Although there's a push nationwide to de-criminalize marijuana, law enforcement agencies are still charged with getting the weed off the street.
In addition to smuggled marijuana, Georgia officers are also looking for plants being grown in the area.
Northwest Georgia is the best place in the state to grow marijuana, according to state and local agents who spend their days finding the plants and prosecuting people who grow them.
The state Drug Task Force brought 5 helicopters to Walker county on Tuesday to do an aerial search..but the weather kept them on the ground most of the day.
Nevertheless, they were able to tell ground teams where to find huge plants like this one.
PATRICK DOYLE, INTERIM COMMANDER, LOOKOUT MT. DRUG TASK FORCE "Once you have experience seeing marijuana..and the ways they grow marijuana locally...its fairly easy to see from the air."
Doyle says each coordinated effort leads to more arrests and indictments.
In this bust last August, three people were arrested and charged with a major growing operation in Walker county.
Doyle says growers don't always do it on their own property.
PATRICK DOYLE "Well, we've got a lot of public land, we've also got several very rural communities..and its seemingly easier to get away with it for a while."
Prosecuting drug crimes is a daily event at the D.A.'s office.
HERBERT "BUZZ" FRANKLIN, LOOKOUT MT. DISTRICT "I often tell people if we could wipe out the drug problems, it would get rid of 67% of our crime. A lot of the crimes are predicated upon people wanting to get money to buy their drugs."
There is an organized effort to decriminalize marijuana.
PATRICK DOYLE "I know the public perception of marijuana has changed..its not as important to the public as it used to be. But these are still issues, still problems, still against the law..and we're going to continue fighting it."
Patrick Doyle says the aerial surveilance team will be back in the near future, to help local officers stop marijuana production in north Georgia.
