Something I Stumbled Across

Here's a letter to the editor I wrote to the Virginia Pilot back during the summer when I did Clean the Bay Day. It got published--after they edited out the tongue-in-cheek. I stumbled across it while I was looking for a paper for some research I'm doing. I thought I'd post it here for everyone to read. :) I thought it was good, but maybe I'm just tooting my own horn ;)

Dear Editor,
This was the first year I volunteered for Clean the Bay Day—a day I won’t forget anytime soon. We signed up to pick up garbage, but little did we know that by the time we finished we would not only clean up garbage in the Bay, but we would also clean up drugs from the Bay. That’s right, drugs. As we were cleaning, we stumbled across two marijuana plants growing in pots on a small island. But that’s not what made it memorable. No, what made it memorable was the response we got from the Norfolk Police Department. We called them to report our finding and four cruisers promptly arrived to tackle the two pots of marijuana. But that’s still not the memorable part—that came when the police informed us that we had taken someone’s private property when we picked up those marijuana plants. Huh?! An illegal substance growing on a small island that is obviously owned by no one, no “NO TRESPASSING” signs in sight—yet we took someone’s private property? Maybe I missed something in the last legislative session, but I thought marijuana was an illegal substance, thus illegal to possess. If it’s illegal to possess, then how can it be private property? If I were to use the line of reasoning from the police, all of the garbage we picked up was someone’s private property; therefore we shouldn’t have picked it up either. Who knows, maybe 911 will get a call from someone claiming, “I’ve been robbed!” When questioned on what was taken, they’ll inform the police it was two marijuana plants. Since it was private property, maybe the police will give it back to them.