SCHOOL TO BENEFIT FROM DRUG BUST

Equipment Confiscated From Marijuana Growers Will Be Donated To
Vocational Agricultural Program

SOUTHINGTON -- A massive drug bust two years ago left police with
everything someone would need to grow a lot of marijuana - the kind
of stuff that they typically are ordered to destroy.

But police say the equipment they seized in September 2004 can be
put to better use, and so they are donating it to Southington High
School's vocational agricultural program, where students learn
legitimate farming skills. Today, police will turn over to high
school staff grow lights, fertilizer and electrical power equipment
that they seized in the bust.

Police spokesman Sgt. Lowell DePalma said the department thought
about donating the equipment soon after the bust, but needed a
judge's permission to do it. That permission was given recently.

"It sounds corny, but I really think this is akin to turning swords
into plowshares," DePalma said.

High school Principal Kathleen McGrath said she is happy to take the
equipment, regardless of where it came from. The donation is
particularly welcome since a new building for the vo-ag program is
being built.

McGrath said the donation will let the vo-ag program do things it
could not do before because it did not have the appropriate
equipment. The vo-ag program will be able to pursue projects such as
hydroponics, which is growing plants in water, and producing fish.
In both cases, the grow lights will be crucial, said vo-ag program
director Marion Stannard.

The value of the equipment has not been determined but McGrath said
it will go a significant way toward defraying the cost of equipping
the new building when it opens next year.

How the equipment will be used is only one issue high school staff
have had to consider. Another is how they will handle jokes and
other reactions if and when students learn they are using things
that once were used to produce illegal drugs.

"I don't think the jokes will be long-lived," McGrath said. "We have
thought about students' reaction and we'll tell them that people
sometimes make unfortunate choices but that we would rather use
equipment like this than let it sit in a police department's
evidence room. If we can use something like this for good, we will
take that opportunity."

The equipment was seized when police broke up what they called one
of the largest and most sophisticated marijuana-growing operations
they have seen in recent years. Five people were charged with using
three houses to cultivate marijuana that was valued at
about $300,000. Two of the houses were in Southington and one was
in Burlington, and all were in new, upscale neighborhoods.

DePalma said that the department often seizes lights and other
material for growing marijuana, but that most of the time it is
destroyed because it has little use for anything else.

But this time things were different. DePalma said the equipment
being donated is high quality and was hardly used before it was
seized. There is also enough of it to make a worthwhile donation, he said.

"Most of the drug factory equipment we seize is so low-end and
low-tech that we don't bother to try to keep it," DePalma said. "But
this stuff is brand-new and we have a mountain of it, the stuff goes
from the ceiling to the floor."

DePalma said the donation is particularly timely because of the new
vo-ag building.