Police slash research crop instead of marijuana

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- Dutch police who mowed down what they thought were illicit marijuana plants were red-faced Thursday when it emerged they'd ruined a research group's giant, officially sanctioned field of harmless hemp.

Police announced Wednesday that they'd found more than 47,000 cannabis plants, with an estimated street value of nearly $6.45 million concealed in a corn field in the Flevoland province east of Amsterdam.

They mowed down half the plants only to be informed they were the property of Wageningen University and Research Center, a respected agricultural school.

The field contained a new strain of hemp that researchers hope can be a sustainable source of fiber, said Simon Vink, a spokesman for the executive board of Wageningen University and Research Center.

Hemp plants are related to marijuana but have only trace elements of THC, the mind-altering chemical that cannabis contains.

"The street value from a drug point of view is less than zero," Vink said.