| Photo: Jennifer M. Howell/Lodi News-Sentinel |
| Lodi Police Detective Carlos Fuentes gets to try out his cool HazMat mask and brandish his weapon as he investigates an alleged “meth lab.” It turned out to the the deodorizer used to mask the scene of a legal medical marijuana grow. |
Police in Lodi, California thought they had a major drug bust on their hands after what looked like a couple of pounds of methamphetamine and dozens of marijuana plants were found at a commercial building.
Police even evacuated all of the businesses in the building between Pixley Parkway and Guild Avenue.
But the big bust shrunk away to nothing when the “meth” turned out to be crystallized deodorizer and the pot plants turned out to be legal, reports Jordan Guinn at the Lodi News-Sentinel.
The operation turned out to be the medical marijuana growing site for a Stockton family, police said.
“After the search, we found they are in compliance with their legal marijuana cards, said Detective Hettie Schaeffer of the Lodi Police Department.
About 2 p.m. Tuesday, excited police arrived at the scene, ready with their fancy HazMat team to search the premises.
At first, the cops thought they’d stumbled upon two pounds of meth. But after closer inspection, the Lodi Police Department determined it to be a crystallized deodorizer used to mask the smell of the cannabis plants.