May 14, 1998

By Rob Martindale World Senior Writer

(Ed. note: This is one of those things that -- if it were not so sad -- would be hilariously funny. The only joke here is the "journalism," but nothing critical of marijuana prohibition would be printed. Here we have the National Guard providing funding and logistical support for police who will poison the environment to kill a bunch of ditchweed. They will also get a few plots of cultivated marijuana and further overburden Oklahoma’s pathetic "criminal justice system.")

OFFICERS TRAIN TO ERADICATE POT PLANTS

CAMP GRUBER—Officers from 20 law enforcement agencies have been training here this week for the annual crackdown starting in June on eastern Oklahoma’s marijuana harvest.

Authorities are expecting a more efficient eradication program this year because sprays will be used for the first time, making Oklahoma only the second state to use the method.

Russ Higbie, chief agent over enforcement for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, said the use of sprays gives officers an eradication tool quicker than the old method of chopping down stalks and then burning them.

"It is going to revolutionize this entire project, making it possible to eradicate thousands of more marijuana plants in a shorter period of time," he said, noting that in the past "we had to whack it, stack it and burn it."

The Guard also is a source of federal funding for the marijuana operation and will provide equipment and manpower for surveillance from helicopters, Higbie said.

Traditionally, the major marijuana alley in the state has stretched through the eastern sector of the state, virtually all the way from Kansas to Texas.

Officers training with the Guard this week are from nine counties, large and small municipal police departments, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and the Cherokee Nation.

Much of the training Wednesday centered on the officers descending from a platform on ropes. Later this week, they will test their skills at coming down ropes from flying helicopters.

The rappel training is necessary, Higbie said, because in many areas of the state it is impossible to land helicopters.

Higbie said the Bureau’s marijuana eradication program started in Oklahoma about 10 years ago, and the Department of the Army began "blending in" by providing monies and personnel to combat drug use.

Though he didn’t have numbers immediately available, Higbie said the program has been a major success, resulting in high arrest and seizure rates during the summer months.

While the primary marijuana corridor in Oklahoma is in the eastern part of the state, Higbie said the task force also has worked operations in the western sector.

The participation of the officers is important, he said, because they have the qualifications to make the hundreds of arrests occurring each year.

The National Guard, he said, is never put in a position of having to give testimony or be involved in the chain of custody of evidence.

"The support us," he said, "by allowing us to work the towers (at Gruber), and flying helicopters to work the surveillance and spotting mission through their own funding."

Higbie said the chemical spraying program passed an environmental impact study and is patterned after one in Hawaii, the only other state where sprays are used on marijuana plants.

"We gave a demonstration of the spray late last year and were happy with it," he said.

In previous years, when marijuana was chopped down and then burned, he said, officers were eradicating an estimated 8,000 plants a week.