The area was home to moonshine runners during Prohibition, who often darted into rows of corn stalks and barns to hide from federal agents. In the early 1980s, as the economy soured and prices for tobacco and farm products dropped, parts of central Kentucky had unemployment rates nearing 14 percent. The rate in the area now is around 9 percent - similar to the national average.
"A lot of the sons of moonshine makers turned to marijuana," said Smith, a native of the area who now practices in Louisville. "That particular part of the state, that was the hometown of marijuana."