FARMINGTON — A state drug agency spokesman said early Friday that the majority of 1,029 pot plants seized Tuesday in northern Franklin County were stolen either late Tuesday or early Wednesday from a locked evidence building in Farmington.
Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, said Friday the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency would now review its policy on where plants seized as evidence are taken and stored.
Farmington police assisted by the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency are investigating the theft.
Drug agents and other law enforcement worked all day Tuesday eradicating marijuana plants and searching buildings in Phillips and Township 6 North of Weld, along with an area that encompassed about 100 acres, MDEA Supervisor Gerry Baril said Wednesday.
Drug agents also arrested Tad T. Smith, 35, and his father, Joseph Smith, 64, both of Phillips, on Tuesday on one count each of felony cultivating marijuana.
The marijuana was seized during the execution of three different search warrants for various properties in Phillips and Township 6.
Both men were released from jail the same day on $500 cash bail.
The pot plants were taken to Farmington to be secured in an evidence building that the Farmington Police Department uses on Route 2. The building is not at the same location as the department offices, which are at town's municipal building, also off Route 2.
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Its amazing how much man
Its amazing how much man power and money the state spends tracking down marijuana growers. Can anyone think of better ways to use the resources?
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Weigh it on certified scales, photograph it, keep a sample for analysis, then for court purposes and burn the rest immediately. Why on earth did they attempt to hang on to so much pot in an unsecure facility? It just gave the entire judicial system a black eye. Most police agencies have a relatively small evidence room and there was no way that much pot could have been held securely, unless it was under constant guard.
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It's long past time when the cultivation, possession and casual sale of marijuana should be decriminalized. Cannabis is a naturally-occurring plant that should be utilized for its buds and leaves (medical and recreational use) and fibrous stalks (industrial use). The ongoing war against marijuana serves no purpose other than generating fines (revenue) for law enforcement and government, turning otherwise law-abiding people into criminals, and wasting monetary resources that could be better applied to other sectors of the economy. Time for the pot police to fold up their tents and find a new windmill at which to tilt.
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Well if they make it legal to grow and sell freely then just anyone can start up a company and create jobs and put the existing money grubbing oil and paper companies out of business since they could make a greener, stronger, and more renewable product than is currently made from trees and oil.... THe government couldnt let that happen since they are in bed with the oil companies.
http://www.ozarkia.net/bill/pot/blunderof37.html
Interesting read in this link..
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Thats too funny.......
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Farmington is not as big as you might think and as much as I do not particularly care for the PD I will call a spade a spade on this one and say that being as small a area as Farmington is 99 & 9/10% of the "outlaw" element knows where this said secure building is and ANYONE with a sack or lack of brains could of easily broken in and grabbed them. That being said.... KUDOS to the grabbers...there's one less case that should go to court seeing as how chain of custody and most of the evidence is now missing from the original victimless crime.
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Boy, you almost have to laugh at this one, but it's a sorry lack of security. Why can't the plants be weighed, photographed, put a small sample into evidence and the rest be burned immediately? Either that or loaded into a trailer and taken to a secure State run site. The county can't be expected to build a vault to store pot.
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I would personally like to attend the pot burning, if only to stand next to the fire and breathe deep.
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Stolen from one group and now stolen again. Let's end this ridiculous war on marijuana, it just makes good people appear bad, and is a waste (obviously) of taxpayer money.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.No evidence? It might be the
No evidence? It might be the Defendants lucky day!
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And, they had no alarms or cameras at the site? It is like the three stooges.
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I wonder if some of these poorly paid officers needed some quick cash?? Sounds like and inside job to me since I assume the building is not guarded up there.
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the plants. Isn't this typical of the cops? How do we not know that some of them took it, they were the only ones who knew where it was.
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