Midwest's marijuana goes up in smoke

The Midwest marijuana supply has gone to pot this summer, leavingsmokers of the outlawed high feeling down. But growers probably arehappy because prices are going up, and sales are booming for onedevice that can be used to cultivate marijuana plants at home.

"There is absolutely no grass," complained Charles, aChicago-area resident who said he prefers unwinding at night with atoke instead of a double-martini. He and a dozen or so friends whomake up an informal network of suppliers have been "totally dry" allsummer. Charles, an engineer, said he has taken the drastic step ofstocking up on demon alcohol instead.

"I probably know a 100 people or so who smoke pot and now don'thave any. There's never been anything like this," Scott said. Thiscontrasts to recent years, when friends offered a supermarketselection of marijuana - from "Maui Wowee" to Colombian Gold - inchoices of prices and quality.

Law enforcement officials sense a similar drought.

"Our sources are saying the same thing. One reason may be thatcocaine is replacing marijuana," said Bob Long, a spokesman for theChicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. (The federalDrug Enforcement Agency claims that consumption has dropped from9,700 metric tons in 1981 to around 8,400 in 1984. Others argue thatusage is increasing.)

Long speculated that "changing wants and needs of the public"are being reflected in the drug marketplace, a version of freeenterprise in action. Long said the days of "walking down a streetin a neighborhood where drugs are sold and getting what you want in aminute" may be finished.

Some credit - or blame - government drug crackdowns.

"It's not just this summer," said Tom Stacy, a Chicago-based DEAagent, who said he believes the shortage is a measure of the successof anti-drug policies at home and abroad.

In the Midwest, the federal government spent $239,000 in themost recent fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 1985, to destroy 122,000cultivated marijuana plants in a five-state area of North Dakota,Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana, according to DEAspokesman Franz Hirzy.

Those plants, in addition to 33 million wild "ditch weed"plants, were destroyed after being seized from public and privatelands in the fourth year of the Domestic Cannabis Eradication andSuppression Program.

"We think we've made quite a dent in the local supply," saidHirzy.

For the record, Hirzy said Indiana is the highest volume statebecause of the amount of ditch weed sprung from the plants sewn forhemp during World War II.

Recent drives against pot growers in Mexico, Colombia andJamaica along with eradication of home-grown fields (particularly inNorthern California) have cut down the tide of the happy weed, hesaid. But those programs are open to different interpretations.

The pot shortage is typically seasonal, some people believe."Every August, there's a drought of a certain kind when sinsemilla (apotent form of seedless pot) sells out," according to Steven Hager,executive editor of High Times magazine, a 250,000-circulationmagazine about marijuana cultivation. Not until the NovemberAmerican harvest will a new crop come in, he said.

And Kevin Zeese, director of the National Organization for theReform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) agreed with Hager, but added thatgovernment policies are responsible only for short-term shortages.In the long run, he said, the programs will backfire in several ways.Zeese said government spraying has destroyed 80 percent of theColombian pot crop, which is the main source of American users duringthe summer prior. This has created a shortage that has contributedto the rise in "crack" and cocaine use, he said.

More importantly, American inventiveness - and greed - will fillthe void, Zeese said. NORML estimates that marijuana is now "themost valuable cash crop in the United States," worth $18.6 billion in1985. Even though the DEA and others dispute those figures, no onedenies that American pot is fetching up to $250 an ounce, and theprices are inflating in response to the demand.

"I see the future where several million grow the stuff at home,inside closets, and supply it to friends," said Zeese. "There may bea long-term glut. In the final analysis, people learn to get aroundthe government, making enforcement more and more difficult."

As evidence, he cited the success of companies like theHillside-based Pyraponic Industries, whose $300 Phototron is one ofthe numerous plant-growing devices advertised in publications likeHigh Times and Sinsemilla Tips, a marijuana newsletter. Thethree-foot high chamber is selling 300 units a week, triple thevolume of a few months ago.

"We attribute that to the national drought and problems with lawenforcement curtailing importation of non-domestic marijuana," saidPaul Newman, vice-president of the three-year-old company.

Newman said he "never asks" what buyers want the device for, andindeed, it can be used for any generic vegetable. But he points outit is advertised in High Times, and the ad includes a technicaldiscussion of marijuana.

So the grass may be green in the future, but for now, potsmokers are blue.