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Escambia Weeds Out 90 Marijuana Plants In 2014; Santa Rosa 234
April 8, 2015
Last year in Escambia County, two people were arrested as 90 marijuana plants were destroyed from seven different sites, according to a report released by the state Tuesday. Across the state, Florida’s Domestic Marijuana Eradication Program resulted in the destruction of more than 31,500 marijuana plants and the arrests of more than 500 people during 2014.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services works to prevent the cultivation and distribution of marijuana through the Domestic Marijuana Eradication Program, which is a joint effort with the U.S. Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Agency and local sheriff’s offices and police departments in 49 counties across the state.
Two of the marijuana sites in Escambia County were indoor operations with 27 total plants eradicated, resulting in two arrests. The other five sites destroyed by law enforcement in Escambia County were outdoors with 63 plants, resulting in no arrests.
Authorities in Santa Rosa County eradicated 171 plants from three indoor sites, resulting in four arrests, along with two arrests related to 10 outdoor grow sites with 63 plants. Authorities also seized one weapon related to a marijuana grow site in Santa Rosa County.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office was reimbursed $1,750 for their eradication efforts by the program, while the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office was reimbursed $3,500.
“Our partnership with local law enforcement helps keep marijuana out of our communities, making them safer for the 20 million residents who call Florida home,” Commissioner of Agriculture Adam H. Putnam said.
Pictured top and bottom: Marijuana plants previously seized in the Molino area. Pictured inset: An indoor grow operation near Molino. NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.
Comments
27 Responses to “Escambia Weeds Out 90 Marijuana Plants In 2014; Santa Rosa 234”
At times the law does seem as a nuisance, like water moccasins around a fishing or swimming holes. To be wary of, but not petrified in fear of.
If god had wanted people to smoke pot, he would not have invented liquor license.
@ knowA
Enforcing ANY law makes the public hate the police. Nobody likes to be told what to do.
The story claims that “our partnership with local law enforcement helps keep marijuana out of our communities . Where is his communitie ? on the moon.
All prohibition does is make the public hate police.
4 Days ago
Florida Deputy Shoots Unarmed Man In Face While Serving Pot Warrant
The Huffington Post | By Andy Campbell
Email
Posted: 03/05/2015 2:57 am EST Updated: 03/05/2015 2:59 am EST
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/05/derek-cruice-shot-in-face_n_6805902.html
Like I said before, I’m feeling safer already.
90 plants found and destroyed in Escambia?
LOL
That only tells me that ESCO stumbled upon them doing something else, and someone squealed for the rest.
90 plants tells me ECSO made no real effort to find plants, and may have ignored many in order to perpetuate the local trade.
The war on drugs, especially marijuana, likens itself to the vietnam war. A war, that will not be won no matter how much of the taxpayers money you throw at it.
@Tammy “BOO”
Though there are those who would think to reinvent or impede the wheel, the wheel is of it’s own and will continue to turn, apart, indifferent and of it’s own.
Take comfort in the knowledge that one day the sun will run out of hydrogen. Perhaps then you can cry victory in your war on pot. It was here before you, and will still be here when you are long in the ground. futility and ….
@esco deputy
Also, explain why suicide rates, domestic violence, traffic accidents, homicide rates, and opiate deaths all decrease in states that are legalized. how are all these people victims?
Scientific inquiry disputes your position, and your fall back is basically rhetoric and vague claims of harm.
@ESco deputy.
Science says otherwise. What you are referring to is called confirmation bias. Police officers don’t talk to normal, healthy, well adjusted people. By the nature of crime you only deal with a small percentage of the population (the most dysfunctional) and so your observations really aren’t representative of anything other than your own bias. You can’t make generalizations and expect people to take you seriously.
Also you talk about changing the law… explain why so many officers use public resources to make speeches and advocate for a particular side of this argument. Explain why so many police organizations support prohibition.
The fact is you all know this is in your financial best interest. You just look dishonest by trying to claim that marijuana creates victims, when you are the one victimizing them.
You couldn’t afford to eradicate more than 90 plants? Wait a minute, the government will pay you $19.44 per plant to eradicate weeds. Bring in private WEED (Weed Expunge and Eradication Department) and you will see a increase in arrests. It pays more than picking strawberries.
Why waste taxpayer dollars going after pot truth be known over 70% of the population would prefer to be able to use it without having to worryabout being arrested or losing their jobs the biggest hurdle is the pharmacutical companies that has money for lobbyist to buy off politicians they know if it were to be made legal they would sell less anti anxiety drugs i am not going to name any of them here but i guarantee you that everyone knows someone with anxiety problems that has been prescribed some type of drug for the problem . legalization would drop crime rate because of not being arrested for it thus saving money and space in prison for the true criminals time to quit living in the past.
@ ESCO…..
Do you think there would be as many victims if this junk were legal? If the growers and sellers weren’t desperate, poor, uneducated, and armed?
Suppose it could be bought safely, in a secure location. Is that possible? Do you think usage would go up dramatically? I’d appreciate your thoughts.
I’m sure the desperate, poor, uneducated, and armed will continue to cause trouble, but it wouldn’t be related to weed. There would continue to be people stealing to get money to buy it, just as there are now. There would continue to be people who are neglectful and irresponsible while using it, just like now.
Please remember, we in law enforcement do not make the laws. We do not choose what to enforce and what not to. The solution to this situation is vote for the law to change. We will enforce whatever you, the citizens, make the law to be.
As for fighting “real crimes” we attempt to enforce everything that we are able to identify. This includes everything from parking tickets to white collar crime and violent crime. There will always be violent crime. We cannot simply say we are going to spend all of our resources on one particular area of the law and ignore everything else until violent crimes are gone, because they never will be.
The only “victims” are the people being prosecuted under outdated prohibition era laws originally designed to suppress a minority population. Some may not like hearing that, but that’s the truth.
“Excessive alcohol use is a leading cause of preventable death. This dangerous behavior accounted for approximately 88,000 deaths per year from 2006–2010, and accounted for 1 in 10 deaths among working-age adults aged 20–64 years” -Current figures from CDC website.
How many people have died annually due to cannabis consumption?… 0.
@ECSO Deputy
You’ve made the same exact comment before.
Gen 1:29 Every green herb that beareth seed for me to consume.
Oh, lemme guess, every one but that one huh ? How many overdoses do you see from pot ? How many murders ? You punks are just llie democrats, wanna create a victim so you can get a thank you for saving the victim from a situation you created in the first place. What kills me is that everyone is so worried about offending this or that group of people, i can’t dicipline my children without the state telling me how, homosexuals getting married, but i can’t smoke a joint ? That’s insane. Heck, you can’t use force in a split second choice without the possibility of losing your job. My grandchildren will look back and ask why pot was ever illegal.
ecso deputy; prohibition and the connection to a criminal underground is what causes it to have victims. Prohibition is the direct cause of the problems you guys say you are fighting. History will not be kind to your dedication to the war on drugs. You are the link to crime and violence, not weed.
Good comments ya’ll!! Just legalize the stuff and there won’t be any crime associated with it. Duh! Ever known a “pot-head” (no other chemicals used) to beat his wife, start a knife fight in a bar, or any other real crime….NO. Legalize it and the pot smuggling trade from other countries would disappear literally overnight. As for me, I’m proud to say I smoke American grown! Ha-ha. This is an issue that should have been resolved in the late ‘20 or ’30s. If you are too loud about your opinions you get setup for a fall. Our elected official DO NOT listen, they are too busy catering to those with the big bucks who put them in place to do their bidding. Ridiculous waste of money all around when there are serious issues that need more attention.
Keep the faith ya’ll…one day
Take the time to ride with an officer and you will see that pot is not a victim-less crime.
500 people arrested. it cost us tax payers over 50,000 dollars a year to put someone in prison, plus now we have to support their kids . I may not like someone smoking pot but I am not willing to break up their family over it or pay to incarsrate them for something that’s none of my bussness
In related news, stock prices in Frido-Lay dropped in opening trading.
Please just legalize the stuff so ridiculous amounts of tax dollars and man hours are not needlessly wasted. (for 90 plants! I would like to see the numbers it cost to get those plants… I’m sure it was between $1k to $10k (tax dollars) per plant… I would bet on the high end of those numbers)
Yes, let’s make sure a needed, harmless, medicinal plant is done away with. God forbid you should be able to treat yourself rather than pay astronomical prices to see a Dr. just for him to give you prescriptions that will harm you in the long run, sending you back to that same Dr. for prescriptions to fix the problems the others caused. This makes TOTAL sense!
“The eradication of cannabis plants at the source immediately strikes a blow against drug dealing and abuse by reducing the availability of marijuana on the street, the report states.”
It works because we say it works. And we have to justify our existence somehow,
CONGRATULATIONS! You spent all that time and money for 90 plants! Why doesn’t the sheriff department spend that time and money on real crimes. The only thing yall have done is waste time and money why doesn’t the sheriff department use that money to help keep criminals from working there, like all the sex addict petafiles that always seem to be hired by the sheriff!
Too much time and money spent on something that should be legal.
“Our partnership with local law enforcement helps keep marijuana out of our communities, making them safer for the 20 million residents who call Florida home,”
I feel safer already. so out of touch and grasping at straws. wasting our time and money while trying to tell me whats best for me.
“Our partnership with local law enforcement helps keep marijuana out of our communities, making them safer for the 20 million residents who call Florida home,”
The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada recently reviewed 15 studies that evaluated the association between violence and drug law enforcement. “Our findings suggest that increasing drug law enforcement is unlikely to reduce drug market violence. Instead, the existing evidence base suggests that gun violence and high homicide rates may be an inevitable consequence of drug prohibition and that disrupting drug markets can paradoxically increase violence.”