Pubdate: Wed, 10 Sep 2003
Source: Sun Herald (MS)
Copyright: 2003, The Sun Herald
Contact:  http://www.sunherald.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/432
Author: ROBIN FITZGERALD

LANDOWNER: 'POT' ACTUALLY DEER FOOD

'Pot' Plants Are Actually Deer Food, Landowner Says

HARRISON COUNTY - Narcotics officers who seized more than 500 suspicious 
plants on Monday might have had their first encounter with a plant that 
looks like marijuana, but isn't.

The man who claims he planted them at a hunting camp off Herman Ladner Road 
said they're kenaf, a high-protein plant that attracts deer and increases 
their size. He's angry, and he blames the Harrison County sheriff for 
tearing up the land and destroying his investment.

"I want him to fix the road and compensate me for the plants," said 
53-year-old Marion Waltman of West Harrison County. "They drove heavy 
equipment right down the center of my field. That crop would have been good 
until the second hard freeze."

Waltman, president of the Boarhog Hunting Club, said he paid $2,000 for a 
ton of kenaf and hemp seeds. He planted them in three fields the club 
leases from a timber company. Herman Ladner Road is north of Mississippi 53 
and Cemetery Road.

"The sheriff could have come to me and asked or taken samples before he did 
anything," Waltman said.

He said he learned the plants were destroyed while listening to news 
reports Monday night.

Sheriff George H. Payne Jr. said he never reported the plants were 
marijuana, only that they appeared to be marijuana.

"We knew we were going to be criticized, whatever we did," Payne said. "We 
decided it was in the best interests of the public to remove it and test 
it. We had received complaints of people going out there and pulling off 
the leaves."

Officers performed a field test, but the test was inconclusive, he said. 
Samples are being sent to a crime lab and to Mississippi State University, 
which is developing and testing kenaf seeds. Test results will take a 
couple of weeks.

Waltman said the kenaf plant does look like marijuana.

"But it has seven leaves at the top and okra-looking leaves at the bottom," 
he said. "Marijuana only has five leaves. Any drug officer should have been 
able to figure it out."

Waltman said he ordered a supply through a Senatobia biologist who also is 
a game warden.

Capt. Steve Campbell, the sheriff's internal affairs director, said he 
learned Tuesday that narcotics officers in other areas of the state also 
have found plants that closely resemble marijuana.

"We noticed a slight difference," Campbell said. "But it's kind of like 
you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. What if it turned out to 
be marijuana and we left it there?"

MSU is studying two strains of kenaf, Campbell said.

One strain, Everglade 41, has broad leaves, and resembles the majority of 
plants removed from west Harrison County. The other strain, T-2 or 
Thailand, has a leaf that looks identical to marijuana.

The university sells the seeds for $3.25 a pound, Campbell said, and the 
seeds are so tiny that both kinds could easily end up in the same bag.

"That would lend credence to why we found 10 times as much of one kind of 
plant as the other," Campbell said.

Waltman said his seed package included a mixture of hemp. Officers didn't 
remove the hemp.

"Hemp's not illegal," he said. "It's a member of the hibiscus family."

Waltman said he also wants an apology from the sheriff.

"And I want trespassing charges filed against the people who have been out 
there harvesting the plants, thinking it was marijuana, and the kids that 
have been riding four-wheelers out there."
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart