-destroy mission that has burned an estimated $4.2 billion worth
of pot over the past five years.

But as prescription-drug abuse has skyrocketed in Eastern Kentucky, many
people have come to think that marijuana eradication burns time and money
that should be focused on deadlier, more-addictive drugs.

One example is the abuse of prescription painkillers. Federal officials
report that between January 2000 and May 2001, Kentucky had 69 deaths in
which the drug that makes up the painkiller OxyContin was present in the
deceased. In 36 deaths, the levels were toxic, according to a federal report.

"Marijuana is a big problem in all of Eastern Kentucky, but it's not
killing people," said Susan Ramos, the executive director of the Owsley
County Industrial Authority.

Ramos spends her days trying to bring employers to one of the poorest
counties in the nation -- a job she said is complicated by the area's drug
problem. But it's harder drugs, not pot, that scare off companies and limit
the supply of able workers, she said.

Meanwhile, police are "busy flying helicopters and driving Humvees looking
for marijuana," Ramos said. "It's backward."

Some prosecutors agree. "I think they waste too much time on marijuana,"
said Clay County Attorney Clay Massey Bishop Jr. "I have yet to hear of
anyone overdosing on marijuana."

Not A 'Benign Herb'

Larry Carrico, head of the Kentucky Agency for Substance Abuse Policy, said
the eradication campaign is needed.

Marijuana can cause health problems for users and serves as an entry-level
drug for young people, which can lead to bigger problems; it's not the
"benign herb" some people claim, Carrico said.

Sgt. Ronnie Ray, director of operations for the strike force, said the
marijuana trade would explode if not for his team's efforts. "I look at
what we do as drawing a line in the sand," he said.

In some ways, it's hard to imagine the illegal crop growing much more.

Kentucky and Tennessee account for almost half of the marijuana grown
outdoors in the United States, according to a 2000 federal report.

Marijuana, not tobacco, is Kentucky's No. 1 cash crop, federal
law-enforcement agents say. They are not alone in that conclusion. A
national group that has campaigned for legalizing marijuana, the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, says that in 1997,
Kentucky's marijuana crop was worth $1.36 billion, eclipsing approximately
$814 million from tobacco.

Local Impact

Those who grow pot might think they are not contributing to local drug
problems because they sell their crop out of state, said Leslie County
Attorney Phillip Lewis, who took office this month.

In reality, he said, the business brings in a bad element. The drug
trafficker who comes to buy marijuana might try to barter with pills, which
could be sold locally, Lewis said.

"I don't think you can fool with drugs and keep it a clean crop going
north," Lewis said.

Other prosecutors take a less-stringent view.

Lori Daniel, the assistant commonwealth's attorney for Magoffin and Knott
counties, said marijuana is nowhere near the top of her list of drug crimes
to prosecute.

"I'm to the point now where when I'm looking at cases, it's 'Oh, he's just
growing marijuana.' When did it get to that point? We just have another,
bigger problem," Daniel said. "As bad as it sounds, people on marijuana
stay home, get the munchies and don't go out and rob and steal."