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Drug Enforcement Administration and its predecessor. the demand, and production costs but also by the legal risks of Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, for twenty-eight selling it. As the risks increase, so does the profit. This theo- years before his retirement, last year. Twenty-three of those ry has been supported by the huge rise in marijuana prices years were spent working undercover in Indiana, mainly since [he latest war on drugs began. In 198? the stree_ tracking down marijuana growers. Under White's leadership price for an ounce (adjusted for inflation) was about [he Cannabis Eradication Program arrested more pot 575. By 1992 it had reached about 532. Although the growers every year in Indiana than were arrested costs of cultivating marijuana rose somewhat during that in just about any other state. White strongly period, most of the 333 percent price increase represented condemns marijuana use and gives anti-drug sheer profit-the reward for evading punishment. The le- lectures at high schools. But he opposes the gal risks of cultivation have encouraged growers to pco- long prison terms that first-time marijuana duce much more potent strains of the drug. which bring growers now receive. "I'm a big advocate of a higher price and require a lower volume of sales. alternative sentencing;' he says. "For most Growers have also found another means of reducing pot growers, prison isn't the answer. These their risk: bribery. Throughout the nation's rural aren't violent people. They usually have heartland local sheriffs are being paid to look the jobs, and homes, and children. Why other way during the marijuana harvest. Even lo- make their families a burden to the cal prosecutors andjudgesare being corrupted by community'?" White has learned over drug money. The large profit margins trans the years that marijuana growers formed U. S. marijuana cultivation in the come from all Botts of backgrounds • 1980s from a fringe economic activi- and possess a variety of skills. "Put ~ , ty into amultibillion-dollar indus- them to work, make them do com- try-despite the fact that marijuana munity service," he suggests. ; use was falling at the time. In Indi- "Prison terms only strengthen aria the value of the annual marijua- ' their anti-establishment views." ~ na crop now rivals that of corn. In Most commercial marijuana Alabama it rivals that of cotton. growers will quit the business The threat of long prison sentences after being caught once or twice. has succeeded in making some White feels little sympathy, marijuana growers rich, but it has however, for the unrepentant hardly affected the availability of growers who are motivated by pot. In 1982, when President Rea- big money and the thrill of gan declared his war on drugs, breaking the law, After a third 88.5 percent of America's high conviction for large-scale marl- school seniors said that it was "fair- juana cultivation, he thinks, al- ly easy" or "very easy" for them to ternative sentences should no obtain marijuana. In 1994 the longer apply. "Make prison a proportion of seniors who real pleasant place;' White says, said they could easily "and keep those guys in there obtain i[ was 85.5 forever." percent. The long prison sentences now given to marijuana offend- . ers have turned mazijuana-a hazdy weed that grows wild in all fifty states-into a precious commodity. Some marijuana is currently worth more per ounce than gold. A decade ago the policy analysts Peter Reuter and Mark A. R. Klei- man observed that the price of un illegal drug is deter- mined not only by its supply, rur. ~ir~sn~ ~wsr~n.t