Thursday, February 08, 2007

Dagga 'trees' cut down

Ladysmith - Dagga smokers have been tossing their joint ends, and Nature has done its work, causing a massive growth in dagga bushes in and around the CBD.

SAPS area spokesperson, Captain Charmaine Struwig told the Witness that SAPS members had removed 7 321 dagga bushes valued at around R500 000, from vacant lots in between residential areas including Acaciavale, Lennoxville and areas adjacent to the CBD.

"They were more like trees, taller than our tall cops. The stems were 10 to 15cm in diameter. If we had not been using tree-poppers we would have been struggling," Struwig explained.

She said that the trees had not been deliberately cultivated, but were more likely the result of people discarding joints containing dagga seeds, speculating that dagga growers would have harvested the plants before they became so tall.

"There are a lot of vacant plots of land in Ladysmith in between residential areas which are densely overgrown. I mean, some of the weeds were as tall as the dagga trees," she said, adding that while Ladysmith had experienced "shoulder-high" dagga plants in previous years, this year had set records. The removed plants were all burnt, downwind of human settlements.

The SAPS would be monitoring the re-growth of the offending dagga plants, Struwig confirmed.

According to figures from a recently released South African Risk survey, in 2004 49% of teenagers used alcohol, 31% smoked and 13% used dagga regularly. The Witness

1 comment:

Dylan said...

Too bad you cant find booze and cigarette trees in vacant lots...

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