Pubdate: Tue, 7 Sept 1999 Source: Daily Telegraph (UK) Copyright: of Telegraph Group Limited 1999 Contact: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ Author: Ben Fenton in Washington DAUGHTER TELLS POLICE OF PARENTS' DRUG CROP Two former anti-nuclear activists who had crossed into establishment respectability in Washington found their lives ruined yesterday after their teenage daughter told police her parents grew cannabis in the basement. Robert Alvarez, 54, and his wife Kitty Tucker have been charged with possession and supply of a controlled drug. Mr Alvarez was instantly sacked from his job as senior policy analyst to Bill Richardson, the Energy Secretary, after the couple's 16-year-old daughter Kerry informed on her parents. Miss Tucker, 55, a former trade union activist and anti-nuclear campaigner, brought to public attention the death of Karen Silkwood, who died in a mysterious car accident as she drove to meet a reporter and disclose details of safety problems at the Oklahoma nuclear plant where she worked. Miss Tucker worked as an adviser on the 1983 film of the story, Silkwood. She later became director of the Health and Energy institute, a Washington pressure group. Police visited the Alvarez-Tucker home in the Takoma Park suburb of the capital last week after Kerry went to the police armed with photographs of the cannabis plants in the basement. They claimed to have found 69 plants in the basement along with the hydroponic system of lights and water used for growing them. In the bedroom they found several pipes and packets of cigarette rolling papers as well as books on cultivation of the plants. Steven Kupferberg, the couple's lawyer, said there were only 16 plants and that Miss Tucker had a medical disability for which cannabis provided the only relief. He expected the original charges of possession and trafficking to be reduced to simple possession. Both the police and Mr Kupferberg refused to comment on Kerry's motives. Her parents were released on unconditional bail, but their daughter is staying with family friends on the orders of a judge. A spokesman for the Energy Department said Mr Richardson had fired Mr Alvarez because he had "lost trust and confidence in his ability to perform his duties". - --- MAP posted-by: manemez j lovitto