Published: July 31, 2009 10:25 am      

Agents putting a dent in this summer’s pot crop

“It’s a battle we fight all over the state,” Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics Director Darrell Weaver told legislators Thursday morning concerning a growing trend in marijuana cultivation.

“We found 5,000 plants in Pushmataha County yesterday, and we believe it’s part of a string of more than 20,000 we found last week.”

Weaver addressed local members of the Oklahoma legislature at the McAlester Regional Airport during a presentation designed to explain and demonstrate the bureau’s marijuana eradication campaign.

“This is part of our summer marijuana eradication program that we’ve done every year all around the state of Oklahoma since the late 1980s, looking for cultivated marijuana fields,” OBN Public Information Officer Mark Woodward said. “We work with local police and sheriff’s departments in a task force concept to try, not only to get the plants, but to make arrests, and try to find out who is responsible for growing those patches. This particular mission covers the southeast quadrant of the state.”

Woodward explained that while each mission is instigated by the OBN, local law enforcement plays an integral role.

“Any time we go out, local law enforcement members that have been through our school at Camp Gruber come out and join us,” Woodward said. Even though the program is through OBN, it is really a task force concept. Woodward said the OBN has been working closely with District 17 Drug Task Force, the Pushmataha Sheriff’s Department, Pushmataha County District Attorney Laura Wallis, the U.S. Forestry Service, Civil Air Patrol, and the Oklahoma National Guard.

“The National Guard came in and taught us the use of military concepts such as rapelling. When we first started the program, we did everything on foot. Now, being able to use these military concepts, they can do in 30 minutes what used to take all day,” Woodward said.

Of the presentation for lawmakers, Woodward said, “One of the things that we want to show people today is how we spot marijuana fields and that is by going up with the helicopters to look for specific signatures. That may be areas with a lot of trees and water, but also enough clearing so they can get just enough sunlight to help those plants through the summertime.

“We look for certain signatures, out in the middle of literally nowhere. These people will plant on somebody else’s land, so we look for trails, water buckets, hoses, anything left behind. Sometimes something as simple as a beer can left behind can shine the reflection of the sunlight and that might catch the eye of one of our spotters and we’ll fly back down and take a closer look.

“A lot of times, growers will see the helicopters and go out and pull the plants before we can get down there,” Woodward said. “But that is a small victory in itself because they have to pull them before the plants mature.”

State representatives Brian Renegar, Terry Harrison, Steve Kouplen, Paul Roan, and state Sen. Gary Stanislawski were shown a presentation detailing drug statistics across the state, viewed equipment used in the program, attended a pre-flight briefing, and then had the opportunity to participate in a flight searching for marijuana patches.

“Every time we’re in a specific area doing marijuana eradication or other types of programs, we like to bring the legislators from that area to come along and see these programs first hand. It’s one thing to be up at the capitol in the spring and educate them when they’re in session, but it’s so much more effective to be able to show them how these operations work first hand and why this is recognized as one of the premier marijuana eradication programs in the nation,” Woodward said.

“In fact, the Drug Enforcement Agency requires all of their agents to come to our school and then they take that knowledge back to their states, and even some other countries and teach them how to do what we do here.”

While marijuana eradication is the current push, the bureau is committed to making the state drug free — a tall order considering the fact that deaths due to overdose in the state increased by an unbelievable 76 percent between 2001 and 2008.

Other programs established by the bureau, such as the Prescription Monitoring Program, are in effect to improve drug use statistics in Oklahoma.

According to OBN Director Darrell Weaver, marijuana cultivation is growing at an alarming rate.

“It’s a trend we’re starting to see, but we’ve been so aggressive with our eradication program that it’s not going to be very fruitful,” Weaver said.