Pubdate: Fri, 12 Sep 2003
Source: Watertown Daily Times (NY)
Copyright: 2003 Watertown Daily Times
Contact:  http://www.wdt.net
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/792
Author: James R. Donnelly
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n1374.a06.html
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n1379.a12.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hemp.htm (Hemp)

LACK OF CARE CUT CROP'S POT-ENTIAL

CANTON - It's easy to see why marijuana is known as "weed" following
law enforcement officials' find of some 80,000 of the plants that were
reportedly growing wild on about a square mile in St. Lawrence County.

"If they had been properly cultivated, they might have been worth as
mush as $80 million," county sheriff Gary Jarvis said. "These plants
were not properly cultivated.

Mr. Jarvis said he could not determine if the plants had been sown
where they were found or were growing wild. "I just don't know," he
said.

The plants---some towering up to 7 feet high with stalks 3 inches in
diameter---were harvested, taken away in seven dump trucks and
destroyed Wednesday, but samples of the plants are being tested to
determine drug quality and corresponding street value.

Since wild marijuana has low amounts of the drug tetrahydrocannabinol
compared to its cultivated counter part, the test should confirm law
enforcement's belief that the plants harvested this week really were
just weeds.

Michael E. Hunter, field crop extension agent with Cornell Cooperative
Extension in Jefferson County, said police there brought a sample of
suspected marijuana in for examination Wednesday.

"The police had checked it out and said it wasn't really marijuana. It
looked like marijuana but really wasn't," Mr. Hunter said.

"Steve VanderMark looked at it and said it was some sort of native
hemp," Mr. Hunter said.

Mr. VanderMark, Canton, is horticultural and natural resources
educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension of St. Lawrence County. He
did not examine any of the plants seized Wednesday, Mr. Jarvis said.

The plants would have taken up an estimated 25 acres if they had been
planted like a crop instead of randomly growing across the large area,
the sheriff said. Location of the find is not being released.

There is no indication that the landowners were responsible for
planting the marijuana and no one is expected to be charged with a
crime, the sheriff said.

Even though the marijuana is thought to be wild, naturalist Donald H.
O' Shea, Ogdensburg has his doubts.

"It could be wild---it's possible---but it would have gotten a start
from somewhere," said Mr. O'Shea, program coordinator and board member
at the Indian Creek Nature Center, Rensselaer Falls. "Anything in that
amount I would think was being grown by someone for
harvesting."

A tip lead officers from several agencies to the marijuana, which was
not spotted during aerial surveys to find the drug. The decision to
harvest the marijuana was made because of the appearance that someone
was doing some testing to determine the potency of the plants.

"It appeared that some had been picked, that somebody had been taking
the plants," Mr. Jarvis said. "We had to move it because people were
picking it."

The harvest was made by deputies, St. Lawrence County Drug Task Force
members, federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents, state police,
state Department of Environmental Conservation officers, state
Department of Transportation workers and National Guard troops.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin