Dallas police patrol the area around Kidd Springs Park at various hours, in part to crack down on the frequent car burglaries, in part to be on the lookout for people using the park to drink and do drugs.
That's what one officer was doing at about 8:30 Tuesday morning when he saw a red Ford coupe parked in the 800 block of Canty Street. According to a police report, as he drove closer, "he observed the suspect use his right hand to put an unknown object to his lips and inhale. This gesture was the same gestures [sic] used when smoking marijuana."
The officer parked behind the Ford and walked toward the driver's side, tapping on the window. The man just sat there, making no move to roll the window down, so the officer went ahead and opened the driver's side door and asked if there was alcohol in the car. Still the man sat there, stone-faced.
Then, the officer happened to glance into the pocket on the inside of the open door and spotted a plastic baggy filled with a green leafy substance. "Looks like some marijuana here," the officer observed.
"At this time," according to the police report, "the suspect exhaled a large amount of smoke from his lungs and stated, "No! That's not marijuana. It's K2, man. It legal! I buy from store."
(Note: The gentleman is misinformed. K2 is not legal, having been banned by the Texas Legislature in 2011 because of harmful side effects, like trying to eat household pets)
The officer was unconvinced, but there was no hint of the acrid aroma typically associated with weed smoking and the man produced foil packaging that identified the product as "7H," a substance marketed as potpourri but which, like K2, is a synthetic cannaboid that is often smoked.
So, he confiscated the substance and handed it over to the Southwest Institute of Forensic Science for testing. He took down the smoker's information but sent him on his way without an arrest or citation.
