NARCOTICS OFFICERS CONFUSE DEER FEED WITH MARIJUANA PLANTS

GULFPORT, MS-Narcotics officers thought they had made a big bust when they
seized 500 suspicious plants from Marion Waltman.

Authorities say the plants looked like marijuana, but they turned out
to be protein plants used to bulk up deer.

Waltman says the kenaf plant does look like marijuana.

"But it has seven leaves at the top and okra-looking leaves at the
bottom," he said. "Marijuana only has five leaves. Any drug officer
should have been able to figure it out."

Now Waltman's angry and he wants authorities to compensate him for his
loss.

Harrison County Sheriff George H. Payne Jr. says he never reported the
plants were marijuana, only that they appeared to be the illegal weed.

"We knew we were going to be criticized, whatever we did," Payne said.
"We decided it was in the best interests of the public to remove it
and test it. We had received complaints of people going out there and
pulling off the leaves."

Waltman, president of the Boarhog Hunting Club, says he planted the
kenaf, a high-protein plant that reportedly attracts deer and
increases their size, in three fields the club leases from a timber
company. He says he paid $2,000 for a ton of kenaf and hemp seeds.

Waltman blames the sheriff's department for tearing up the land and
destroying his investment in plants.

"I want him to fix the road and compensate me for the plants," said
Waltman, 53. "They drove heavy equipment right down the center of my
field. That crop would have been good until the second hard freeze."