DEA agent warns of stoned rabbits, wildlife in testimony on medical marijuana

SALT LAKE CITY -- Have the rabbits around here looked a little, um, hazy lately? It's probably because Washington state has legalized marijuana.

Well, at least that's what one Utah Drug Enforcement Administration agent might have you believe.

According to the Washington Post, Utah is considering a bill that would allow patients dealing with serious conditions to use medical marijuana. Special agent Matt Fairbanks of the DEA recently testified in front of a Utah Senate panel on the subject, claiming if the medical marijuana law was passed in the state, wildlife may cultivate a taste for the plant, lose their fear of humans and be high all the time.

That's right. Some bunnies and beavers and bears would become stoners if medical marijuana was made legal in Utah, Fairbanks said.

"I deal in facts," Fairbanks told the Utah Senate panel, the Post reported. "I deal in science."

Fairbanks, who has been with the DEA in Utah for a decade, spoke of his time weeding out pot grows in the back country of Utah. Fairbanks claimed large-scale weed cultivation had an untold cost on flora, animal life and water in mountain land. He saw rabbits that had even "cultivated a taste for marijuana," he said, telling stories of a stoned bunny refusing to leave in the sight of danger.

"One of them refused to leave us, and we took all the marijuana around him, but his natural instincts to run were somehow gone," Fairbanks said.

The Washington Post was clear to point out that large, unregulated drug grows could indeed have a harmful impact on the environment. And some animals -- such as rabbits -- do even develop a taste for marijuana, the Post reported. But whether the animals become dependent on it and crave the stuff is a answer that seems a bit far fetched, the Post reported.

Despite the agent's testimony, the Utah Senate committee approved the bill that would legalize medical marijuana.