|
State police bring in big pot harvest
200 pounds of seized plants displayed
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Photographer:
Peter Barber
State Police Lt. Michael Tietz, right, addresses members of the media with Tech Sgt. Kathy Sweeney, left, and Tech Sgt. Thomas Dowling, who piloted helicopters that took part in a seizure of nearly 200 pounds of marijuana, stacked up behind them, at Albany International Airport on Tuesday.
CAPITAL REGION — State police said Tuesday they have harvested marijuana plants with a street value of more than $4.3 million this year on public and private lands from Albany to the Adirondacks. Police displayed several hundred confiscated plants at the troopers’ Aviation Building at the Albany International Airport. Sgt. Kathy Sweeney, one of the helicopter pilots who look for marijuana plants as they are flying other missions, said, “We see the plants in people’s backyards or suburban areas as well as in clearings in the woods or on public lands. At this time of year the plants are big and they are emerald color and so they’re fairly easy to spot.” Lt. Michael Tietz of the Community Narcotic Enforcement Team of the state police said nearly 3,000 plants have been removed by police in recent weeks as the plants are reaching full height. “When the frost comes, that’s the end of the production for the growers,” he said. “This has been a fairly productive year for the [police] program.” He said police have their best luck in finding plants on sunny days from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. when the plants “almost glow.” Sgt. Thomas Dowling was in charge of a flight to the Adirondacks last week as part of a search and rescue patrol for a missing man in the Keene area. He said as he flew over a wooded area, he noticed a clearing and upon a closer look, a field of more than 1,000 marijuana plants could be seen. “I’ve found bigger fields over the years, but this was a good one,” he said. “The strategies for growing marijauna have changed over the years. It used to be the plants would be put in corn fields and we would get complaints from farmers to come and take them. Now we find them in the middle of nowhere.” Dowling said when a field is spotted, the pilot notes its location and then officers on the ground can be guided in to remove the plants. He said state-owned land or utility rights of way are popular spots because they are not places where most people go. Dowling said he’s been a senior pilot for 19 years and has seen illegal growers change their habits. Many people appear to look for lands not connected to them and that often allows them to escape arrest, although they lose their crops. Tietz said laws for illegally growing marijuana “are without teeth” and result in misdemeanor charges. “We’re more interested in keeping the drugs from reaching the streets. We know this is only a fraction of what’s out there, but it’s something,” he said. He said police will seek a judge’s order to destroy the plants at a local landfill. Capt. Robert Kreppein of the Aviation Unit said it costs about $800 an hour to have a helicopter in the air. “We get some reimbursement from the federal government for these missions and find the helicopters are very valuable for guiding road teams in and getting [marijuana] stalks out,” he said. Sweeney said contact with the plants can result in positive blood or urine tests for the drug. “I had a drug test yesterday and may have another one soon, so I don’t get too close to the plants,” she said. Get ALL of our news...Click here to subscribe to our online edition, a complete replica of our print edition.
comments
|
Advertisement
| ||||||||
July 4, 2009
8:57 a.m. [ Suggest removal ]
It is very fortunate that these drugs can be taken off the street but what about the missing man, as Police officers this hard to come by "Press Opportunity" should have also been used to promote the search for Missing Keene NY man Jeremy Quinn. This article leaves me wondering if the crop was near where Mr Quinn vanished with out a trace and if the owners of the crop know anything about his where abouts. Please take a look at the Quinn story (If you can find it). Thanks
Adirondack resident missing for over a week
Associated Press - September 10, 2008 3:05 AM ET
KEENE, N.Y. (AP) - Relatives of a 38-year-old Adirondack resident who has been missing for a week are appealing to people inside and outside the Adirondack park to help search for him.
Jeremy Quinn of Keene was last seen at a convenience store in Keene around 7 a.m. on September 2nd. His pickup truck was found about 12 hours later at a camp in Keene where he serves as caretaker.
Law enforcement officials and nearly 200 volunteers searched for several days over a large area but were unable to find any clues about the missing man. State police have now designated it as a missing person case.
Family and friends say Quinn's disappearance is unlike him. They've put up a $10,000 reward. Quinn is described as white, 5-foot-5, about 150 pounds, with blue eyes and a shaved head. He's married with two young children.
His friends and family have set up a website at http://www.findjeremy.org. They say anyone with information also can call 518-897-2000.
12:13 p.m. [ Suggest removal ]
Not to belittle the previous comment that concerns Jeremy Quinn who went missing in the Adirondacks...but as a well educated, hard-working, mother of two, I am so disappointed that marijuana is such a misunderstood plant. I have been smoking pot, off and on, for 25 years (more than half my life). I am an upstanding member of society, have never caused any trouble or committed any crime. I've never had any accidents or misfortune while "high". I find it a much more enjoyable drug than alcohol, as smokers we are much more in control than those people intoxicated by alcohol. I truly believe most marijuana smokers fall into my category. I wish marijuana would be legalized or at least decriminalized so we smokers don't have to "act like criminals" in order to have a smoke every now and again.
LEAVE THE POOR PLANTS ALONE! marijuana is natural and safe for consumption.
7:10 p.m. [ Suggest removal ]
This is an utter waste of police power and money.
First, and most importantly, this is an individual bodily autonomy matter, and the state (government) or anybody, for that matter, should have no say as to what substances people ingest, be it alcohol, tobacco, trans-fats or drugs, and second, by keeping certain drugs illegal, we support huge industries on both sides of the law.
If ALL drugs were deregulated, the police would have time to go after real criminals, the jails and courts would be freed up to deal with these real dangerous criminals, gangs would shrink to irrelevancy, and the underclass career path of drug dealer would no longer exist.
Drug prohibition is just stupid and counterproductive, and has its roots in racism. (White establishment trying to keep the black jazz culture from "infecting" white culture).