Read in the Naples Daily News about Paris Hilton being tripped up by the pungent odor of marijuana trailing from her limo. This caused me to remember problems the NPD and CCSO had with the stinky locoweed.
We first encounter difficulties after a drug bust, by the NPD, had yielded a substantial cannabis haul. Back then the courts required you to keep all that was seized, not just photographs and a representative sample.
It's aways difficult to find a suitable place to store the stuff. Because of its odor, even when sealed in plastic, the evidence locker can become fouled by the stink quickly--especially in large quantities. If you store it off campus, you have a security problem. Once the CCSO had a rented warehouse broken into and several bales swiped. So, we tried to get rid of the grass as soon as possible.
The best way to do that is to burn it. And there are those doobyphiles in the community that readily agree. The first time we burned a big load, we notified the Naples Daily News and other media sources so the public could see how productive our drug enforcement efforts had been. Told them we were going to burn the contraband at the City Dump. Even listed when. Bad mistake.
On the day scheduled for our pungent pyrotechnics, the dump was unusually busy. Every "head" and hippie in town was waiting, hoping to get downwind and a free high. And they did!
After that we tried to keep our burns secret but forgot there was normal dumping traffic at the site and word spread quickly. Even some of the workers there seemed to, coincidently, find their duties took them downwind of the yellow-green cloud. When the cops working the burn started getting all mellowed out, and calling dispatch after the burn with, "Hey, dude, I'll be 10-8ish" we knew a change was in order.
That's when we started hauling it by the truckload to the Tampa incinerator. Don't know it they still do that but when returning from Tampa recently, I could see the incinerator's stack to the West, puffing a peculiar yellow cloud. And the inordinately large flock of birds around it seemed to be flying upside down.
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