Deputies not finding as much marijuana

By DUANE SHERRILL / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

TAYLOR

Unusually wet weather this summer has had a significant impact on one of the Nursery Capital’s biggest cash crops as lawmen report they are finding less marijuana than normal this year.

“We’ll be lucky to get 2,000 plants this year,” said Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Danice Taylor. “And, what we are finding doesn’t look that good. Sure, we’ve found plants 14-feet tall but they are all spindly, not healthy and leafy like years past.”

The reduced number of plants come following a record-setting year by the sheriff’s marijuana eradication team last year in which around 10,000 plants were found, with a one-day total last year of 6,000 plants, eclipsing the entire harvest thus far this season.

“We figured out what happened to some of the plants. They were under water,” Taylor said. “We found two patches which were planted on low ground, where many planter choose to plant their marijuana, and they had been submerged by the heavy rains we’ve had this summer. Of course, that pretty well kills them.”

The rainy weather has also hampered flying missions as Taylor estimated the team has completed half as many missions as last year. Rainy days, along with foggy conditions, have limited the number of flying days. The team has been flying since the county was given two helicopters in 1997 by the federal government for the war on drugs.

“Some of it is due to the really wet weather and some of it is probably because folks aren’t growing as much marijuana here anymore,” Taylor said. “It’s got to be annoying to plant your marijuana every year only to have it pulled up by us, so some folks have just gone elsewhere. There’s still a lot of marijuana being brought in here, but there’s not as much being grown here.”

“Last week we found seven small patches and two rattlesnakes,” Taylor said.