cannabisnews.com: Mother Nature Helping Police in War On Drugs 





Mother Nature Helping Police in War On Drugs 
Posted by FoM on September 02, 1999 at 14:17:23 PT
By Charley Gillespie
Source: Cleveland Live
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The drought has hurt marijuana growers in two ways: Plants that have not withered in the fields are easier to spot from the air, authorities said. 
Forced to water to make up for lack of rain, growers are producing crops that stand out from their dry surroundings. The state has destroyed 15,000 plants so far this year, putting it slightly ahead of last year's tally, Attorney General Betty Montgomery said. "It will be a significant eradication and will have at least a short-term impact on what is available in the market," she said. Montgomery said the state uprooted 45,000 plants last year worth over $45 million and arrested 127 people during the season that runs from the spring planting to mid-October. The state sends up five helicopters every day to look for marijuana, said Ted Almay, superintendent of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation. Plants are easier to find because growers are forced to plant close to a road or a water source. "We look for trails, but the plants themselves also stand out this year because the ones that are surviving the drought are being watered and given fertilizer," Almay said. "With each marijuana plant worth about $1,000, you can see why pot growers try to take very good care of their plants." Almay said most of the state's marijuana crop comes from the southern Ohio where the drought is most severe. Federal officials have declared nine southern Ohio counties disaster areas. In some counties, rainfall for the year is down more than 6 inches. Gallia County led the state last year with over $7 million in marijuana plants seized, followed by Meigs County with over $5 million in plants uprooted. "Southern Ohio gets a lot of attention because it is very rural," Almay said. "This allows growers to have fewer people wandering around that could stumble onto their fields." Dennis Salisbury, chief deputy with the Gallia County Sheriff's Department, said marijuana production is down this year. He has spotted more than 3,100 plants from the air, compared to over 7,000 last year. "If you're raising pot this year, you are either really devoted to it or it's your only source of income," Salisbury said. "Growers had to triple their workload just to get out a small crop," he said. In Ross County, where there is a drought emergency, Sheriff Ron Nichols has found more than $1 million worth of pot plants. "There will be a lot less of Ohio grown pot out there this year," he said. "Corn used to be the best place to grow it, but now the corn this year is only 4 feet tall, and the 7-foot-tall marijuana plants stick out like a sore thumb." He also said arrests were up slightly from last year because people have been caught as they watered their plants. "If you see a guy walking in the woods with two 5-gallon buckets, he is probably not out there watering flowers," Nichols said. By CHARLEY GILLESPIE The Associated Press09/02/99 2:43 PM Eastern© The Associated Press, 1999 
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