DEA Agent Warns Utah of Pot-Crazed Rabbits

He argues against legalization of medical pot
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 3, 2015 4:27 AM CST
Updated Mar 3, 2015 6:00 AM CST
DEA Agent Warns Utah of Pot-Crazed Rabbits
Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman's latest creation leans up against an old aircraft hangar as part of the Taoyuan Land Art Festival in Taoyuan, Taiwan.   (AP Photo/Wally Santana)

People who advocate legalizing medical marijuana in Utah clearly haven't given much thought to the risk of pot-crazed rabbits running wild, a DEA agent testified last week. Special Agent Matt Fairbanks told a state Senate hearing about how in the course of his marijuana eradication work, he had encountered animals, including rabbits, that had developed a taste for the drug, the Washington Post reports. One stoned bunny "refused to leave us, and we took all the marijuana around him, but his natural instincts to run were somehow gone," the agent told the hearing, stressing that "I deal in facts. I deal in science." He also spoke of seeing deforestation and other damage caused by grow-ops in remote areas.

The president of the company Medical Cannabis Payment Solutions told the hearing that warnings of wilderness destruction and reefer madness among wildlife may have been a bit overstated, since the bill requires medical marijuana to be grown indoors. "Evidently we hear that it makes rabbits go crazy if it's grown in Utah, in the mountains, so one of the things we want to do is make sure we don't have any crazed rabbits anymore in Utah," he said. The hearing also heard from people with medical reasons for supporting legalization, including a man who wants to use cannabis to ease the suffering of three of his children, who have been diagnosed with a terminal genetic disorder, the Guardian reports. (More medical marijuana stories.)

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