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Bust
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tional Guard helicopter. The chopper directed ground units to the location. where 30 plants were confiscated. As the group was preparing to leave, Sheriff John Henry Woodward discovered a second garden hose running through an overgrown pasture. Near its end was another patch containing 29 plants.
The plants ranged in size from five feet to a few inches tall. One of the agents who accompanied the strike team said the plants appeared to have been pruned to make them bushier, thus increasing their value.
The agent, who requested that his identity be withheld, said that the trend during the past few years has been for marijuana growers to concentrate on small, well-concealed patches in an attempt to evade the increasingly sophisticated law enforcement surveillance.
Aerial surveillance is the tactic most often used to cover large, densely wooded rural areas. The law requires that spotters use eyesight, not infra-red or other devices as some believe. However, marijuana is apparently relatively easy for trained eyes to see from above. “It has a very distinctive look,” one officer explained. “Once you’ve seen it, you don’t forget what it looks like.”
The special agent said Tuesday that the most refined operations concentrate on growing extremely highquality sinsimella marijuana, which retails for several hundred dollars — or more — an ounce. Sinsimella, which means “without seeds,” is grown by pulling any male plants out of the patch. In a vain attempt to pollinate, the remaining females produce larger amounts of pollen and resin, which contains the active ingredient THC (tetrahydrocannibinol) which produces the marijuana high.
The special agent estimated that each mature plant is capable of pro
85.2%