Posted on 08/04/2004 5:55:39 AM PDT by BJClinton
I suppose the cops thought he was growing the cantaloupes and watermelons to eat after he got the munchies.
I stand corrected - I had never seen that variety of hibiscus before. Although the leaves are still different enough that if they were serious about busting drugs, they should be able to tell the difference.
(Plus I didn't know that marijuana had big pretty flowers like those)....
What I found odd; was the plants were growing the front yard.
I had some Texas Star Hibiscus in my back yard a few years ago. My Border Patrol father in law asked me the same question. When they're not in bloom they do look a lot like pot plants to the untrained eye :^)
I am reasonably sure that somebody will give me advice as to where I can put my opinion...but nobody so far has suggested anything that will work better. The status quo...business as usual...is clearly not working....
Heck....the government should also legalize the production of industrial HEMP. Great fiber that could be grown easily and replace cotton production, provide alternative crops for areas that typically produce corn and soybeans, low water consumption, replace wood fiber for paper.....NEED I SAY MORE.
I couldn't care less either way. What I do know is that if weed is illegal it drives up the cost and we have to pay for the law enforcement. That sucks. If tobacco is legal and people get lung cancer, I have to pay for it through my crappy medical plan I have to have for the one time every decade my thin, relatively healthy 26 year old body gets ill. That sucks too.
We're screwed either way. You can't just legalize weed and expect the cash to flow. Taxes are crap no matter what, even if you don't participate in the taxed product's use.
In my opinion, it has nothing whatsoever to do with moral authority. It has everything to do with economic power....follow the money, and all that. Besides, "suspicion" of drugs has served as an excuse to get past so many of those pesky Consitutional barriers to search and seizure and forfeiture. Of course, these days, there isn't even much of a pretense of Consitutional consideration. I mean, if the WOD, as it currently exists, was abandoned, look at all the people who would have to find legitimate work.
I'd have never known that it had any hallucinogenic properties.
I want a plant that ferments the fruit as it grows and has it's own spout,then I'll start gardening. :O)
Mary jane isn't a narcotic.
Read my suggestion at #48 re something better. Regulate it to death. Squeeze the profit margins for private suppliers by continuing to seize their supplies, and then stealing their market by making small amounts of what you seize available to people who can prove they are addicted anyway, but only on condition that they submit to treatment.
From some experience working with state and local law enforcement:
Many, if not most, of the cops who become Narcs are the cowboy or hotrod types. They like to break down doors and scare people. They like to play with the toys the special units get. Small town swat-type units have a tendency to get over excited.
Sounds like these boys got a tip from someone who saw the 5 finger leaves, drove by with binocs, saw it for themselves, called Barney, Earl, and Bubba, and went Rambo.
That's interesting... since the seeds of the wood rose are a powerful psychedelic.
Stop being logical! Knock on the door? Narcotics officers wouldn't consider such a move because it could endanger them to common sense.
Heck they might even start checking addresses to make sure they have the right building. Narcotics officers, motorcycle cops and the DEA are a special breed that America needs because of their finely honed bad attitude toward citizens rights.
Back before they started sterilizing the seeds of the wood rose, an Hawaiin import, they were gaining some popularity as a hallucinegenic....and a very nice one, I might add.
>>I'm not interested in relaxing the drug laws generally--just marijuana.<<
I'm not sure it is a good idea. Last winter, here in Reno we had a motorcycle cop killed when a young girl whose reflexes were slowed by using marijuana was unable to hit the brakes fast enough.
Probably for cancer patients would be okay. The rest of us don't need to get high just for the fun of it.
"Even more to the point, why didn't they just knock on the front door and ask him what the plants were? Why the SWAT approach?"
Because the "perps" might've had time to flush all the hibiscus plants.
It tells me that our priorities are seriously out of whack and that our government is schiziphrenic. Of course, it didn't take that little detail to tell me that. I suspect the money to fight terrorism domestically is below any number of other pet government "programs."
Yes, but alcohol kills too. The question is whether marijuana is worse. I think the answer is "no" so I wonder why we are spending so much of our precious resources trying to suppress it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.