Nurturing Pot, Pupils: Equipment Gets New Use

While Harold Schaefer sits in a federal prison cell, the equipment he used to grow marijuana is being put to good use in public schools.

Fourteen New Hampshire high schools have been given expensive hydroponic growing equipment seized in three drug busts. Instead of cultivating marijuana, the students are growing tomatoes, lettuce and basil.

The idea to recycle the crime equipment came from Raymond Gagnon, a U.S. marshal in Concord who was once a teacher.

“Nobody knew what to do with it,” he said. “It’s not something we traditionally deal with, like houses, or cars or weapons. We didn’t even know the value.”

In the past, such equipment usually was destroyed.

Hydroponic growing uses no soil, only water and nutrients. It is often used by marijuana growers because plants mature faster and can be grown year-round.

Gagnon’s idea received federal approval last fall. In November, teachers from 14 vocational agriculture programs began picking up the equipment.

About $24,000 worth of gear has been given away, including hydroponic tables, 1,000-watt heating lamps, pumps, generators, timers and nutrients.

“They were like little kids at Christmas,” Gagnon said. “It was as if we gave them a million dollars.”

Stan Kalishman said he grabbed more than $5,000 worth of equipment for Dover High School.

“It was still tagged ‘Evidence,’ ‘Evidence,’ ‘Evidence,’ ” the teacher said. “These people were really into it, and now it’s getting proper use.”

He plans to combine hydroponic farming with a fish farm, recycling the water. The biology department will also use the equipment for experiments, and the culinary department will cook the results.

Schaefer was convicted of cultivating marijuana and sentenced Nov. 29 to more than five years in prison.

Some of the equipment he used to grow 1,126 marijuana plants in his New Hampton home went to Pembroke Academy. Matt Baron, a junior, helped set up a system there and said he might make a career in horticulture.

Gagnon said he expects more such distributions when hydroponic equipment is seized.

“I hear of a drug bust on the radio and smack my chops,” Kalishman said. “I’m like a vulture flying overhead.”