Statewide: Business News from Across North Carolina.

• Author: Campbell, Spencer

Going to pot

It has been high times for Tar Heel marijuana growers, but legal reefer is harshing their buzz.

BY SPENCER CAMPBELL

As the map above shows, the state's agricultural economy is growing. But not included is maybe its most valuable crop--marijuana. "Yes, I have hoard that in the past," Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler admits. "I don't think there is any scientific data to support that, but we've been famous in North Carolina for moonshine for quite some time, and I'm sure that we do have some people that are illegally growing marijuana in North Carolina."

The buzz on the state's bud harvest has been building for some time now. When the Washington, D.C.-based National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws tried to put a price tag on Tar Heel pot production in 1997, it came up with slightly more than $120 million, far below tobacco's $1.3 billion and less than half cotton's $300 million. Nine years later, the cannabis crop topped $670 million, according to DrugScience.org, a pro marijuana website that ranked the state sixth nationally in production. That was higher than tobacco's $496.1 million and cotton's $302.6 million.

Each dollar of a crop's cash receipts usually generates two more in the supply chain, N.C. State University economist Michael Walden says. If that holds true for marijuana, it contributed more than $1.3 billion to the state economy eight years ago. That would have rolled about $40 million into state government coffers--"assuming the output was legally taxed," he adds. Pot's illegal status provides one of its strongest price supports. "Just as was the case with alcohol in the 1920s, society's acceptance of and desire for marijuana has led to a huge market," says Ben Scales, an Asheville lawyer who specializes in marijuana cases. "And the prohibition has led to high untaxed and unregulated profits for those willing to take the risks."

Over the last decade, law enforcement has uncovered plenty of large grow sites--plots with more than 100 plants--says Brian Neil, special agent in charge of the State Bureau of Investigation's intelligence and information section, which oversees its Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program in partnership with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. "Most of our data over the years has shown that large-scale domestic grows in our state have been done through cartel connections." According to the DEA, most pot sold in North Carolina and the U.S. is imported...