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MARIJUANA PATCH AT JAIL

Narcotic Weeds Discovered on Welfare Island -- Burned at Once.

New York Times,  July  17, 1935

A large patch of marijuana weed, a plant from which a narcotic smoked in the form of cigarettes is derived, was found, growing wild yesterday in the ground of the Welfare Island penitentiary and was promptly destroyed.

The presence of marijuana on the island dates from at least a year and a half. When the Fusion administration took office, in January, 1934, one of the first discoveries made at the island prison by Austin H. MacCormick, Correction Commissioner, and his aides was that of a small plot planted with marijuana weeds. It was believed that the weeds were being grown by prisoners assigned to duty outside the cell blocks.

After yesterday's discovery Deputy Commissioner David Marcus ordered Warden Lazarus Levy to assign workmen to destroy the weeds. The workmen, prisoners at the penitentiary, carefully pulled up every weed and burned it.

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