Marijuana filled basketball found by prison officials

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) _ Basketballs are usually puffed up with air, but somebody found a way of inflating one with a substance usually associated with puffing of another kind. <br/><br/>Oklahoma State

Thursday, September 2nd 2004, 5:52 am

By: News On 6

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) _ Basketballs are usually puffed up with air, but somebody found a way of inflating one with a substance usually associated with puffing of another kind.

Oklahoma State Penitentiary officials cut into an exercise-yard basketball and found nearly two pounds of what is believed to be marijuana stuffed inside.

Acting on a tip from McAlester police, prison officials searched the yard and found the basketball, which held 30 one-ounce packets of the leafy substance.

They seized the basketball from the Talawanda Heights unit, which houses 65 minimum security inmates for the prison and sits away from the main part of the facility.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Linda Morgan said two inmates are on lockdown in connection with the seizure.

Morgan said officials don't know how the basketball got on the prison grounds.