DEPUTIES PUTTING A STOP TO POT

Last Year, 2,665 Marijuana Plants Were Eradicated In The Three-county
Area.

Deputies in Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton counties hacked down 2,665
marijuana plants last year, according to a Florida Department of Law
Enforcement report just released.

That's an estimated $2.6 million in drug money marijuana growers
didn't harvest.

"Marijuana is big business," Walton County Sheriff's Department
spokesman Bill Price said.

The FDLE's annual Domes-tic Marijuana Eradication Program report, just
released, puts Santa Rosa County near the top of the list in plants
destroyed last year.

Santa Rosa sheriff's deputies harvested 2,101 plants in 2001, doubling
the previous year's take. In fact, Santa Rosa ranked second in the state in
the number of pot
plants destroyed, trailing only Miami-Dade officers, who uprooted
2,503 plants.

One of the first things Santa Rosa Sheriff Wendell Hall did when he
came on board in January 2001 was fill the vacant pilot position in
the narcotics unit.

"If you've got a good pilot and spotter, you are going to find dope,"
Hall said of his department's successful year.

Deputy Craig Stalcup, a licensed pilot, now flies the county's
single-engine Cessna, circling 500 feet above the forest canopy.
Stalcup marks the spot with a global-positioning system and calls in
ground troops who zero in on the pot plots.

"Most of our finds last year were in rural areas," Stalcup said. "This
year I hope to concentrate on more residential areas where people are
growing it in their back yards."

Most serious marijuana growers target remote areas to seed their
crops, making it difficult to catch them in the act.

Last year, 11 people were arrested in the three-county area and
charged with cultivating marijuana.

"They spend a minimal amount of time physically present with the
crop," Okaloosa Sheriff's Office spokesman Rick Hord said of the
reason why more growers aren't arrested.

Okaloosa deputies destroyed only 65 plants this year because "growers
have gone elsewhere," Hord said of his office's crackdown on dope
growers in previous years.

The Walton County Sheriff's Department located half as many marijuana
plants last year as in 2000, but plans to "employ more aggressive
tactics this year" to locate and destroy marijuana plants and arrest
offenders.

In Santa Rosa County, the marijuana hunt heats up in July, August and
September, the months preceding harvest.

"The only way to be effective is to be aggressive," Hall said of his
resolve to put the pressure on dope growers.

Other law enforcement agencies are already fighting the pot war. With
712 square miles of wooded lands known as the "reservation," Eglin Air
Force Base is a prime target of marijuana growers.

Military police officers at Eglin unearthed 230 marijuana plants
Monday morning, chief criminal investigator Homer Godwin said.