Texas outdoor marijuana grow operation busted by smartphone app

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A $125,000 marijuana grow south of Houston has been uprooted thanks to a tip from an anonymous narc citizen who used an app created by the sheriff’s department that allows people to send in photos as well as coordinates to crimes – or things that citizens perceive to be crimes.
All of the plants have been destroyed, but thankfully nobody has been arrested. We think the senseless destruction of such a healthy, natural and domestic garden should be punishment enough and the cops should hopefully just let the case die (they won’t, but a marijuana writer can dream can’t he?).


The phone app is part of the “If You See Something, Say Something” public awareness campaign started by the Department of Homeland Security in 2010 that basically asks citizens to spy on one another. It was the first of it’s kind when it was put into operation in 2011. The program also has a 1-800 tipline and website, iWatchHarrisCounty.com.
And while our colleagues at our Voice Media sister blog, The Houston Press (which broke the story), seem to think this new app is a neato new way for government to be “ahead of the curve,” we think it’s a sign of how lazy our police force has become and how nosy people are about other people’s business.
This grow bust is a prime example of that. It’s just a few marijuana plants growing in a forest, and yet someone felt compelled to report it via the app. The really sad part is that this Johnny-do-gooder likely already had the app installed on his phone and probably uses it to play civilian vigilante more than just this one time.

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