ERWIN, Tenn. – Lights once used to grow marijuana may soon help provide healthy lunches to students in Unicoi County.
The Johnson City Press reports lights confiscated by the First Judicial District Drug Task Force have been donated to Unicoi County High School’s agriculture program.
Students will use the lights to grow vegetables in several greenhouses that were recently donated to the school. The vegetables will supplement lunch programs in schools throughout the county.
County Sheriff Mike Hensley said his department and the Erwin Police Department, which are part of the drug task force, arranged the donation.
“We decided we wanted to put them to good use,” Hensley said.
He said the lights have been confiscated by the task force over a number of years and are worth thousands of dollars.
“They have a build up over there of it, and they just needed to get rid of it,” Hensley said.
Lucas Anders, a vocational agriculture teacher at Unicoi County High School, said students working the greenhouses will be conducting research with the aim of growing vegetables at times when they are not typically grown.
“I have a feeling that these lights will be very valuable. Once we determine which crop responds the worst to low-light conditions, then we can take these lights and put them above that particular crop,” Anders said.
He said he likes the idea of taking something that was used negatively, and using it to do something good.
“I know it’s been confiscated from negative use,” Anders said, “but I think there’s a good opportunity, especially with what we’ve inherited, where we can use it very quickly.”