DOWNTOWN SMITHERS PLANTERS GOING TO POT - REAL MARIJUANA?

Is it weed" or just a weed? B.C. bud or bogus bud?

Those are the questions being debated after members of the public
noticed the illegal-looking plants growing in several public planters
in downtown Smithers.

Lorraine Ross snapped several photographs of what she's convinced were
marijuana plants growing in the planters outside the Bulkley Valley
Credit Union on 1st Avenue and the government building on Alfred
Avenue two weeks ago.

She verified them as authentic pot plants with someone she considers
to be an authority on things cannabis, but she won't reveal the
person's identity.

I showed them to someone and to the best of their knowledge they're
marijuana plants," Ross said. I thought it was so hilarious. I was
having coffee with a neighbour and I joked that this would be a good
story for the paper."

But the story doesn't end there.

A few days later she noticed most of the the plants had disappeared
from the planters, Ross said, and she suspects they were taken by
people who recognized the plants as marijuana.

But if the people who took the plants are hoping to get high from the
buds they produce they're going to be disappointed, said Const. Casey
Torbohm of the Smithers RCMP.

It's not marijuana," he said. I've been to quite a few grow ops and
seen plants from starting out to mature. I've seen them in all stages
of growth. I know what marijuana plants look like and they're not
marijuana plants."

Torbohm came to this conclusion after looking at photographs and
checking the planters in person.

Although the shape of the leaves resemble marijuana, Torbohm said
several fellow officers who looked at the photographs agreed they're
not pot plants.

Cindy Stucklberger, manager of the Bulkley Valley Credit Union said
the credit union owns and maintains the planters but she knew nothing
about marijuana plants growing in them.