OFF BEAT: Unwitting British pot grower reaches out to BBC for guidance

While risk managers, employers and insurers grapple with the implications of the legalization of marijuana in Colorado, a keen gardener from the other side of the pond unwittingly brought the issue to the attention of the BBC and local law enforcement.

Patricia Hewitson, from Exmouth, England, called her local BBC radio station, BBC Devon, for help in identifying a five-foot “weed” that had sprung up in her garden.

Ms. Hewitson, 65, emailed the station’s aptly named gardening show “The Potting Shed” a photograph of the plant and explained that it had a “sickly sweet pong.”

Once the plant was identified, the Devon and Cornwall Police Force was informed.

An officer from the force said that while Ms. Hewitson had committed an offense in growing the plant, there were “mitigating circumstances” and she would escape punishment provided she destroyed the plant.

Ms. Hewitson said she believed the plant had grown from a hemp seed contained in a bag of bird feed.

She has since disposed of the plant.