Cannabis News The November Coalition
  Billboards Go After Marijuana Growers
Posted by FoM on August 12, 2001 at 10:48:16 PT
By Aileen Soper 
Source: Charlotte Observer 

cannabis August, best known for hot weather and back-to-school shopping, is also prime time for marijuana production, when the plants are reaching their peak height. The Gaston County Law Enforcement Association is putting up billboards across the county this month encouraging residents to rat out those growing the illegal drug.

The six signs, which show a crossed-out marijuana leaf, display the telephone number of Gaston County Crime Stoppers. They'll stay up through mid-September - harvest time to marijuana growers and vice cops. Gaston County Police used the billboards for the first time last year.

Authorities credit them with dramatically increasing the number of tips and plants seized. The agency's vice narcotics squad seized 114 plants last year, up from 47 in 1999.

W.B. Hall, a Gaston County Police vice agent, said the increased number of tips allowed trained police spotters to identify marijuana plants while flying 1,000 feet overhead in surveillance airplanes and helicopters.

The billboard idea started when Gaston County Police noticed they were getting fewer tips on possible sites of marijuana production. Police have also run ads similar to the billboards on Channel 16, the county's public-access cable station, and in local newspapers.

Tipsters have included jilted spouses and upset neighbors. Some growers have confided in their preachers, and the preachers called police.

From the air, police have spotted the plants sprouting in wooded patches, roadsides and backyard gardens.

"It's countywide," said Hall, the marijuana eradication coordinator for a team of investigators from Gaston County's police departments.

"We've found some in Crowders Mountain, in Cherryville, Stanley and up near Lucia."

Marijuana plants can reach 6 to 15 feet in height. Police spotters flying overhead have been trained to identify even single plants on the ground.

Earlier this year, a crew returning to a local airport noticed a marijuana stash near Hickory Creek in south Gastonia.

"It was a full-sized, professional operation," Hall said. "This is why we fly."

Police seized 112 plants with an estimated street value of $280,000. The planters, who remain at large, took care to hide their booty before the police found it, Hall said.

They clear-cut a patch of land, surrounded it in chicken wire and piled brush into a 6-foot wall so the marijuana plants on the interior would be invisible to anyone walking by. They even painted three 5-gallon buckets in camouflage. Police found the buckets filled with water and Miracle-Gro.

In another bust, police found 17 marijuana plants growing in a kudzu patch along a highway in Bessemer City.

Still, with all the growing, Hall estimates that just 10 percent of the marijuana smoked in Gaston is actually grown here. Most, he said, comes from Mexico.

Note: During harvest time, 6 ads encourage people to report illegal plants.

Source: Charlotte Observer (NC)
Author: Aileen Soper
Published Friday, August 10, 2001
Copyright: 2001 The Charlotte Observer
Contact: opinion@charlotteobserver.com
Website: http://www.charlotte.com/observer/

Related Articles:

Crop Seizures Could Match Last Year's Record
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10546.shtml

Patton of Pot - 60 Minutes II
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread8656.shtml


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Comment #11 posted by anonymous nj pot use on August 13, 2001 at 10:10:33 PT
Here, too!
In NJ, these signs are up all over the place:
"500 dollar reward for info. leading to seizure of Marijuana Growing and their Growers"
On the sign...a HUGE POT LEAF on a STOP SIGN.

Shouldn't there be like, some Firestone Tires there in place of that leaf?
or better yet...

A football helmet... ha ha HAAAA!!!
F@#CK SPORTS and SPORTS CARS and the SPORTY PEOPLE WHO care enough to splurge thousands on such idiocy.
ha hA HAAAA!!!

Envy this concrete Jungle?

Ne ve r !!!
This phony war WILL end some day, and hopefully i can see life through the eyes of the kid that i was and never got to be.
Maybe you understand, but don't try too hard.

Noone here is Jealous of all of the DEATH that most AmeriKans buy and sell on the streets. I can see through they shit, and it really is DEATH for sale.
For the simple reason that each new day gets to be looked at as another attempt to "catch more Junkies"

and not to balance
Individuals' Freedoms.

Think about this next time you're asked, "So how are things?


[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #10 posted by meagain on August 13, 2001 at 05:31:04 PT
LOL
so they would rather their people use imported possibly sprayed pot instead of supporting local growers what a shame. Hope nobody gets sick smoking that mexican bunk.
I think for every ad they put up that they should have to put www.norml.org right under their phone number.


[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #9 posted by skipin on August 13, 2001 at 01:47:28 PT:

we live in Nazi Amerika
"Some growers have confided in their preachers, and the preachers called police."

that is really really fucant even trust somone in the house of God!

"Still, with all the growing, Hall estimates that just 10 percent of the marijuana smoked in Gaston is actually grown here. Most, he said, comes from Mexico."

I bet they are on contract by mexican dealers to stamp out the local competition!



[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #8 posted by reality on August 12, 2001 at 18:57:54 PT:

same old crap
I live about 20 miles from Gaston County and I saw it on the Charlotte news about the billboards. I don't understand how they are justifying the MJ was. I mean people aren't showing up at treatment centers asking for help or in the emergency rooms. Anyway the last 8 days have been in the 90's hear and I heard two reports on Charlotte radio stations on two days that it reached a 100degrees. The air was bad and I emailed our NC Senators to fix the air and quit the weird and misguided effort on the MJ witchhunt. When they have a code red ozone alert it is unhealthy for everyone just to go outside and these idiots are out polluting the air with their helicopters.

I went to eat lunch and was talking about how nice it would be to grow my own pot and go home and smoke a big fat one and the waiter heard me and acted like I was some sort of gangster. I am not smoking pot because I am an activist and if they search me I want the grounds to win a lawsuit against the Gestapo. Anyway I came flat out and said they should legalize MJ and he said "I didn't hear a thing." What was he so uptight for? Afraid his ignorance will show? I hope he enjoys his 53 cents.

All we are saying is give grass a chance. Fight the war to restore freedom in America.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #7 posted by Patrick on August 12, 2001 at 14:21:32 PT
Sam Adams
I think your billboard idea is an excellent idea for a media campaign. Quite funny and at the same time pointing out a shockingly sad reality. I think you should certainly let the marijuana party in Canada have this idea for their election efforts. They could use a billboard such as this it to help fight the DEA office that is going in Vancouver. It would also illustrate to the general population how asinine the WAR really is. Images work both ways and the truthful ones are much more powerful than propaganda. Remember how popular the "this is your brain on drugs" campaign was?

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #6 posted by Jose Melendez on August 12, 2001 at 13:27:12 PT:

on the other hand
So they will now bombard us with images of pot leaves on billboards. I'm starting to think "they" realize that advertising increases use...



[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #5 posted by Sam Adams on August 12, 2001 at 13:21:28 PT
We need our own billboards
We should run a picture with a cop beating a black guy with truncheon in one hand and donut in the other, with a big red circle around it. 1-800-PIG-STOP


[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #4 posted by mayan on August 12, 2001 at 12:52:09 PT
WASTE
Let me get this straight. If only 10% of the herb smoked in Gaston is actually grown there, then even if they confiscated all of the local herb they are not getting the other 90% from somewhere else. One indoor garden could makeup for what they get!

You're right aocp. Their efforts are absolutely futile! What a waste of time and taxpayer money.

These dumb*sses will never eradicate the herb. The more they fight it, the more we grow! They would be more successful at eradicating those evil tomatoes. LOL!!!

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #3 posted by steve1 on August 12, 2001 at 12:06:28 PT
haha
They have nothing else to do eh? Perhaps it's time for them to get real jobs and stop annoying everyone. Comes from Mexico? How good can it be if the soil there is terrible? The modern stuff comes from a bag of dirt, just insert seed and grow. Now if only we can get the price of seeds down, bah that's like telling the oil companies to lower the prices. It's not going to happen. Seeds will cost upwards of $100 for one once legal.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #2 posted by aocp on August 12, 2001 at 11:27:53 PT
this is classic
Authorities credit them with dramatically increasing
the number of tips and plants seized. The agency's vice
narcotics squad seized 114 plants last year, up from 47
in 1999.

Man, i know guys who grow more plants than that in
their basements. Jeez, these pigz are inept. Look up
"futile" in the dictionary (if they can spell at all) and it'll
have a narc's picture there.

W.B. Hall, a Gaston County Police vice agent, said
the increased number of tips allowed trained police
spotters to identify marijuana plants while flying 1,000
feet overhead in surveillance airplanes and
helicopters.

Better be careful. I thunk i heard something about your
fellow pigz "identifying" some tomato plants as
cannabis from the air b/c they "were the right color".
Bwahahahahahahah!!! "Trained spotters..."
Hahahahahah!!!

Police seized 112 plants with an estimated street
value of $280,000.

I just love the number-crunching. Let's see (tap, tap,
tap) that's $2,500 per plant and assuming (the mother
of all f***ups, i know, but we're talking inept narcs here,
or did i just stutter?) kind bud prices of about $400/oz,
that's about 6.25 oz. per plant. Just under half-a-pound.
Again, that's assuming that they would have all been
female and would have sold at at the best-of-the-best
prices. Are these guys inflating the BS again?!? You be
the judge.

Annnnd finally...

Still, with all the growing, Hall estimates that just 10
percent of the marijuana smoked in Gaston is actually
grown here. Most, he said, comes from Mexico.

So, the reason you guys fly (as you ironically put it) is to
essentially accomplish nothing. I really, really wish
they'd just break the narc mold so we could get some
regulation in here before these idiots and their
heeleeocopters bust more tomato gardens.


[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #1 posted by lookinside on August 12, 2001 at 11:03:03 PT:

success!!!???
in a war of attrition, the anti's will lose...how much did
they spend to find those few plants?

i wonder if they realize how foolish they appear...

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