Pubdate: Sat, 20 Jun 2009
Source: Tampa Tribune (FL)
Copyright: 2009 The Tribune Co.
Contact: http://www.tbo.com/news/opinion/submissionform.htm
Website: http://www.tampatrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/446
Author: Howard Altman, The Tampa Tribune

NEW POWER PLANT

Burning Nearly A Ton Of Confiscated Grow House Cannabis Will Light You 
Up But Won't Get You High

For a while this morning, TECO customers had a new fuel powering their 
lights.

Weed.

Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office deputies burned nearly a ton of the 
leafy substance at the county's waste-to-energy plant on Falkenburg Road 
at 11 a.m., according to HCSO spokesman J.D. Callaway. TECO buys 
electricity from the plant.

There's no need to worry about anyone getting high from the process, 
said Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Maj. Albert Frost.

"It's destroyed very quickly," he said. "We cut off a certain area, 
where no one can go in except for law enforcement, very tightly, highly 
supervised. You're not going to drive by and get high on Falkenburg Road."

The marijuana was seized between February and July of last year during 
"Operation Indoor Outlaw," a major sweep of grow houses in Hillsborough 
and Manatee counties, Callaway said. Deputies say the marijuana, which 
is contained in 300 boxes, has a street value of $6 million.

Deputies dismantled about 65 marijuana grow houses during that 
operation, according to Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee.

About 50 locations were targeted. Investigators seized about 5,800 
plants and about 3,200 pounds of marijuana from houses stretching from 
Tampa to Thonotosassa.

The amount of drugs at each location, like the houses, ranged from 
modest to expansive. A $345,000 house in Odessa owned by Patrick Early, 
32, for instance, contained 72 pounds of marijuana, investigators said. 
A $140,000 Tampa house owned by Amaury Gonzalez, 45, contained 33 
marijuana plants, detectives said. Both homeowners are charged with 
felony marijuana trafficking, among other charges.

About 70 people have been arrested since February, Gee said. Some are 
cooperating with law enforcement.

While against the law to grow pot, burning it provided a good deal of 
energy, according to John Wilson, vice president of business development 
for Recycled Energy Development, a Westmont, Ill.-based waste-to-energy 
company.

Burning a ton of pot, he said, would "light 40,000 100-watt light bulbs 
for an hour.
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