For Release: Immediate  Date: June 14, 1999

Contact:  Robert Carver Phone:  (919) 733-5027 (ext. 232)

RALEIGH -- The North Carolina Counterdrug Task Force today kicked off the 1999 season of Bladerunner, its annual statewide marijuana-eradication program. The Task Force is a part of the North Carolina National Guard which is a division of the North Carolina Department of Crime Control and Public Safety (CCPS). The kickoff took place at the Guard's Aviation Support Facility at the Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

A very successful program, Bladerunner provides helicopters and airplanes from the National Guard, State Highway Patrol, Civil Air Patrol, and State Bureau of Investigation to law enforcement agencies in all 100 North Carolina counties. These agencies use the aircraft to spot marijuana in the field and direct in ground teams which destroy the plants before the illegal weed can make it to the streets.

"Bladerunner is a proven weapon that keeps drugs out of the hands of our state's young people," said Richard Moore, CCPS secretary and the recently-appointed chairman of the Governor's Task Force on Youth Violence and School Safety. "Destroying marijuana before it gets out of the field helps make our communities safer places for all of us, children in particular."

In its 1998 season, Bladerunner missions seized 40,417 marijuana plants that would have been worth an estimated $210,491,736 on the street. The program's effort led to 91 arrests.

The success is due in large measure to the pre-planning done when Counterdrug Task Force members work with local law enforcement. Another factor is training.

Marijuana spotter training for National Guard pilots includes six hours of classroom training on spotting techniques and information on the flight environment when hunting for marijuana. This training is followed by hands-on flying experience with a veteran marijuana-spotting pilot. National Guard Spotter Training conducted for law enforcement officers involves 20 to 24 hours of classroom instruction followed by orientation in the air. The training has proven very effective.

A highlight of this year's kick-off event was a media orientation flight in which reporters and photographers were taken up in a National Guard Blackhawk helicopter and given a brief training session on how to spot the illegal crop. They trained the same way real spotters do by looking for a set of Japanese Maple plants arranged in a Wake County field not far from the airport. By painting plastic versions of Japanese Maples, the plants can be made to look remarkably like their illegal cousins from the air.

The National Guard, State Highway Patrol, and Civil Air Patrol are all divisions of CCPS. The State Bureau of Investigation is part of the North Carolina Department of Justice.

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