‘Significant’ outdoor bust in Lethbridge wasn’t weed
It’s amazing how many stories like this there have been over the years.
It’s blooming embarrassing, is what it is.
The best part: police still won’t admit the plants they seized in what was supposedly the biggest outdoor marijuana bust in Lethbridge history are plain old flowers — daisies, to be precise.
All police will concede at this point is the 1,624 plants torn from a suburban Lethbridge garden on July 30 isn’t marijuana, as first claimed after a phalanx of police marched in and starting plucking.
“This is a significant bust, given the size of this operation,†is how a senior officer put it at the time, while proudly displaying garbage bags full of the dastardly daises.
That same officer, Staff Sergeant Wes Houston, now admits the plant haul was a mistake.
“In any investigation, police count public safety as our top priority — our decision to seize the plants was made with the best information we had at the time,†said Houston, leader of CFSEU-Lethbridge.
That statement by Houston is hilarious. They had to seize the plants immediately to protect public safety. What were they afraid the plants would do – start marching on the town? I’m pretty sure the plants would have stayed there while they got a botanist (or a teenager) to identify them.
Lethbridge is a pretty conservative place – think Twin Falls, Idaho for a similar US city. My take on this is that the police were determined to get this guy – they don’t want no stinking medicinal marywanna in their town. And once their blood was up with a big show of a raid, and they found only a pound (according to the article) of his medicine, they WANTED to find more. SO a big garden of something looking like that dang merrywanna and GAME ON!
Man won’t it be good once these clowns have to get real criminals and not oppress poor potheads for fun.
Except daisies look NOTHING like cannabis not at any stage of their growth and flowering cycle.
To you, Windy. To a wound-up SWAT cop, ANYTHING looks like pot. Especially if you want to have a big show for the proles and be a hero.
Lets be fair, Divadab, NOT everything looks like pot to a wound up SWAT team. Lots of things look like a Vicious Corgy.
LOL,LOL, LOL and LOL, Oh my, my sides are hurting from laughing, LOL, LOL,…. don’t the instructors that signed their damn police certificates show pictures when they are in Marijuana busts 101 classes! LOL,LOL……can’t help it, they are as stupid as a mud fence in a hard rain!! LOL,LOL,LOL…..
Busting flower gardens is expensive.
On the streets, daisies can go for up to $1.50 Canadian each. Adding in the drug enforcement mark-up factor, since the 1,624 daisies were all cut, that becomes $15.00 per daisy. The errant cops owe the gardener $24,360.
In an alternate reality where justice lives….. A judge forces swat back to the house in spring to re-plant the victims garden on their own time a-la community service.
I wish to be alive to see this happen.
aaah… a different take on reparations. A kinder, gentler (aka stonier) form of justice. Nice one Jose…
Another example proving that NOTHING can stop the police.
Once they get going, they shoot your dogs and babies and grandma. And it’s all to protect your dogs and your babies and your grandma, according to the police.
Who would come up with something so crazy?
Protect & Serve (Themselves!)
These fools would be more useful pushing daisies than picking them.
This reminds me of the corpus christi raid a couple of years ago. The cops did the typical, call the media in so they could do their chest pounding at how many hundreds of “marijuana” plants they discovered and dug up. And extolled how many millions of dollars worth of pot they took off the street….only to find out later it was actually horsemint. oops.
Yet, they think of themselves as “experts.” And not one of them has read “The King Wears No Clothes!”
“Please Don’t Smoke the Daisies!”
We’ve had a neighbor mistake our lush containers of okra for “Weed Plants”. But then again, bless her, she’s like 80, from New York, and can hardly see. The fact that she seemed slightly disappointed about them not being “Weed Plants” made my day.
Shit like this always makes me want to do some sort of Mary Jane Appleseed style seed-bombing on some prime-time land.
I’m not saying who or whom perpetrated the dastardly deed but in 1973, Takhli AFB, Thailand, flower beds all across the base had ganja sprouting up… someone must have had a pound of seeds or more, those babies were everywhere.
These days it’s only practical if you’re still buying Mex’can consemilla. One would be too easily caught transplanting clones in front of City Hall.
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The really sad thing is that they probably did a presumptive test and it returned positive for cannabis. I’ve read a couple of articles this year about how inaccurate these so called presumptive tests can be. One article said at least 10% false positives. I’m not representing that figure as being gospel just what I recall reading. Remember the woman in Florida who in 2009 ended up charged with felony possession of cannabis except she actually had sage. It was a false positive on the presumptive test combined with prosecutorial incompetence that landed her in jail.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/bird-watcher-wrongly-arrested-for-possession-of-po/nLspP/
The lawsuit was dismissed on the basis of sovereign immunity.
Spending too much time of the internet finally pays off. I get the thanks line.
But seriously, I love this site. It seems to be the most active anti-prohibition site I have found. Pete does a great job, and I have learned allot from the commenters as well.
Stories like this one only strengthen my belief that the drug war will one day, in the not-too-distant future, collapse under the crushing weight of its own absurdity. (Of course, they also make me wonder how that day hasn’t already arrived.)
The more cynical point of view would say, If the WOD hasn’t collapsed under it’s own absurdity (like this one demonstartes) it probably never will.
With some of the largest corporations profits depending on the continued prohibition of both hemp and marijuana it will still take one state at a time and the legislators start losing their jobs over it.
All candidates are avoiding talking about the wosd for the same reason,,the bought and paid for incumbents don’t want to be the first to lose their job because of his support.
My favorite line on the situation now is “Corporations may be able to buy legislation but they cannot buy the people and one state at a time we will take our right to the pursuit of happiness back from our government and the corporations that owns it.”
OT: It is good to know that since the government has made a promise I don’t have anything to fear. If no one will be detained then why do they need the law?
Appeals Court Restores NDAA’s Indefinite Detention Provisions
http://news.antiwar.com/2012/10/03/appeals-court-restores-ndaas-indefinite-detention-provisions/
“The appeals court ruled that, since the government has promised that citizens, journalists, and activists are not in danger of being detained as a result of this law, it is unnecessary to block its enforcement.”
The Trial by Franz Kafka
“You can’t go out, you are under arrest.â€
“So it seems,†said K. “But for what?â€
“We are not authorized to tell you that. Go to your room and wait there. Proceedings have been instituted against you, and you will be informed of everything in due course. I am exceeding my instructions in speaking freely to you like this…. If you continue to have as good luck as you have had in the choice of your warders, then you can be confident of the final result.â€
I live just up the road from Lethbridge. The cops around here are super-incompetent at anything other than minor traffic enforcement. I know nothing, but I bet the cops triggered the search based on the presumption of guilt of growing the plants outdoors, and only found his medipot when they got inside. Thus, the courts should void the warrant and the fruit thereof, and throw this case out entirely because the evidence appears to have been obtained illegally. Then everyone will say how he got off on a technicality, not realising that this ‘technicality’ is what protects all of us from the state, including the cops. Unfortunately, this might have to go to the appeals courts for anything like that to happen because of the conservative nature of the area. Wouldn’t it have been much easier, and much cheaper for the cops to just walk up to him and ask what those plants are? Not to mention much less embarassing.
I’m convinced that unless you have a vested interest in a particular issue or topic, most people spend little to no time actually investigating who/what the candidates’ core values/issues/beliefs are that they’re voting for.
They just vote for whoever looks the coolest or has a better sounding name or they’re red/blue etc.
On the big island, we had 3 prosecutors up for election (first time in 20 years). Two were rabid prohibition and one was for sensible rational new approaches to our failed WOSD. Unfortunately, he was the least funded and had almost no campaign sighs up, so unless voters researched the candidates, he was almost invisible (PAUL DOLAN).
Of course, he lost, which seems weird because I think close to 60%+ of our residents voted peaceful skies (no drugwar helicopter funding from the feds) and are sick n tired of the war on MMJ.
You would have thought he would have won in a landslide!!??
It’s so frusterating sometimes…..
As if we needed any more evidence as to why it should be unnecessary to defend cannabis… they don’t even know what it looks like, yet they are damning the plant.
This reminds me of the time in New Mexico when the cops raided a high school’s indoor garden that had tomatoes growing in it. Maybe they’re practicing for when big Ag comes and takes over via commercial farming . . . maybe they are practicing pushsing up the daisies for when the people start fighting back.
daisies… drug testing labs… they both start with “d” so only a bit OT. Another one for the “let’s-all-just-make-shit-up-as-we-go” department:
In Esquire, The Drug War Is a National Scandal, and Getting Worse
https://secure2.convio.net/dpa/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=881
Urge AG Holder to let states decide their own marijuana policies.
I added this paragraph at the beginning of the form letter:
First, federal officials interfering with or getting involved in State and local elections is completely unconstitutional. But we all know that’s never stopped you before, because we also all know the drug war is also completely unconstitutional and you keep waging it. And whether or not you continue to call it a “war” it IS a war on some Americans based completely on unconstitutionally denying people their unalienable right to self-ownership and self-determination. Additionally, whether or not you want to admit it, Constitutionally in power, the People are first, the States are second and the fed gov comes in dead last! You and the entire fed gov are violating the Constitution, and violating your oaths of office in nearly everything you and the fed gov does. The Constitution says that is treason. Yes, I accuse you, the whole Executive Branch, the whole Legislative Branch (with the sole exception of Ron Paul) and the whole Judicial Branch of treason. I suppose you will now send your thugs to kidnap and indefinitely detain me for terrorism because I am a true patriot and acclaim my patriotism to the Founder’s vision and our Constitution, and the fed gov’s treasonous activities far and wide. Just know that I am also spreading this comment to you far and wide as well, so if I disappear from my home, family, friends, and town, people will know why.
Have you ever heard of the Battle of Athens: it was a military battle fought in Athens, Tenn in 1946. The local cops were in control of the Sheriff elections (and other corupt politics) and wouldn’t let anyone vote for the ‘wrong guy’. They arrested and shot citiznes trying to vote for the other guy until all the WWII vets came with their guns and kicked some ass and even blew up the jail, where the ballott box was being held. Cops are the reason why the 2nd Amendment is so important for all of us, as seen in the battle that lasted almost all day.
hey, that’s a good un WV, thanks!
short version link:
http://constitution.org/mil/tn/batathen.htm
Dynamite has a unique power to persuade.
Prominent Republicans in Washington state, Colorado endorse legal pot
http://tinyurl.com/8qvkpnx
“” Ballot measures to legalize marijuana in Washington state and Colorado gained support this week from a pair of prominent Republicans – U.S. Senate candidate Michael Baumgartner and former Representative Tom Tancredo – who could help sway conservative voters.””
Another former politician and an office seeker endorsing marijuana legalization while Romney promises more enforcement,,,hmmm..not the first politician to support change,,until they gain the office they sought.
Perhaps the Lethbridge Police could be taught to know what pot looks like. It would be a good first step for them.
oh sure… then they will want to know what the effects are… and then when they find out firsthand what the effects are, they won’t want to arrest anybody…
Why am I thinking you don’t need a PhD to be a cop in Lethbridge?
not off topic (the topic is stupid right?), I saw this on the GoogleNews headlines:
City Tried to Bill Dead Man for Damage to Police Car That Struck and Killed Him
reality, what a concept…
It is a wonder they didn’t charge him with destruction of public property.
http://tinyurl.com/9yz62kd