“What are you in for, drugs?” “Sort of.” A man caught with 7 pounds of ginseng illegally harvested in a national park was sentenced to 15 days in jail and a $1500 fine. The plant is highly valued in some markets as a powerful aphrodisiac. It’s something I like to call, “poor man’s rhino horn.” The man was caught walking along a road with a companion, both wearing camo and sporting dirty knees, a telltale sign of ginseng digging in this spot of Virginia. They denied poaching ginseng, but the park ranger found a bag in the woods, and “The woman with Kennedy that day, who according to the complaint was nervous and implicated him almost immediately, was not charged.”  Not a great partner in crime.

Tags: national park, National Parks

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