It may be the biggest Lethbridge pot bust that never was.
To great fanfare, a special police squad ripped out more than 1,600 plants from a Lethbridge yard in July, touting it as the bust that snagged the largest outdoor pot grow-op in that city's history. But this week police have admitted the plants, which the owner has said all along are daisies, are not pot, The Star reports.
Following the bust, Lethbridge police charged the plants owner Ryan Thomas Rockman and accused him of harbouring the biggest outdoor pot grow-op in the city's history, the Lethbridge Herald reports.
"It made me look like a villain and it made them look silly," Rockman told the Herald.
"It baffles me, to be honest. At the same time, I don't want to try to point the finger of blame at them either because they're still just trying to do their mandate and make it home every day," he added.
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Although the charge of producing a controlled substance was dropped, Rockman still faces charges relating to 697 grams of dried marijuana, 6.3 grams of cannabis resin and cash, the Herald reports.
The Calgary Sun reports Rockman freely admits to smoking dope to alleviate back pain, adding he has applied to the federal government for a medicinal marijuana licence
“They muddied my name pretty good,” The Sun reports Rockman as saying shortly after the big bust.
“The whole situation makes me want to hang my head and cry.”
But hey, it's all part of police work.
Insp. Dan Konowalchuk, head of the combined forces special regional enforcement units, defended the officers’ actions to The Star.
“I don’t think there is anything at this point for the guys to apologize for. They acted on what they believed to be the best information they had at the time,” Konowalchuk told the Star Thursday.