August 10, 2010 in Idaho, Region

If you grow it, they will come … take it away

Idaho farmer unknowingly tends to 300 pot plants

JEROME, Idaho — Authorities say a southern Idaho farmer unknowingly watered and fertilized more than 300 marijuana plants while tending to his corn fields.

The Jerome County sheriff’s office says the farmer found the plot of pot growing between his tall, green stalks of unripened corn early Monday and called authorities.

The sheriff’s office says the 314 low-grade marijuana plants are altogether valued at $628,000 and would have been ready for plucking in the next month or so — before the farmer harvested his corn in September or October.

The plants have been confiscated as evidence.

Authorities have ruled out the farmer as a suspect, saying there have been at least two other similar reports of suspicious activity in local fields during the past year.

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21 comments on this story so far. Add yours!

empyrius on August 10 at 11:40 a.m.
Now where are our citizen militias to protect us from idiots like this Idaho farmer and “the authorities” in Jerome County?!?!
Rise up fellow Christian soldiers and let us claim the Inland NW for us brothers’ keeper, food and resources sharing, herb smoking, Mammon-hating, servants of Christ!
I got your back Tolstoy!
spokanecougar on August 10 at 12:01 p.m.
Stupid farmer, could have made an extra $600,000…..who couldn’t use an extra $600,000 nowadays or any day, someone gave him this gift and he pooped it away by calling the pigs. Stupid.
misjustice on August 10 at 12:11 p.m.
Glad to hear there are still honest people out there. Can’t stop the illegal activity if people like those above think he’s stupid for calling the police.
Way to go Mr. Farmer!
horse_feathers on August 10 at 12:23 p.m.
Yeah Gramma, there will be a lot more potheads chiming in, these two brain dead idiots are just the beginning.
spokanecommunistparty on August 10 at 12:38 p.m.
I will chime by saying,”Legalize it!” Mr farmer could grow a giant field for the whole state and get paid a lot more. Think about the tax revenue, we could finally fix our bumpy streets, thats sounds pretty smart if you ask me.
empyrius on August 10 at 1:10 p.m.
Gramma, only idiots, and sheep, obey unjust laws! If it were not for some good ole civil disobedience women and African-Americans would still be unable to vote and people like horse feathers could not be “hopheads”, alcohol drinkers that is, b/c alcohol would still be prohibited.
Just b/c there is a law against something makes not that law just nor moral! I answer to one moral authority, the one true God YHWH, all others use cash and are hence corrupt; as corrupt as the way in which the Lord’s good green herb was first made illegal. Study up on that one then we can have an informed discussion . . .
Keep it green!
SpokaneLiberal on August 10 at 1:25 p.m.
He did the right thing. What was he suppose to do. If he got caught he would get hit with the book, if he left it he could have run into the people who planted it which would be bad. He couldn’t use that much so he called the police. I would do the same even though I don’t think it should be illegal….
flutieflakes on August 10 at 1:25 p.m.
The lesson here is “diversify”. Don’t put all your seeds in one man’s property, you have to mix it up so you don’t lose the whole crop if the farmer decides to walk around his field.
force_vector on August 10 at 1:29 p.m.
Empyrius- you are going to equate civil disobedience to right the wrong of discrimination against people for how they were born, to those who choose to dumb themselves down with toxins? Really? Smoking dope doesn’t make you a modern day messiah, it just makes you a pothead. I have no problem with that of course, do whatever you want. But don’t act like getting stoned is anything more than it is: the permanent destruction of brain cells that don’t ever regenerate.
Keep it real!
horse_feathers on August 10 at 1:41 p.m.
Told ya
mikeln on August 10 at 2:16 p.m.
Low grade pot? If it was not any good, how could it be worth so much money? Just the authorities making stuff up for their own reasons.
lewis8457 on August 10 at 4:30 p.m.
In a fantasyland he would have kept it but in the real world he had to call the cops. Otherwise they could have found it on their own and blamed him for being a lifetime dealer and they would take EVERYTHING he has.
600 grand is not worth that.
suzieeizus on August 10 at 4:33 p.m.
@force_vector: Gasp! I didn’t know pot killed brain cells! I’m curious to know more: can you direct me to your source for this information? You must be reading more medical journals and magazines than me, because I thought I was pretty up-to-date on my marijuana studies. Last I heard, imbibing the sweet, sweet ganj was next to harmless! Please enlighten us.
empyrius on August 10 at 5:21 p.m.
Getting the occasional stone on is the pathway to the infinite force_vector; why else would our good Lord have created marijuana?!?! Certainly our Creator created not a green herb for our government to patent and yet declare to the citizenry “off limits”; there must indeed be far grander purposes for this naturally occurring plant than that! The pot plant is not like poppy or coca plants that when synthesized with other drugs become highly addictive substances that wreak havoc within countless communities worldwide.
The liberation of a naturally occurring substance that needs not be mixed with other chemicals, other than the very dirt from which we all hail from, is indeed just as important to our freedom as is that of all humans beings to not be oppressed by any government or group of other peoples; b/c if a person cannot consume that which our Creator granted all human beings access to, then that is slavery simple, just slavery cloaked under the guise of “man-made law”. That government can perform its “necessary evil” of regulating, but a government that denies to man that which our Lord has given to us, is then a government that stands in direct opposition to our Lord and Creator.
That government is then plainly evil and must be eliminated posthaste!
Amen
force_vector on August 10 at 6:21 p.m.
Smoking weed requires the inhalation of carbon monoxide, which does kill braincells. Smoking cigarettes does the same. But, if you want to believe that inhaling a poisonous (you do get high by smoking it, right?) substance is harmless, that’s cool. Have fun.
Empyrius- the “good Lord” created lot’s of things according to your logic, in fact apparently everything. Do you smoke everything, or just pick and choose what you want to believe the good Lord created for your need to fulfill an addictive urge? I can hear it now, “but weed isn’t addictive!”. Yes, it is. I’ve seen it first hand and its no prettier than any other drug addiction.
SugarShane on August 10 at 7:33 p.m.
force: your misinformed. plain and simple. Also, smoking is only one way to ingest it. If it were legal and thus not a highly profitable black market item, people might actually be able to afford to buy enough to make butter out of it and eat it in food. Have you ever heard of a vaporizer? You act like your smart, but take a pretty misinformed stance like alot of old people typically do. 14 states have authorized it for obvious medicinal benefits. Dont be a turd. You cannot legislate morality and far more harmful substances are taxed and regulated. Children claim its easier to get ahold of unregulated marijuana than regulated alcohol. Marijuana prohibition has failed and you just cant accept that. Well, legalization is coming, and once one state sets the stage, the rest will follow suit when they see the billions being raked in by its sale. It stands to be the single most valuable cash crop in US history.
If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so. ~ Thomas Jefferson
force_vector on August 10 at 8:26 p.m.
You mean vaporizers that use anti freeze chemicals as part of the base? And if you have some evidence to the contrary to refute what you claim is my apparent “thinking I’m so smart” assertion that CO kills brain cells, i’d love to hear it (particularly because I am a smoker). Which brings me to my next point. You act as if my pointing out that weed isn’t some miracle pathway to the enlightenment of the “good Lords” will is to also proclaim that it should be banned. I never said that. I am free to inhale my toxic substance of choice whenever I want, and you should be too. But at least I am not under the illusion that it’s not harmful, or that first one of the day buzz is somehow elevating my thinking to a higher level. No, it’s oxygen deprivation brought about by induced chemical reactions, of my willful choosing.
empyrius on August 10 at 10:52 p.m.
There may be some psychologically addictive qualities to marijuana, and physical addiction is virtually non-existent; as per the legal, and medical, rulings and studies I have read on the matter. Anecdotally speaking though, having run with drunks and junkies all of my life, I have seen people ready to commit murder for “legal” substances like oxycontin and assorted opium based drugs, and have committed murder because they were drunk on alcohol; but I have never seen anybody ready to kill a person for their next bonghit; so in comparison to such hard drugs like cocaine, alcohol, meth, the addictive qualities of marijuana is negligible, and the addiction argument miserably fails.
Inhaling any substance is harmful to ones’ body, but declaring marijuana a poison is also an unfounded, and unproven, stretch.
Since marijuana has been consumed for at least five thousand years I do subscribe to the biblical view that indeed the Lord did create this plant rather then some man or group of men, and whether it was created primarily for its getting high effects, for its medicinal benefits, or for its industrial usages, well, all of this is debatable, but the truth is is does possess these afore qualities and perhaps even many more we have yet to discover.
So again, no government is denying me that which our Creator created and declared good; and any government that does thusly is an enemy of mine and of God’s!
Amen
misjustice on August 11 at 7:13 a.m.
Bonghits for Jesus!
arroyoribera on August 11 at 10:34 p.m.
Having just met an 8 month old child named Marley with his dread-locked father, I am inspired to mention some musical themes.
Legalize It — Bob Marley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zErP5QoMA3w&feature=related
Tommy G in the 509, a major local talent, sings a must-hear tune which has a chorus which goes, “We’re just a bunch of hippies lookin to burn one down, we’ll f…, fall asleep and drive 10 miles under the speed limit, so what’s the fuss all about.” It also references the numbers killed by one of the major problem drugs in this country and world — alcohol.
While that tune is not there, you can listen to some of Tommy G in the 509 on his myspace page at
http://www.myspace.com/tommyg509
You can also hear him all over town playing clubs and on the streets.
So all this leads to the failed US drug war on multiple continents that has turned several countries — Mexico and Colombia — into near “failed states”. Now many, including a major right wing ally of the US and former head of Coca-Cola in Latin America, former Mexican President Vicente Fox, is also calling for the legalization of drugs in his country which is at war with itself over the issue, with 28,000 killed in the last 4 years.
http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/content/2010/08/10/Marijuana-Legalization-Mexico-Gaining-Support
So, as Marley sang… Legalize it!
eagleproducer on August 15 at 10:04 a.m.
I’d say this field and the others allegedly planted in the same area were Mexican drug cartel operations. They don’t like getting ripped off by farmers, law enforcement or anyone. Expect reprisals.
Don’t worry wee ones, it’s no country for old men.
Where’s Anton Chigur when you need him…?
I abhor the notion of legalizing marijuana as a source of state revenue. The issue is about freedom, plain and simple, one that people from all political proclivities should rally behind.