Man charged with marijuana cultivation

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Reporter - Briana Conner

Story Created: Sat Aug 18, 2012 8:58 PM

Story Updated: Sat Aug 18, 2012 10:17 PM

 McCRACKEN COUNTY, Ky. — A neighbor in one local community helped pull the plug on a pot growing operation just across their fence line. 

Deputies with the McCracken County Sheriff's Department arrested Lowell "Bruce" Lawrence Saturday for cultivation of marijuana and wanton endangerment.
 
That last charge stems from the fact that he was growing pot in his back yard.
 
Lawrence lives at a trailer park in the 3,500 block of Clinton Road.  Deputies said children who also in the area could have easily seen or accessed the pot plants. 
 
Deputies seized 23 marijuana plants from his back yard some of them more than ten feet tall.  
 
The neighbor who tipped investigators off could see the tops of the plants over the privacy fence that separated their yards. 
 
Deputies found 29 more pot plants inside Lawrence's trailer where he had a growing room equipped with lights and fertilizers.   
 
"If this was allowed to be harvested, processed, and sold on the street, it would be one pound of marijuana for each plant," Sheriff Jon Hayden said.  "We've got close to 60 plants here, so it potentially could have been a lot of marijuana on the streets."
 
All that pot has an estimated value of $52,000.