Sheriff's Department preparing for marijuana season
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[As farmers prepare for one harvest, law enforcement is preparing for another.
This is the time of year when sheriffs and State Police start targeting marijuana crops, Sheriff Keith Brown said. On Wednesday, deputies took down about 1/2 acre of marijuana north of Stonefort. The plot is untended, but Brown still wants to make sure it, and others like it, doesn't end up on the street.
This time of year, the Sheriff's Department gets telephone calls almost every day about possible marijuana patches. Brown advised people who find marijuana on their property not to panic and call the Sheriff's Department immediately.
"Cannabis is often grown on the government, or on other people's property," Brown said.
A deputy will come out and confirm the plot is marijuana, then the plants will be cut down and destroyed.
The plot cut down Wednesday is a constant headache for authorities. The plants were not as high this year, but the field still included a good yield.
"The property owners encourage us to come out here," Brown said.
"We've been checking this plot in this area for a number of years."
Similar to corn, the marijuana plants are more dry this year, which means deputies were able to pull up more plants by the roots. Last year, most of the work was done by cutting plants down with a machete.
Even volunteer plots like the one cut down Wednesday are stubborn. Marijuana is a hardy plant; it probably has already spread seeds and will almost certainly be back next year, Brown said.
The marijuana cut down Wednesday will be destroyed in an incinerator, Brown said.
Sometimes marijuana, or its cousin, hemp, is found growing along railroad beds, Brown said.
"During World War II, they used this plant to make rope," Brown said. "They took it and traveled up and down the rail. The seeds came out and germinated along the rail."
-- Anyone who finds a plot of suspected marijuana may call the Sheriff's Department at 252-8661.