Police In Netherlands Can't Tell Hemp From Marijuana

Oopsie! Police slash research hemp instead of pot

September 3, 2009

(AP)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Dutch police who mowed down what they
thought were illicit marijuana plants were red-faced Thursday when it
emerged they'd ruined a research group's giant, officially sanctioned
field of harmless hemp.

Police proudly announced Wednesday that they'd found more than 47,000
cannabis plants, with an estimated street value of nearly euro4.5
million ($6.45 million) concealed in a corn field in the Flevoland
province east of Amsterdam.

They mowed down half the plants only to be informed they were the
property of Wageningen University and Research Center, a respected
agricultural school.

The field contained a new strain of hemp that researchers hope can be a
sustainable source of fiber, Simon Vink, a spokesman for the executive
board of Wageningen University and Research Center, said Thursday.

Hemp plants are related to marijuana but have only trace elements of
THC, the mind-altering chemical that cannabis contains.

"The street value from a drug point of view is less than zero," Vink
said.

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