Pubdate: Fri, 23 Aug 2002 Source: Chattanooga Times Free Press (TN) Copyright: 2002 Chattanooga Publishing Co. Contact: http://www.timesfreepress.com/index.html Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/992 AGENTS SPEND SUMMER IN MARIJUANA HUNT In 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. On Tuesday and Wednesday, they confiscated several thousand plants in Rhea and Cumberland counties, each batch 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 and sheriff's departments. "Last year, Tennessee had the third-largest marijuana eradication effort in the country," Maj. Gentry said. "We have plenty of places to hide it. Or they think they can hide it." In Rhea County alone, the task force confiscated almost 10,000 plants, according to Rhea County Sheriff Leon Sneed. Almost a dozen searchers found the marijuana, which had a street value of up to $12 million, he added. Deputies arrested Chuck and Jesse Day for manufacturing marijuana, Sheriff Sneed said. Also, Darrell Murphy was arrested after investigators found 10 cannabis plants growing behind his home. Other marijuana plantings were found on Evensville, Shutin and Grandview mountains, officials said. 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 on the Cumberland Plateau. Searchers use helicopters to fly over rural fields 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom