A woman in Palmar Sur in the Osa area found police in her yard this week with an unusual interest in her ornamental plants growing in pots. The lush green stalks about two feet high had been planted, she explained, because they were “pretty.”
She had been happy with them until police, alerted by a phone call, came to visit and inform her that her ornamentals were illegal. They were marijuana plants.
The police were forced by statute to inform prosecutors, since marijuana plants are illegal to grow in Costa Rica — which might move a U.S. expatriate to exclaim, “Something tells me we aren’t in Colorado any more, Toto.”
But it is unlikely that the innocent lady will be hauled into court, although the plants were confiscated. Costa Rica no longer penalizes pot possession as harshly as police once did and except for obvious intent to sell large amounts no longer pursues the weed.
Comment: This reminds us of the case in California years ago, when the police chief of a town drove past a yard filled with pretty red blossoms on his way to the office daily. Curious, he looked up the plants in an encyclopedia and found himself obliged to cut down the ornamental crop.
They were opium poppies.
Article by iNews.co.cr
