{"id":43418,"date":"2017-09-22T10:37:33","date_gmt":"2017-09-22T10:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theaegisalliance.com\/home2\/theaegis\/WP\/?p=43418"},"modified":"2026-08-26T05:46:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T12:46:50","slug":"cops-delete-facebook-post-of-massive-weed-bust-after-the-internet-corrects-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/2017\/09\/22\/la-police-supprime-une-publication-facebook-annoncant-une-importante-saisie-de-cannabis-apres-que-des-internautes-lont-contredite\/","title":{"rendered":"Cops Delete Facebook Post of Massive &lsquo;Weed&rsquo; Bust After the Internet Corrects Them \u2014 It Was Hemp"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\">\n<div  style=\"display: block; margin: 0px auto;\"  id=\"_ytid_73940\"  width=\"480\" height=\"270\"  data-origwidth=\"480\" data-origheight=\"270\" data-facadesrc=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ayysXWkdpyI?enablejsapi=1&#038;origin=https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;rel=0&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;disablekb=0&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__ epyt-facade epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" data-epautoplay=\"1\" ><img decoding=\"async\" data-spai-excluded=\"true\" class=\"epyt-facade-poster skip-lazy\" loading=\"lazy\"  alt=\"NYPD Drug Bust May Be A Hemp Store Mix-Up\"  src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/ayysXWkdpyI\/maxresdefault.jpg\"  \/><button class=\"epyt-facade-play\" aria-label=\"Play\"><svg data-no-lazy=\"1\" height=\"100%\" version=\"1.1\" viewBox=\"0 0 68 48\" width=\"100%\"><path class=\"ytp-large-play-button-bg\" d=\"M66.52,7.74c-0.78-2.93-2.49-5.41-5.42-6.19C55.79,.13,34,0,34,0S12.21,.13,6.9,1.55 C3.97,2.33,2.27,4.81,1.48,7.74C0.06,13.05,0,24,0,24s0.06,10.95,1.48,16.26c0.78,2.93,2.49,5.41,5.42,6.19 C12.21,47.87,34,48,34,48s21.79-0.13,27.1-1.55c2.93-0.78,4.64-3.26,5.42-6.19C67.94,34.95,68,24,68,24S67.94,13.05,66.52,7.74z\" fill=\"#f00\"><\/path><path d=\"M 45,24 27,14 27,34\" fill=\"#fff\"><\/path><\/svg><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>In 2017, an unusual collision between law enforcement and social media captured the attention of the world during the digital age, underscoring how badly the lines between identification and public scrutiny can blur online. The Jasper Police Department of Missouri became the talk of the town when it proudly broadcast a humongous \u00ab\u00a0weed\u00a0\u00bb bust on its Facebook account, only to delete the post after netizens pointed out an embarrassing mistake.<\/p>\n<p>The fiasco began when the Jasper Police Department posted pictures of what officers assumed was a record marijuana haul. Working alongside the Jasper County Sheriff&rsquo;s Office, the Barton County Sheriff&rsquo;s Office, the Lamar Police Department and the Missouri National Guard \u2014 which reportedly used a helicopter to guide officers to a backwoods field off County Road 110 \u2014 the teams chopped down roughly 288 to 290 plants and loaded them onto a landscaping trailer. The department then bragged that the seizure represented \u00ab\u00a0one of the largest marijuana grow seizures in the area,\u00a0\u00bb pegging the supposed street value at about $100,000 once the plants were dried and prepared.<\/p>\n<p>But keen-eyed web surfers immediately noticed that the plants the officers were proudly holding weren&rsquo;t marijuana at all. They were hemp \u2014 the non-intoxicating cousin of cannabis used to make rope, paper, clothing, fuel, and even building material. \u00ab\u00a0That&rsquo;s hemp,\u00a0\u00bb read one of the bluntest comments, and the post quickly racked up well over a thousand replies, many of them mocking congratulations for valiantly confiscating the raw material of natural fiber rope. The public roasting compelled the department to scrub not just the post but, eventually, its entire Facebook page.<\/p>\n<p>Jasper police chief Chad Karr later defended the operation to St. Louis&rsquo; Riverfront Times, insisting the goal was never to brag about a pile of pot plants but to send a message to a suspected meth dealer believed to be tied to the field. Whether the plants were genuinely cultivated or simply wild hemp remained disputed. Show-Me Cannabis Executive Director John Payne told the paper the tall, budless stalks looked like wild hemp, meaning no one was actively cultivating them and the street value was next to nothing. Experts also conceded the obvious wrinkle: it can be nearly impossible to tell hemp from marijuana by sight until a plant is late in flower. Legally, it scarcely mattered at the time \u2014 both were prohibited under then-current Missouri law.<\/p>\n<p>The accident is a wake-up call about the raw power of social media and the necessity of <a href=\"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/2020\/09\/12\/one-of-biggest-qanon-sites-taken-down\/\">fact-checking<\/a> before going public. Police departments, like any institution, are not infallible, and the collective intelligence of the internet can spot a weakness in seconds.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_43419\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-43419\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-43419\" src=\"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/cops-delete-fb-post-of-massive-weed-bust-after-the-internet-corrects-them.jpg\" alt=\"A group of law enforcement officers pose with a large amount of harvested hemp, loaded onto trailers. The officers are in a field on a sunny day, likely after a drug bust, but it was a police error. This is a Jasper Police weed bust mistake.\" width=\"800\" height=\"400\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-43419\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/2025\/03\/08\/missouri-judge-orders-china-to-pay-24-billion-for-covid-equipment-ppe-hoarding\/\">Missouri<\/a> police delete weed marijuana bust raid post. Cops Delete Facebook Post of Massive &lsquo;Weed&rsquo; Bust After the Internet Corrects Them<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Jasper was far from an isolated episode. Police agencies across the country have stumbled into the same trap of bragging on social media before verifying what they actually seized. The Loudoun County Sheriff&rsquo;s Office in Virginia was ridiculed for a now-deleted Facebook post about <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/2019\/04\/04\/brave-cops-pose-with-drugs-and-dough\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a drug bust involving a single marijuana plant<\/a>, and the Port St. Lucie Police Department in Florida publicized a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PortStLuciePolice\/posts\/pslpd-drug-unit-busts-a-marijuana-grow-house-on-december-21-2017-at-400-am-pslpd\/306705189733654\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">December 2017 grow-house raid<\/a> that drew the same kind of scrutiny departments now face whenever they post about narcotics operations on <a href=\"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/2025\/01\/19\/tiktoks-dramatic-return-how-the-social-media-giant-came-back-from-the-brink\/\">social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The misidentification problem only intensified after Congress federally legalized hemp through the 2018 Farm Bill, which legally separated hemp \u2014 defined as cannabis containing no more than 0.3% THC \u2014 from marijuana. That distinction created a recurring nightmare for officers relying on look, smell, and decades-old field tests that cannot measure THC levels. In November 2019, the NYPD&rsquo;s 75th Precinct triumphantly tweeted about seizing 106 pounds of \u00ab\u00a0marijuana\u00a0\u00bb shipped by licensed Vermont hemp farmers and bound for a Brooklyn CBD shop; prosecutors later dismissed the case once lab work confirmed the plants were legal hemp. Similar arrests unraveled in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2020\/01\/07\/marijuana-texas-dps-arrest-hemp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Texas<\/a> and South Carolina, where a 2019 traffic stop turned up more than 150 pounds of material that tested as hemp, and as recently as 2023 a violent Charlotte arrest over intoxicating-but-legal THC-A products ended with dropped charges and an officer suspended.<\/p>\n<p>Marijuana law has since shifted dramatically. Missouri voters approved Amendment 2 to legalize medical cannabis in 2018 and then passed Amendment 3 in November 2022, legalizing recreational marijuana for adults \u2014 a remarkable turn for a state whose officers once celebrated tearing down a field of rope fiber. The hemp-versus-marijuana confusion, tied to <a href=\"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/2017\/02\/27\/9-uses-hemp-wont-learn-mainstream-media\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a plant whose many uses mainstream media rarely covers<\/a>, has only grown more common as the legal landscape fractures state by state.<\/p>\n<p>While the Jasper Police Department&rsquo;s embarrassment is easy to laugh at, it serves as a durable reminder of the importance of accurate identification and careful communication in an age of instant information. Police officers must walk a tightrope between the urge to inform the public and the duty to fully verify the facts before issuing a public statement.<\/p>\n<p>As the country keeps navigating the complicated terrain of drug laws and enforcement, cases like this one highlight the ongoing struggle for both police and the public to distinguish legal plants from illegal ones. They also showcase the role social media plays in <a href=\"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/2024\/08\/13\/arkansas-cop-caught-on-video-beating-inmate-in-back-of-police-car\/\">holding the powerful accountable<\/a> and driving public conversation on issues that matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jasper, Missouri police posted a $100,000 weed bust, then deleted it when the internet identified the plants as hemp. The 2018 Farm Bill made that mix-up a national pattern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1187442,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,191912,204522,209225,24,204504],"tags":[183,196304,196386,3687,211475,72,190222,66,208912],"class_list":["post-43418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-activism","category-other-videos","category-police-accountability-news","category-us-news","category-videos","tag-cannabis","tag-cannabis-community","tag-cannabis-culture","tag-facebook","tag-jasper","tag-marijuana","tag-missouri","tag-police","tag-police-accountability"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Cops-Delete-Facebook-Post-of-Massive-Weed-Bust-After-the-Internet-Corrects-Them-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43418"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1198223,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43418\/revisions\/1198223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1187442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}