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Plainsman1963

Deputy eyes marijuana from skies
10-06-06 | CharlesCityPress.Com | Staci Schwickerath

The Floyd County Sheriff’s Department took to the skies this week to step up its search for marijuana.

With help from the Iowa Air National Guard Counter Drug program, Investigator Travis Bartz spent two hours in the air searching for the illegal plants from a helicopter on Wednesday morning.

“We’re looking for marijuana either growing wild by itself or being harvested by individuals,” said Bartz, who added that the plant can easily be identified from the air because of its lighter color.

“We had a little bit of luck finding some growing today,” he said.

Bartz said he considered the flight a success because he was able to spot some marijuana plants growing wildly in a wooded area. A date will be set within the next couple of weeks to destroy the plants found on Wednesday.

Wild marijuana, often growing in ditches and fields is common, he said.

“With all the farming and fertilizing, all you need is just one little seed that drops. Iowa, in general, has a lot of wild marijuana,” he explained.

Bartz also said that they flew over random and specific locations.

“There are people out there that we suspect have been involved in illegal narcotics. We flew over those places and were able to take pictures,” he said.

While the last flyover to search for marijuana in Floyd County was five years ago, Bartz said the National Guard program was most recently used during the Jesse Patchin homicide case because of drug involvement.

“They use (the helicopter) for fly overs like the one we did or if we do a search with narcotics involved and we’re afraid the people may run we may use it, or it can be used during surveillance,” Bartz said.

While the National Guard program has been in existence for quite a while longer, the program has been offered to Iowa counties for about five years.

“This is the only chopper in the state of Iowa that currently provides this service,” said Bartz. “They reach out to law enforcement periodically, and say, ‘Hey, we’re flying over Floyd County, do you want to ride along?’”

The program is another step the Sheriff’s Department can take to cut down on drugs in Floyd County, Bartz explained.

“It let’s the bad guys know we’re out there,” he said. “It’s a tool Floyd County obviously does not have that we can use to find marijuana in places we can’t get to. If we find marijuana, we can irradiate it and that’s marijuana that could have possibly hit the street.”

Overall, the county has destroyed four tons of marijuana in the last 5 years, according to Bartz.

He added that if anyone sees wild marijuana growing, the should contact the sheriff’s office and not try to get rid of the plants themselves.

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"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards." - Claire Wolfe

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Buzzby

Note to breeders: go for a darker color!

It's easier to find your bag of irradiated pot in the dark. I wonder what he means. Do they dust it with nuclear waste? Expose it to radioactive cobalt? X-ray it from the air? Unless they contaminate the pot with radioactive compounds (which would cause cancer in users), irradiation would have no effect on how it could be used.

Wow! Four tons of unsmokeable ditchweed! That's a great use for expensive and limited law enforcement resources.

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Plainsman1963

Perhaps he meant "irradicate"???

reggie_the_dog

What great use of our money. They are flying aroud ripping up wild hemp, hemp which is well suited to grow in the climate of Iowa with no pesiticide, herbacide, or fertalizer help, and they are destroying it instead of saving the seeds for industrial hemp producation.

Only in America.

pghdon

I had a friend of mine in Oregon who grew for personal use. Last year the Feds descended upon his crop ( a total of about 6 plants) with 2 helicopters, a boat (it was on a small island in the middle of a swamp- that so the deer couldn't get it) and about a half dozen DEA agents.They ran around all day like the had found Bin Laden. They didn't know whose it was so no grief for him other than losing a fine stash. But you talk about expense.................
Makes you wish Bill Clinton was back in office!