COUNTY TOPS LIST OF BEST POT FARMS

Snohomish County is the driving force behind Washington state's dubious
reputation as one the nation's top producers of high-potency marijuana.

"It's known as the best bud around -- second only to B.C. bud," which comes
from British Columbia, said Lt. Ron Perniciaro of the Snohomish County Drug
Task Force.

High distinction

Snohomish County is a perennial challenger for being tops in the state for
marijuana production - most of it grown indoors. The county is included in
an eight-county high-intensity drug trafficking Area designated by federal
authorities. But pot is not the county's only drug dilemma: Methamphetamine
labs are also a problem.

A 2000 federal Drug Enforcement Agency report listed Washington among the
five leading states for indoor-grown marijuana, behind California, Florida,
Oregon and Wisconsin.

And Snohomish County is the state's leading marijuana producer, based on
the number of indoor growing operations busted by police, said Pat Slack,
commander of the drug task force.

In 2001, about two-thirds of the $5 million worth of marijuana seized by
the regional task force was found in raids of indoor growing operations --
3,290 mature plants and 1,112 starter plants. Marijuana seizures accounted
for 41 percent of all task force seizures.

Each year, the county vies for first place in the state for marijuana
production, an illegal multimillion-dollar industry.

"We've been the number one growing county on and off for the last 11 years,
as long as I've been here," Perniciaro said. "If we're not number one,
we're always in the top three counties.

"We don't know if it's because of good enforcement or if it's because
growers prefer it here."

Other counties in the state known for pot growing are Whatcom, Skagit,
King, Pierce, Thurston and Yakima. All have been designated high-intensity
drug trafficking areas by the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Growing conditions in Snohomish County are ideal, and much of the county is
off the beaten path but with easy access to I-5, a major north-south drug
distribution route that runs from Canada to Mexico.

However, overall marijuana production in Washington state pales in
comparison with the quantity of bud coming out of the Appalachian regions
of Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia, where most of the pot is grown
outdoors.

Washington-grown marijuana is reputedly the Cadillac of pot, fetching up to
$3,000 a pound in California and up to $6,000 a pound in New York, where it
is prized for its high level of the chemical tetrahydrocannabinbol , or
THC, which produces the marijuana high, Perniciaro said.

Powerful indoor lights boost THC levels and contribute to the drug's
reputation as Washington's finest.

"The flowers are sticky and dripping with resins. The THC level is 28
percent. It borders on the hallucinogenic," Perniciaro said.

Indoor-grown marijuana, a year-round crop, is usually the most potent,
making it the pot of preference, and therefore the most expensive. The most
potent varieties may sell for as much as $400 an ounce.

Outdoor plants, on the other hand, are a warm-weather gamble, subject to
natural light and temperature fluctuations that can lower the THC level,
making the pot less desirable.

"They're often a lower-grade plant," Perniciaro said.

While some people might shrug their shoulders and say it's only marijuana,
the powerful pot grown here often is traded for harder drugs, including
cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine, law enforcement officials say.

"We don't go after the users. We only go after the hard-core commercial
growers who are smugglers," Perniciaro said.