Police Raid Farmer After Mistaking Okra for Cannabis
In the war against cannabis, everyone can become a victim, including those doing nothing more than growing some okra.
An okra plant.
Earlier this month a man in Cartersville, Georgia was awoken by an ominous helicopter flying lowly overhead.
“I was scared actually, at first, because I didn’t know what was happening,” says Dwayne Perry.
Seconds after noticing the helicopter, police with assault rifles and a K-9 unit swarmed the house.
“They were strapped to the gills,” says Perry.
Apparently the police, using taxpayer money appointed to them through the Governor’s Task Force on Drug Suppression, saw what they believed to be cannabis plants.
“Instead, it’s okra and maybe a bush on the end of the house,” says Perry.
“We’ve not been able to identify it as of yet. But it did have quite a number of characteristics that were similar to a cannabis plant,” Georgia State Patrol Captain Kermit Stokes told WSB-TV 2, a local news network, after the incident.
Perry, however, questions how they could make such a mistake, noting that okra plants have five leaves, and not seven like on cannabis plants.
“Here I am, at home and retired and you know I do the right thing,” Perry said. “Then they come to my house strapped with weapons for no reason. It ain’t right.”
Although police apologized for the incident, Perry doesn’t feel it’s enough; “The more I thought about it, what could have happened? Anything could have happened.”
Perry says he fears the situation has damaged his reputation, especially with his neighbors.
– TheJointBlog
Johnny Hickman
Cannabis can have as few as three leaflets or as many as 17 leaflets (the most I’ve seen on a mature plant), especially if it is a sativa. The statement that cannabis always has seven leaflets is simply not correct.