The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) have burned 10 separate marijuana plantation sites from May 27 to 29 in Tinglayan town, Kalinga province, it said in a statement today.
The PDEA said a total value of PHP5.66million (US$108,109.54) worth of marijuana plants were uprooted and destroyed in the three-day operation at Butbut Proper in Kalinga. A joint team of anti-narcotics operatives burnt 28,300 fully-grown cannabis plants and 1,000 marijuana seedlings.
Rosel Sarmiento, a PDEA-CAR information officer told Coconuts Manila through a text message that the anti-narcotics operatives were tipped off by concerned citizens in the area.
And no, burning weed won’t actually get the operatives or anyone living in the area high.
According to Live Science, a person would need to inhale a lot of secondhand pot smoke to get high. It’s also only likely to happen if he or she were inside a room with no ventilation.
The PDEA said that operatives were not able to find the weed farmers in the plantations.
“[B]ased on the rugged area where the plantations were located, the suspects fled when they heard operatives hiking up the mountainous areas,” it said in the statement.
The PDEA also emphasized that any individual engaged in the unlawful cultivation of marijuana can be punished under Sec.16 Article II of Republic Act 9165 or The Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
