Backyard weed gets Dorchester couple in trouble
By adamg - 9/3/10 - 7:21 pm
Couple arrested on charge of marijuana cultivation after, police say, officers found a five-foot marijuana plant growing behind their Ellington Street apartment.
Comments
what?
A plant? One plant.
MA decriminalized 1 oz smokable but not growing 1 plant
I'm surprised the people who decriminalized possession of just one (1) ounce of the chronic did not also decriminalize the possession of just one plant.
Perhaps the accused have the right to harvest the leaves and buds, dry them and prove that the weight does not exceeded 2oz - one once for each spouse.
Someone dropped a dime on Joanna Read 26 and Nadir Khan 25. The complaint was called in. Whoever it was used the police to address their concern, as is appropriate I suppose. With neighbors like that, who needs enemies?
Now the tea-leaf reading (no pun intended.) The police report implies but does not claim Nadir Khan had more to hide in his apartment. "Officers continued to speak to Mr. Khan thru a side apartment window as he hid inside the apartment. Officers observed the suspect run back and forth in the kitchen area and front room of the apartment in a nervous manner." Perhaps neighbors were trying to get the couple to clean up their act without dropping 5-10 on them.
what does "dropping 5-10 on
what does "dropping 5-10 on them" mean?
5-10 years of imprisonment?
5-10 years of imprisonment?
Agreed
The issue is not that there's a pot plant in the yard; it's HOW there's a pot plant in the yard.
If one of my neighbors had a pot plant that was amongst other plants in a clean and maintained yard, and s/he otherwise was a well-behaved and community-minded neighbor, I wouldn't even know about said pot plant. And if I did happen to see something in their yard that I thought looked like pot, I probably would think that it could just as easily be some other plant, and really, if it is pot that they're quietly growing/smoking/sharing, it's still not affecting me or my neighborhood in the least.
Now, if I observed a trashed or barren yard, with some giant pot-looking plant sticking out of the middle of it, and I saw people coming and going at all hours, and hooting and hollering at the plant, and loudly arguing about how much of said plant the owner was willing to give them, and exchanging money out in my street, and freaking out and running inside when people came by, and loudly and erratically denying that it was a pot plant and was their pot plant, then yes, I'd consider this to be bullshit that I don't want going on in my neighborhood, and I'd wonder what other crap was going on, and yes, I'd turn them in for their pot.
(No, I don't know that this is specifically what happened here, but it seems clear from the police report that these aren't calm, rational civic-minded people. More like the second type of pot owners than the first.)
If it were the hooting and
If it were the hooting and hollering neighbors, you could try having words with them before dropping a dime. I don't smoke, and I disapprove of potheads, but even I can tell that the legal penalties are draconian and inconsistent with societal norms.
Depends
If it's a neighbor who my experiences has told me is generally otherwise respectful of fellow people, but being a little loud in their celebrating or whatever, then sure, I'll ask them in a friendly way to keep it down.
If I've come to learn from my interactions with a particular neighbor that they have antisocial tendencies, then no, I'm not going to get involved, and I'm going to call the cops when I suspect they're doing something illegal.
Oh, also
The growing thing is apparently a gray area in court. Based on case law in other states, the "one ounce" law allows someone to have up to one ounce of pure THC. People have apparently claimed that their plant is within limits. Some have been successful, but then others have still been burned under the "personal use" thing under the assumption that no person could use all that pot as fast they're growing it, or something. And cultivation is still a separate crime from possession, though would it still be a conviction if someone had one little marijuana, er, sapling(?) and the whole PLANT didn't even weigh an ounce yet?
Disclaimer: this is all stuff I've read in bleeding heart liberal publications, and is about other states since our law hasn't had time to go to trial yet.
the law for "cultivating" weed is the same as it has always been
in MA. Which I don't have in front of me, but I believe the words "cultivate" or "manufacture" are in there which makes it pretty clear to MA courts that it is illegal to grow weed.
So it doesn't matter if your plant, seeds, flowers, leaves etc weigh more than an ounce. If it is comming out of the ground, it is being cultivated and that is illegal.
The only gray area I could see (besides proving who owned the weed) is if the plant or leaves were not growing and you had the stem or something on your person when you were stopped.
exactly
If the cops were at the station and not responding to this call, they'd be eating dunkin donuts and drinking coffee on the tax payers' dime but if they wrote this pot-growing couple two tickets for $100 each for possession of 1oz or less, then the public is up $200. On the other hand, if they arrested them for cultivating marijuana then yes, we'll pay dearly to have them prosecuted including police time as witnesses (straight time or time and a half?) plus the DAs office, plus if they're indigent the cost of public defenders, plus parole officers time, so yea you lose all the way around.
What about my tax money wasted on your education?
How many people like you get out of the BPS (after we spend 15K+) a year on you? What are you doing with your life?
Wasted, you say
That same can be said about you and the tax dollars that paid for your education dumbass. What are YOU doing with your life?
You speak as though you resent paying taxes for public education for people "like me" Step off bitch.
I don't resent paying taxes. There's stuff we all use that needs to be built like schools, roads, even lazy lardass cops who barely make it through school.
It is clear the public school system failed you
and didn't fail for me. Hell, I even got into a top 50 national university and still was able to be a cop and deal with the ignorant people like you. It was fun for a while!
You say it's clear
state your evidence.
What's a "top 50 national university"?
Um "able to be cop" isn't exactly a high bar of achievement.
The evidence?
You said "step off bitch". Only an uneducated clown would use a term like that.
But I just happend to be in the store today and saw the US News rankings and saw my alma mater in the top 50 schools. But I was wrong, it is classified as a national liberal arts school, not a national university.
You should do something with your life though and become a cop and show them how worthless they are. Christ, they only make about 130K these days. Maybe that's what your jealous about? I mean, a cops eating donuts joke is all you have?
Really?
You said "step off bitch". Only an uneducated clown would use a term like that.
I've used that phrase. Maybe not the most tactful of moments in my life, but I think we can agree that I'm not uneducated. I think what you meant to say was that most people who use that phrase are from the hood. Maybe your top-50 school didn't do a good enough job recruiting smart people who have different backgrounds from yours.
My background?
Are you assuming that I'm white and from the suburbs or something? Or that I only got into a top 50 school because of affirimative action? I'm proud of what I have done and where I came from.
And don't assume only people in the hood use that phrase either. I hear a lot of clowns use it from all over. And I'm not talking about when you use it in one of your insolent posts on here either.
So you have no evidence that
So you have no evidence that my public school education failed me (or none that you have presented yet) nor have you provided any evidence that the tax dollars spent on your public education were not a complete waste. We need some facts from you to verify your claims: First your public school and then, your academic accomplishment as a student there. Facts please.
Regarding your ranked "top 50 national university" and its recent US News and World report ranking as well as your academic accomplishment there; provide the facts please. Having been in the USNews&World Report, it really is no secret.
I too have a tiny keyboard but I don't use it as an excuse when I type "your" instead of "you're." I simply say I made a mistake. You should try that sometime when you make a mistake instead of spending time constructing transparently thin excuses in which you blame inanimate objects for your shortcomings.
Present the facts so I and other readers can verify your claims. Otherwise, its just more hot air...
Ok this third grade conversation is over.
Think about it for a second. How am I going to know where you went to school when you are an anon? In fact, Im not even sure you are the same anon that I wanted to talk to in the first place. This has been a silly internet discussion and it is getting long and boring. I could tell you I went to any school and I couldn't prove it to you.
(99.5 percent of the posters on here know the difference between your and you're. Of course it is a mistake when someone uses it the wrong way)
It over when you retract this:
That was in response to this:
"they'd be eating dunkin donuts and drinking coffee on the tax payers' dime"
For christs sake, they enforced the law that someone actually wanted enforced. Should the cops call you up next time a law is broken so they can see if you want it enforced or not?
I don't know if my tax money was wasted on your education because I don't know when or where you graduated or what you have done with your life. You would have to fill us in on those things.
Then there was your comment about cops not being able to make it through school. That could be true, but there are dozens of cops who have law degrees, master degrees, there are cops who only got a job because they speak a certain language, or are of a certain race, or were veterans, or were related to someone that was killed on the job, or knew someone that helped them transfer etc etc.
If you are so above the profession and want to put down the educational standards, I think it should be you who need to tell us what you do, where you went to school etc.
I suppose this is as close as
I suppose this is as close as you'll ever come to an apology:
Also
since this is in fact a post in which you've declared how educated and cultured you are, I'm going to take a moment to point out:
Thanks eeka
I know how to spell and I know the difference between your and your're. I have a very tiny keyboard and screen and punctuation is a pain in the arse and I don't proofread my posts. It is also very hard to see commas, apostrophes and periods.
My response was to this clown who wants to make blanket statements about certain groups of people having little or no education.
what a waste of resources...
what a waste of resources... the cops should be ashamed of themselves that they wasted my tax payer money on this cr*p.
They have to respond to these calls.
And probably saved you money if these people have to pay a civil fine.
yeah, right
Those people were just so ready to say "That plant is mine" to the cops.
The suspect then inquired of
The suspect then inquired of the officer whether the officer had any Doritos.