The Economy Made Him Do It

"I was shocked when I heard about it." Lee Walters is doing what he can for his cousin. "I'm just trying to protect his house a little bit. I put a dog in here because there has been some burglaries in the neighborhood. I want to make sure his stuff is safe."
John Bicknas faces felony drug charges. Investigators found 80 marijuana plants growing inside his home according to Sgt. Ted Roy with the Escambia County Sheriff's Office. "If all his plants grew like they were suppose too, he had some new hydro-ponics growing which are valued at more, so he could have potentially 80 thousand dollars worth of marijuana growing in the house."
Bicknas told investigators he'd been out of work for over a year and couldn't afford to buy the marijuana he was used to, so instead he decided to grow it.
"He's been out of work for a little while," says Walters. "He did smoke a little bit, I guess it's like he said, just trying to grow his own."
Folks in the neighborhood say it sounds like a big excuse to them. "Usually the guilty try to find the most outlandish excuses for their actions," says neighbor Mike Sparks. "That sounds like what he was trying to do."
Neighbor Pearl Nall agrees, "We're all going through a bad time economically but not all of us are resorting to growing pot."
While Bicknas remains in jail, his cousin will watch over his things which could be for the next five to ten years.