Drug Trafficking - Outdoor Production.

Domestic growers grow cannabis in remote areas in order to avoid detection by law-enforcement agencies. They surround their plots with camouflaging crops like corn or soybeans. Based on eradication data collected by the DEA, California, Appalachia (Kentucky and Tennessee), Hawaii, and, to a somewhat lesser extent, the Pacific Northwest (Washington and Oregon) are the primary domestic marijuana source areas. (See Figure 6.6.) Growers also plant cannabis in suburban and rural gardens interspersed with legitimate crops. Cannabis also grows in the wild. Wild-growing cannabis is known in lawenforcement circles as ditchweed. Some growers start with and cultivate ditchweed, but it produces a low-potency flower and leaf.