FORT PIERCE — When going to the St. Lucie County Clerk of the Circuit Court’s office building – the place with the X-ray and metal detecting machines – it might behoove you to leave your marijuana at home.

It’s a tip that Calvin Edwards, 56, may take under advisement following a Nov. 20 incident, according to information in an arrest affidavit.

At the clerk’s facility in downtown Fort Pierce, a St. Lucie County Sheriff’s deputy reported being assigned to scan and check people through the X-ray and metal-detection machines.

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A man later identified as Edwards entered and was told “to empty all items from his person” before going through the machine. Edwards set it off when he walked through.

Investigators determined he had metal items in two pockets.

“I had Calvin empty the pockets,” an affidavit states. “When he emptied his right front pocket, he had placed four quarters along with a small plastic bag into the tray.”

In the bag, investigators say, was marijuana, a green vegetative substance that some roll into cigarettes and smoke for euphoric feelings in a process known as “getting high.”

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The active item in marijuana, produced by the cannabis sativa plant, is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Marijuana is frowned on by authorities to the extent that possessing it in many states, including Florida, is illegal.

Thus, Edwards, of the 1100 block of Warrick Drive in Fort Pierce, was arrested on a charge of possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana.