Pubdate: Fri, 10 Aug 2001 Source: News & Observer (NC) Copyright: 2001 The News and Observer Publishing Company Contact: http://www.news-observer.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/304 Author: Angela Heywood Bible MORE MARIJUANA BEING FOUND, OFFICIALS SAY PITTSBORO -- When law enforcement officials seized 23,000 marijuana plants in Chatham County last month, they destroyed the largest North Carolina crop anyone can remember. But that doesn't mean Chatham is a hotbed for cannabis growth, nor does it mean the state, ranked seventh nationally in 2000 for marijuana growth, has more marijuana than before. Recent spikes in marijuana eradication may be the result of stronger searches, better police cooperation, or even luck. "I think we're finding a higher percentage of dope in our state," said Special Agent Billy Denney of the Drug Enforcement Agency in Greensboro. "We like to think it's because we've revamped the program. We have really pulled a lot of agencies together under the SBI." Marijuana is grown in North Carolina from the Appalachians to the Atlantic. In Chatham, officials seized the county's largest crop July 13 just south of Carolina Hill Road, shocking landowners who say they wouldn't recognize the plant if they saw it. So far this year, Chatham deputies have destroyed more than 26,000 plants - -- an unusually high number, Sheriff Ike Gray said. Last year, Wilkes County led the state with 10,291 plants seized. Each year, the DEA supports marijuana eradication by giving the State Bureau of Investigation a grant for aerial searches. The money is allocated to the state Highway Patrol and individual counties to pay for airplane and helicopter fuel, machetes, boots and safety equipment. The fact that Chatham County has so much marijuana growth this year has little to do with the soil, Denney said. Many growers, it seems, move from county to county -- even from state to state -- to avoid losing their crops and getting caught. It is difficult to predict how much marijuana is growing in a county in any given year. "One year you might get three plants -- that's it," Denney said. "And the next year you might get 20,000. These guys move around." And whether a sheriff's department finds marijuana depends at least a little bit on luck. "You've got to be looking at the right place at the right time," Denney said. "We hit all 100 counties. These people, they'll grow in their back yard, and they'll go miles and miles and grow. It's a shot in the dark every year." In Madison County, which ranked second in the state last year with 3,939 plants seized, deputies might fly 14 to 15 days during the growth season from April to October, Deputy Billy Osteen said. Before they fly over to see it, deputies usually know about a marijuana patch from a citizen who has reported suspicious activity. In counties such as Wilkes, Madison, Warren and Chatham -- the top four marijuana-producing counties in 2000, in that order -- the rural land appeals to growers, Osteen said. It is impossible for a handful of deputies to canvass the entire county. "It's hard to get out and actually look all the time," Osteen said. When Madison deputies locate marijuana, they sometimes have to drive high into the Appalachians, strap on backpacks and machetes, and hike several miles to the site, which might be a tiny crop terraced into a steep mountainside. In such rural areas, the odds of catching the crook are remote because, most likely, the grower doesn't own the land. "Why grow it on your land?" Osteen said. "If you catch their crop, all they lose is the crop. They don't get caught, and they don't get their land seized." The people who own land south of Carolina Hill Road use it for timber. Only one of those five landowners resides in Chatham County, and she lives more than 10 miles away. Harry Isley, who lives in Asheboro, owns 91 acres in that area. Like the other landowners, he visits his parcel every now and then. "It grows good trees, and we try to keep it doing that," said Isley, who shares the land with his brother. "It's just timberland to us." When law enforcement agencies chopped down the plants near his land, Isley read about it in the (Greensboro) News & Record. "To tell you the darn truth," Isley said, "I wouldn't even know what marijuana looks like growing out in the field." - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart