Pubdate: Wed, 24 Sep 2003
Source: Ogdensburg Journal/Advance News (NY)
Copyright: 2003 St. Lawrence County Newspapers Corp
Contact: P.O. Box 409, Ogdensburg, New York 13669
Website: http://www.ogd.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/689
Author: Jake Palmateer, The Telegram
Cited: NORML http://www.norml.org/
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n1374.a06.html
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n1379.a12.html
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n1381.a02.html
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n1388.a03.html
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NORML QUESTIONS MARIJUANA BUST

The recent eradication of a large marijuana plot in northern St.
Lawrence County has come under scrutiny as critics claim the estimated
$30 to $80 million worth or purported pot was really wild, worthless
hemp.

St. Lawrence County Sheriff Gary Jarvis, whose department heads the
county's drug task force, said the results of laboratory tests
conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration on the 75,000 to
80,000 plants have not made its way back to the county yet.  Law
enforcement officials seized the plants on Sept. 10.  "It's low
priority because there's been no arrests associated with it," Jarvis
said explaining the lag time.

Although hemp and marijuana are essentially the same plant, some
strains of hemp lack the significant amounts of psychoactive chemicals
that create the marijuana "high."Street values of high potency
marijuana can be greater than $3,000 a pound.

Even though Jarcis said field tests of the pot indicated this was a
legitimate marijuana haul, he admitted this was not the major coup
that some people may have been led to believe.  Estimates of $400 to
$800 a plant were given to a reporter with the Courier-Observer by a
St. Lawrence County Drug Task Force investigator at the time of the
eradication operation.  "That probably was inflated," Jarvis said. 
"This was not quality stuff."

Jarvis said the harvested plants were growing wild and were not being
tended to by pot growers.

He said the operation, which involved National Guard trucks and
several local, state and federal agencies, was undertaken following
reports of people going to the plot and attempting to harvest the plants.

Keith Stroup, founder and executive-director of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws(NORML), said although he
wasn't familiar with the St. Lawrence County eradication, it fit the
pattern of other eradication operations that occur around the country
at the end of summer.

"They went out and spent a lot of money and got a lot of press
coverage, but it didn't have anything to do with making the state
safer," Stroup said. "They're fooling themselves."

The NORML founder said the St. Lawrence County haul was probably wild
marijuana that had virtually no value.  "It would give you a headache
if you smoked it," Stroup said.

Stroup also said that out of the wild St Lawrence County pot crop,
about half of the plants were likely to be male plants that have no
intoxicating effect at all.

"They didn't have nearly as much usable marijuana as purported," 
Stroup said.  "It's an incredible waste of law enforcement resources
at a time when the country claims to be concerned about terrorism."

Stroup said it was common practice for law enforcement agencies to
glamorize large hauls of wild hemp and portray them as victories in
the was on drugs in order to secure public funding.

The St. Lawrence County Drug Task Force has a budget of $92,839 for
2003 which is down from the $128,699 budget for 2002.  But both
figures are increases from the $21,886 spent in 2001.

According to St. Lawrence County officials, no final figure on the
task force budget is available for fiscal year 2004, which begins on
Jan 1.

Stroup said it is irrelevant and fiscally wasteful for law enforcement
to go after marijuana grown out doors because much of the marijuana
used by the 20 million Americans estimated by NORML is grown indoors.

"The techniques of cultivation have really improved," Stroup said. 
Stroup said the eradication of marijuana grown outdoors is "the last
gasp of a dying prohibition policy."
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