
‘Cannabis is our drug’: Police to use force if suspects’ plants grow
Police are preparing for a potentially deadly scenario: a cannabis grow house in their district.
Cops will be using deadly force if they find a grow house, where marijuana plants are growing illegally, and officers are trying to track down a man who was arrested earlier this month.
A police report obtained by CBS News details how the officers will deploy force to prevent illegal grow houses from taking over a small town in New Jersey.
The report was prepared for the New Jersey State Police Drug Enforcement Task Force.
Calls to the drug task force’s New Jersey headquarters were not returned.
Police in the tiny town of Hagerstown, New Jersey, said officers were called to investigate a suspected illegal grow house at about 11 p.m. on March 22.
The police report says that when officers arrived, they found two men who had fled the property.
They said one man was holding a small container of marijuana in his left hand, and the other had a large baggie with a large number of plants in his right hand.
Officers searched the men’s vehicle, but the officers did not find any drugs on them.
The report says the officers then contacted the Hagerstons police, who took the men into custody.
The officers were later interviewed by police in New York, but no arrests were made.
The officers say they were told the grow house was in a private area and did not require a warrant.
The New Jersey police task force was notified of the arrests, but did not immediately report the case to prosecutors, according to the report.
The Hagersts police report said officers used a taser on the man who held the container and then placed him in handcuffs.
The man was later charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, the report said.
A search of the man’s car turned up two containers of marijuana.
The officer who used the taser was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.
Police officers in Hagersburg said the men were arrested for the marijuana, which had been seized from a home in a neighboring town, according of the report obtained on Tuesday by CBS.