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Complaint leads deputies to $30,000 in marijuana
by Cris Ritchie
Editor
Perry County Deputy Elmer Fugate sorted through 32 marijuana plants seized on Thursday. (photo by Cris Ritchie)
Perry County Deputy Elmer Fugate sorted through 32 marijuana plants seized on Thursday. (photo by Cris Ritchie)
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Deputies located the plants on the Right Fork of Maces Creek. Pictured from left to right: Deputy Kevin Day, Deputy Joe Duff, Deputy Elmer Fugate and Sheriff Les Burgett. (photo courtesy of Perry County Sheriff's Office)
Deputies located the plants on the Right Fork of Maces Creek. Pictured from left to right: Deputy Kevin Day, Deputy Joe Duff, Deputy Elmer Fugate and Sheriff Les Burgett. (photo courtesy of Perry County Sheriff's Office)
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HAZARD – Deputies with the Perry County Sheriff’s Office seized more than 30 marijuana plants on Thursday with an estimated street value of more than $30,000.

The sheriff’s office received a complaint about the plants by members of a contracting crew working at the head of Big Wooton Fork on the Right Fork of Maces Creek after they encountered people “acting suspicious” on a haul road, blocking the path with ATVs, said Chief Deputy Tony Eversole.

“They (the contractors) had made the ATVs move and contacted us because they were acting suspicious,” Eversole said, adding that one of the employees apparently saw the plants before calling the sheriff’s office. “We went up there and located 32 marijuana plants.”

Deputy Elmer Fugate said the plants ranged in height from three to six and a half feet tall, and were mature enough that they were likely only a few weeks away from being harvested.

The patch had been well-tended, as deputies also located fertilizer and some of the plants were being propped up with sticks, said Eversole, adding that it should now be too late in the year for whoever had been tending the plants to attempt to grow more.

The state values a mature, producing marijuana plant at $1,000 each, making the sheriff’s haul on Thursday valued at a total of $32,000.

No arrested have been made, and Eversole noted that there were no identifying markers or paths leading to nearby houses.

Thursday’s seizure made the second for deputies this week. They also seized four marijuana plants on Wednesday while responding to a welfare complaint in the county. Eversole noted the homeowners were cited and released in that case.

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SarahB82
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July 19, 2012
Doesn't the Perry County Sheriff's Office have something better to do with tax payers' money than bust someone for having pot plants? Anyone who even thinks smoking marijuana is worse than a lot of legal substances is crazy. End the war on marijuana, make it legal to grow (the economy of Eastern Kentucky would drastically improve), and spend money on arresting and controlling real criminals.
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