[freepatriot32]

but its still a free country and not a police state keep repeating that to yourselves over and over until you either believe it or get a bullet fired into the back of your head by your superiors

[Sam Cree]

Yeah, I think the state does not even require proof of drug involvement to seize assets. I think an official accusation gets it done.

[freepatriot32]

PING

[ellery]

Can we as conservatives at least join together and agree that it's complete and utter crap for the state to be able to seize property of people merely accused of a crime? It's become clear that the state doesn't like to relinquish what it's seized even if people are found not guilty. Can we at least agree that this is blatantly unConstitutional and flies in the face of everything our Founding Fathers believed? Please?

[Lazamataz]

FARWELL – After more than a two-year ordeal, a Parmer County jury Thursday found Ronnie Puckett, 47, innocent of possession of marijuana, a charge that came after police found an estimated 250 pounds of the drug on his Lazbuddie farm in October 2001.

Ronnie Puckett named his farm after me.

Me, the only man allowed to vote in America now that we have established the proper rules.

[Wolfie]

Wonder when they'll go after Rush's Florida estate.

[honeygrl]

In my town the cops took the home away from and 80something year old lady because her grandson was dealing drugs. I don't think they should be allowed to take property that doesn't even belong to the dealer. (although i don't like the WOD in general anyway)

[mtbopfuyn]

I've got a bridge for sale to anyone who believes he didn't know about 10 acres of weed in his field and more in his barn. He could look out his back door and see all of his little 320 acre farm and then some with nothing but a jack rabbit blocking the view. There's nothing for miles and miles and miles but flat land there. Yeah, right, he didn't know gramps plowed, seeded, cultivated, harvested, sold, and stored all that marijuana, buloney. Great, gramps takes all the heat and sonny boy gets of scot free. There's more than a few farmers who have a little side business going.

What's that song about smiling as they're sitting on sacks of seed?

[Muleteam1]

Farwell, Texas is located on the High Plains of west Texas right on the border of Texas and east/central New Mexico. This particular area of Texas is "flatter" than a pool table and if one puts their nose on top of their dining room table and peers down to the other end, you will know the view these Farwell folks have of their countryside. Ten acres of Canabis growing inside a half-section of High Plains corn could very easily be lost to sight once the corn became high. It would, however, be very difficult to miss at harvest or stalk shredding times.

I am not defending or accusing anyone. I just wanted to add a bit of information to ponder based on my personal experience of thirty-odd years in this area of west Texas.

Muleteam1

[Kerberos]

"His fight continues, however, to keep the state from seizing his land."

It's not about the pot in the first place. Those in power know that the horror stories they feed to the public is all crap. It's always about the property and how the state can get it for free.

[verity]

get a bullet fired into the back of your head by your superiors

This happens every day of the week!

[jmc813]

WOD Ping

[ChemistCat]

I keep wondering what in the Constitution says that I can't grow and use a particular herb if I want to.

My doctor has told me that THC would be a better medication for my chronic pain, vision, and digestive problems than anything he can prescribe, but nobody can legally make me a safe, pure tablet I could take on his orders. It would be less addictive than the other crud I'm having to take. And if it would be more effective, then in my view the government is torturing me by forcing me to do without it. If it wouldn't be effective, well, it would sure have a lot of company in my medicine cabinet.

What gives the government the right to tell me doctor that he can't prescribe it, to tell me I can't take it, to tell me that I can't grow it and use it myself if that's what I want to do?

My next-door neighbor can go out and get drunk on ethanol, purely for recreational purposes, but for some reason THC is special and we need a totally unconstitutional War On Drugs to keep us from using it. Why? Cancer patients and people with glaucoma are known to benefit from it. People like me can only wonder. Why are we denied the right to try it? It might work, it might not. Hey, it might make us feel a little better, temporarily. WHy would that be so terrible it needs to be outlawed?

We already have perfectly good, semi-effective laws against driving under the influence, so don't tell me that's why.

I'm not saying it's a perfectly safe chemical--nothing is. You can kill yourself with water if you use it wrong. In fact, more people kill themselves with water than kill themselves with all other chemicals combined! I'm just wondering how we ended up with a government that can tell me what I can ingest and what I can grow. I can buy rat poison and kill myself with that if I want, but I can't buy THC because it might just possibly over the long term have some nebulous negative effects. I can be trusted with a firearm (so far!) and with narcotic pain relievers that knock me out, but I can't try a little pot. WHY?

It all makes no sense to me, and that they can confiscate everything and jail people who are peripherally involved with this particular activity is crazy. This is not a legitimate function of the federal government. It's a huge waste of taxpayer dollars, and wrecks many a productive life. I gather Willie Nelson has been doing weed for most of his adult life. Carl Sagan, too, was a pothead. I just don't see that it's any worse than ethanol and it might well be better. It should be legalized, because we're a free people and have the God-given right to make these decisions for ourselves.

I also don't see any evidence that most people are inhibited by laws against it. I am, but I resent it.

[Publius6961]

Term limits for bureaucrats.
I'm serious.

[vladog]

You don't 'own anything' in this country, if some government agency wants what you think is your private property.

The right of eminent domain has been used over and over again by local, state, and federal government to aquire land for what ever purpose. The drug laws/regs in this country are just more in a long process of stealing American freedoms, one freedom at a time.