Marijuana plants growing randomly throughout city
By JUAN DEJESUS
These are high times in the city.
Pictures have surfaced on the Internet of what looks like marijuana growing near the intersection of E. 1 St. and 2nd Ave. — the latest photographic evidence to suggest that errant pot plants are taking over the city.
Last month, a writer scribed a personal account in the The New York Times about a cannibas plant she saw in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn.
Days later, someone snapped a photo of what appeared to be a pot plant that sprouted in Union Square Park.
Witnesses emailed Gothamist at the time to say there was one large sapling along with a few smaller sprouts of the smelly, fan-like plant. To confirm, the blog sent the photos to Senior Cultivation Editor at High Times magazine, Danny Danko, for his expert analysis.
He said “it absolutely is [weed].”
All these plants appear to be growing sporadically and not cultivated. Danko says the plants growing in the public space can either be a protest from the marijuana community, or may have been grown from seeds that were discarded. But he doubts someone expected to harvest an actual marijuana crop.
Currently marijuana possession is a violation and not a crime in New York State. However if the marijuana is “open to public view,a person can charged with a misdemeanor.
Police have made some 400,000 misdemeanor marijuana possession arrests over the past decade, according to a 2008 study released by the New York Civil Liberties Union,.
The NYCLU study estimated that marijuana arrests in New York City cost taxpayers between $50 million and $90 million annually.
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/Marijuana-Plant-Growing-City-99100679.html