AIRBORNE AGENTS SCAN TERRAIN FOR THE COLOR OF BIG CASH CROP

NASHVILLE (AP)- In the remote sections of the Cumberland Plateau,
government agents are spending their summer trying to ruin one of the
state's top cash crops.

The Governor's Task Force on Marijuana Eradication has found more than
360,000 patches of marijuana so far this year. One day this week they
confiscated several thousand plants, each worth up to $2,500.

"This is what we do, try to get the drug before it reaches the streets,"
said Maj. Nik Gentry of the Tennessee National Guard Counterdrug Division,
one agency that is part of the task force.

Also participating are the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, the state
Alcoholic Beverage Commission, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the
Drug Enforcement Administration, and local police.

"We all work well together," Gentry told The Tennessean. "Last year,
Tennessee had the third-largest marijuana-eradication effort in the
country. We have plenty of places to hide it. Or they think they can hide it."

Marijuana raised in Tennessee has a street value of more than $1 billion
annually, government officials estimate. About 75 percent of it is grown in
East Tennessee and the Cumberland Plateau.

The marijuana hunters asked that neither their names nor the exact location
of their operations be reported.

The process of finding the crops includes flying over rural fields by
helicopter looking for a shade of green that is unique to marijuana plants.
"When you know what you're looking for, it just stands out," one pilot said.

Agents spotted a 3-by-5-foot section of marijuana a half-mile from a
country road. The pilot told two sheriff's deputies on the ground, "Keep on
heading in that direction." The deputies soon reached the plants and cut
them down with machetes. The plants will be burned.

Said one drug agent, "Somebody is not going to be a happy camper when they
check their crop."