Posted on 05/21/2012 7:31:52 AM PDT by Altariel
At 5:30 a.m. on May 10, armed men broke into the bedroom of Kirk Kyle Farrar’s 12 year-old daughter and shook her awake. The men led her downstairs at gunpoint and forced her to lie on the floor next to her mother and father, with her hands behind her head. Another armed man took Farrar’s two-year-old son from his crib, and would not let his parents hold him. “My son screamed for his mother for what seemed like an eternity,” Farrar wrote in an email to friends, obtained by Reason. “I will never forget the hopeless feeling of not being able to comfort my son or daughter.”
The armed men who broke into Farrar’s home were officers with the Meridian, Idaho, Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration. They were executing a federal warrant for Farrar’s arrest for the crime of selling bongs.
Farrar’s wasn’t the only family traumatized that morning. Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Idaho National Guard, and four Idaho police departments raided the homes of 13 other headshop owners and employees on May 10. All of the headshops had their inventory seized. One shop lost more than $80,000 worth of merchandise (bongs and pipes marketed as “tobacco water pipes”). Another headshop owner had his and and his employees' vehicles seized.
The investigation into these 13 shops and their employees (two of which are still at large) for selling drug paraphernalia was led by U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson, a Barack Obama appointee. Nine of the shops were also accused of selling "spice," a synthetic alternative to the prohibited and significantly safer drug marijuana.
In his email, Farrar denies selling spice. "Piece of Mind Boise has never carried these products EVER! We made a commitment from the start not to carry it because we believe it is dangerous and not being used in a legal fashion."
He also notes that his cousin, "[who] has never previously committed a crime and has absolutely no criminal record," has been charged with "with 4 Federal felony charges stemming from selling tobacco products."
“The open sale of drug paraphernalia promotes unlawful drug use and helps drug traffickers thrive,” Olson said at a press conference on May 10. “These indictments show federal, state and local law enforcement partners will attack drug trafficking on all fronts.”
During a speech at the Center for American Progress earlier this month, Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske said that the law enforcement-only approach to America's drug problem was not "humane, compassionate" or "realistic." He also said that the Obama administration does not believe it can "arrest its way out of the drug problem."
Reason spoke to one headshop owner. At his attorney’s behest, this owner declined to go on the record, but did say that local police had been aware of the store’s existence and sales of glass pipes for years, but had never threatened charges or discouraged the business from operating. The owner believes that the raids came at the behest of federal law enforcement officials.
According to the Idaho Statesman, “the DEA, Idaho National Guard, IRS and the U.S. Marshals and Attorney’s offices worked on the case,” which the agencies built over the course of an entire year.
As if more evidence were needed that President Obama's drug war looks a lot like George W. Bush's: The charges against Farrar and the other Idaho headshop owners are reminiscent of the federal prosecution of actor Tommy Chong under Bush's DOJ. Chong was convicted in 2003 for distributing paraphernalia through his company Nice Dreams Enterprises. Chong was fined $20,000, and made to forfeit his domain name, all of his inventory, and $103,514 in cash.
Do you feel safer?
******
Full Title: A Report From Obama’s “Humane” Drug War: “My son screamed for his mother for what seemed like an eternity”
Mike
The perps probably forgot to pay their protection money (campaign contributions).
Meanwhile, Corzine remains free as a bird.
At best, in a just world every single police officer and DEA official would be thrown in jail for the rest of their lives for violation of constitutional rights.
At worst, in a just world, I can’t say because the admins at FR are fraidy cats and would delete it and ban me.
Why would ANY parent of children under 18 be STUPID enough to get involved in the drug trade, even legally selling the paraphernalia?
Apparently a “water pipe” is OK, but a “bong” has a little hole in the body to let in air when you uncover it. One is legal, the other gets guns pointed at you.
In CA there are many, many stores selling pipes and other paraphernalia to support “medical marijuana”.
These over zealous freaks need to be at our southern border arresting the the drug dealers and pushers. That way the feds wouldn’t need to worry about these types of shops that cater to users.
Amateur thugs. I’ve done more than my share of armed raids (Iraq), and I never separated young children from their parents. There’s no point to it at all. If you’re really concerned about weapons, do a quick pat-down and you’re done.
On the plus side, they didn’t shoot the family dog.
Hussein’s showing us what a right-winger he is.
Gas prices mysteriously drop 20 cents, unemployment is “steady” or “decreasing”, and Hussein is a small-government man.
Now he’s going after “drug dealers”.
Wendy is GUILTY, even from a far-away low-res photo.
ok...folks may recognize that I am NOT a supporter of MJ legalization, BUT!
This is ridiculous!
This is evidence of complete ATF laziness, as no true investigation is required, and no real counter-threat exists.
Go after the drug cartels and the hard drug SUPPLIERS!
Get off of you dead butts and do some real work!
Cold War 1945 to 1991- 46 years
Drug War 1972-2012- 40 years and still going strong.
The Drug War has caused more challenges to Constitution than any other source. It MUST stop.
It is far better to allow adults to make adult decisions that to continue with the tens of thousands dead or maimed yearly, through violence, in this nation and others.
I don’t think the government really knows how to stop the drug war because it employs so many....
The Government = The Mafia
Tens-of-thousands-of-tons of pot and coke coming thru Mexico every month, and the JBT Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the US Marshals Service, US Attorney’s Office, the Idaho National Guard, and four Idaho police departments, are raiding/terrorizing local “head shop” employees’ families?
This must be the 4,000th-5,000th article I’ve read about this unending, diversionary, budget-justifying BS.
I have a lot of respect of LEOs and Firemen, right behind the US Military, but these JBT ass-clowns aren’t worthy of a warm bucket of my spit.
Why would any government worshipper suppose that terrorizing young children is justified by the activities of one or both the parents?
Remember: if you are EVER even ACCUSED of any illegal activity, the same can be done to your children, or your nephews and nieces, or your grandchildren, if they are with you.
Selective law enforcement against white people and real life practice for when the TSA is mobilized and armed and they come looking for your guns. The goons who worked these raid will be platoon leaders.
The entire government needs overhauling and keelhauling and rolled back to a manageable sized monster.
Hussein needed to show how he’s tough on drugs, without actually interrupting or interfering with his biggest supporters’ businesses.
This.
Imagine your kids, your nephews or nieces, or your grandkids at the barrel of the local/state/federal law enforcements weapons, when they charge into your home to take your constitutionally permitted firearms.
If we allow them to get away with it now, it will be done again, and again.
What’s the next step. “get your screaming toddler under control, or I’ll shoot him?”
“the Idaho National Guard,”
WTF were they doing there?
Remember a RINO, Richard Milhous Nixon started the war on drugs. Another one of his dumb political moves, like price controls. The problem this one is destroying the Constitution because it give he police a chance to form a Police State.
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