Take a look at this photo, and think about it for just a moment

[The Straight Story]

Police shut down marijuana growing operation
The Bakersfield Californian | Thursday, Feb 8 2007 2:36 PM



Last Updated: Thursday, Feb 8 2007 2:37 PM

Bakersfield police nabbed a local man they say had $500,000 in marijuana growing in his rented home.

Benjamin Martinez, 21, was arrested on charges of cultivating and possessing marijuana.

Police said Martinez rented the home in the 100 block of Amburket Way about three months ago and sealed off the garage, converting it into an indoor garden with grow lights and a watering and feeding system.

http://www.bakersfield.com/619/story/98722.html

What do I see? A natural plant being grown. Green leaves, needs water and light, was here long before humankind in some form or other.

And now I see a young man facing years of prison for putting seeds in the dirt.

Just seems damned silly to make it illegal to GROW something.

[AlCzervik]

1. it is silly, legalize it. I don't smoke it but it seems ridiculous to make weed

illegal but liquor is just fine and dandy. We have had busts like this in elk grove and they always make the same mistake--the electric usage, go solar people.

[flvegan]

3. Seconded.

I don't smoke it either, but I think that legalizing it is the best move.

Big Pharma hates me anyway.

[w4rma]

26. Apparantly liquour is worth more legally and weed is worth more illegally.

Or something like that.

[Roon]

2. I know, they are busting him for growing flowers!

They don't want us smoking flowers.

[LARED]

4. Pot should be decriminalized, but

this is not about "a young man facing years of prison for putting seeds in the dirt." He knew it is illegal to grow pot, he decided to take the risk. I finding it hard to be too sympathetic.

[lvx35]

8. I am sympathetic.

Just so many violent and sex offenses not prosecuted while cops waste time on this stuff. I understand this sort of thing being a crime, but the fact he will be punished more than violent sickos bothers me a lot.

[LARED]

59. Your right. pot should be decriminalized. n/t

[John Q. Citizen]

16. It's a symbiotic relationship. The government keeps pot illegal to keep

people under control, outlawing a plant that they know is all but harmless. This drives up the price, so people grow it because it has such an artificially exaggerated value.

As Nixon chief of staff Bob Halderman told author Danny Baum, in Baum's landmark history of US Drug policy Smoke and Mirrors that covers the period from Nixon to The Clinton inauguration;

"We knew it didn't represent a significant health threat. But we couldn't outlaw being young, rock and roll, or being black so we decided to outlaw the common denominator." - Haldermann

So yes, the young man knew it is illegal, and yes the government knows it's prohibition is nothing short of fascism.

Meanwhile, US taxpayers spend billions so pot growers can make big bucks fast and police agencies can make big bucks fighting pot and processing pot growers through the criminal justice system.

A real bad deal all around, for the public, for pot smokers, and for society, except for the few involved in the lucrative symbiotic relationship.

[parasim]

27. Well put.

A lot better than I attempted downthread...

[Chulanowa]

21. How do you feel about sodomy laws?

Should gay men be arrested and incarcerated for breaking the law, because they knew that was the law? Same thing. It's a bullshit law that serves no purpose other than to screw up someone's lifeand further a conservative agenda

[Richard Steele]

22. Exactly.

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

[LARED]

58. Is anyone arrested for sodomy anymore?

Also, I think there is a big difference bwtwwen what people do in the privacy of their home and what this kid did. He was not growing pot for personal use.

[Greyhound]

68. Hetero couple in Florida in the early 90's.

In the privacy of their own home. Used to take children from gay couples in several states.

You just can't say that since it is rarely enforced, it's OK, because wrong is wrong. We have to acknowledge that there are greater truths than our laws can accommodate.

[Chulanowa]

74. So what?

He needs to be punished because other people would be using the stuff? That's the stance you're taking? :)

The drug war feeds totaltarianism, I'm afraid. You've seen the police beat the crap out of protestors? Hose them down with chemical weapons? Eyes put out with rubber bullets? How many innocents have been killed recently because a hyped-up SWAT team crashed through the wrong door? Where did the police get these weapons? Where did they get the authority?

From people who think Cannabis sativa is so dangerous that it warrants giving cops the authority to mangle another human being for possessing it.

[cui bono]

57. Agreed. He knew the risk. Painting it like that is just silly. nt

[Greyhound]

61. No, that is exactly what it is. There is only one reason that pot is illegal,

and that is to prop up corporations engaged in several areas, all of which do enormous harm to us and the earth.

I might be slightly sympathetic to your POV if we were talking about poppies, but marijuana is, more than harmless, it is beneficial. We are denying ourselves those benefits and doing untold harm to the ecosphere just so some other, much worse criminals, can make their $$. It is just sick.

[LARED]

66. I'm not talking about if pot should be illegal

The simple matter is the guy choose to knowingly break the law. This pot was not for his personal use. He knew the risks, and lost.

[Greyhound]

67. But the fact is that he will likely lose the rest of his life for planting seeds

and growing a plant. I believe the cavalier attitude that "he took a chance and lost" is what leads us to so much other inhumane behavior, from war to homelessness. Once you allow your mind to be conditioned to that kind of "objectivity", the rest just follows so easily.

Why not just begin the importation of Iraqis as slaves, after all they had years and years to throw off Saddam and they chose not to do it, and we could certainly use the free labor? Besides, they would most likely live in much better conditions here than the hell-hole they come from, They took their chances and lost, so whatever they get is fine, right?

Of course this is an extreme example, but that is exactly the attitude that allows such atrocities to exist.

[LARED]

71. Well the fact is he was growing pot as a business

venture. If he was growing pot for his personal use, I would be far more sympathetic

[Greyhound]

72. Well, I guess you are one who believes that "the law is the law", and I believe in right and wrong.

As for the sympathy aspect, I feel sorry for all of us.:shrug:

[LARED]

5. .

[Richard Steele]

6. As always, the police exaggerate the 'value' by ridiculous amounts.

144 plants plus 3 pounds of already processed mary jane? That
would MAYBE add up to 50 thousand dollars....MAYBE.

Five HUNDRED thousand? What a joke.

[AlCzervik]

10. but $500,000 sounds so much better, omg this guy was the next Escobar!

a total joke.

[Alcibiades]

7. This is just a garage

There are people out there with a lot bigger set ups than this--I used to know a guy who rented several apartments and had them all full of plants.

Oh, we all used to know that guy, and some of us here used to be that guy, I am sure. Anyway, if this were legal, then all the squares, people who don't smoke weed, folks who may want to but who are only prevented by their own rule-following natures, all those folks would be getting high all the time. And that would really harsh my mellow.

As for Mr. Martinez, he's an entrepreneur! I had thought that's what this country was about, celebrating the entrepreneur?

[Greyhound]

69. LOL! This country is, and always has been about, making sure that rich families get to stay rich,

without having to worry about competition, nothing more, all the rest is a big show to make us believe we are better, and that "someday it will be me".

Pretty effective though.

[porphyrian]

9. I'll help them get rid of that, if it's too much for them. - n/t

[Jamastiene]

11. My, what green thumbs they had.

It's a shame really. There are people that marijuana helps. Why not let them be the farmers for a legalized version of marijuana. I don't get the scorn towatd pot. It's not meth for crying out loud. Meth is poison, not pot. Pot is an all natural antidepressant put here on this Earth to be used for medicinal purposes. And those bozos are trying to make it an endangered species. Shame on them.

[GainesT1958]

12. Wow, that's a lot of healthy pot in there...

I know several people who would give ANYTHING to have a "non-smokeable" plant greenhouse with that level of sophistication in the irrigation and lighting system!:eyes:

As long as they can't prove intent to sell, he'll likely get a light sentence--maybe even probation time only. If they COULD prove he was selling it, I hate to say it, but he's going to be in some deep you-know what.

It's a shame they couldn't requisition at least some of that for medicinal use!

B-)

[Katherine Brengle]

13. To play devil's advocate for a moment...

would you feel the same way if he had been growing, say, coca plants?

I'm not decided on legalisation myself - I grew up in a household where marijuana was used regularly, and it did negatively impact my parents' ability to care for me and my sisters...

:shrug:

[Hosnon]

19. I'm with you. Arguments from Nature tend not to sway me either way. nt.

[John Q. Citizen]

25. Your analogy isn't valid at all, even in a devil's advocate way. For one thing, the amount

of the alkaloid cocaine found in an equivalent amount coca leaves to the pot showed wouldn't amount to a high. It takes about a ton of coca leaves to make about an ounce of cocaine. Coca leaves aren't particularly harmful. Whole cultures in the Andes chew them with no negative effects.

Some of the happiest, best, and brightest people I know grew up in household where pot was smoked by the parents.

And some of the more messed up people I know grew up in households where pot was smoked by the parents.

And if reading DU is indicative, some messed up folks grew up in very religious households. And some messed up people I know grew up in households where the parents were into their own social/business lives and left the kids in front of the TV all the time, but didn't use alcohol or pot.

So I don't believe you can make the case that parents who smoke pot are bad parents per se. Did your parents also use the alcohol drug or other drugs?

When my children grow up, if they decide to use drugs, I would vastly prefer they used pot than alcohol or tobacco. It's so much safer for both physiological and pyscological reasons.

The prohibition on pot isn't based on valid public health concerns.

[Katherine Brengle]

35. I get your point, causation v correlation, but imo

my parents were bad parents when I was young, in large part bc they were high all the time. I've been there myself, and I was not an effective or useful member of society during that time.

And no, neither of them used other drugs or alcohol.

I turned out okay, but I hold a lot of resentment about the things they screwed up on when I was a kid and it effects our relationship (and their relationship with my sisters) to this day.

[Cleita]

44. Imagine how bad it would have been for you if they had

used other drugs and alcohol. Just saying. btw I did grow up in a household where tobacco and alcohol were used in moderation. That is the trick, using your drugs in moderation. Today people get prescription drugs for all kinds of mood altering reasons. If you use them in moderation they won't eff you over, however, some of those prescription drugs are worse than anything I have witnessed with herbal types and moderate use of alcohol and people do abuse them. Witness Limbaugh with his Oxycotin. It's very legal but can be so abused if someone figures out how to get multiple prescription and....well you know.

[Greyhound]

62. Your parent were bad parents (taking your word on this) because they

were bad parents, and likely didn't have any business having kids. The pot didn't make them bad, any more than poverty makes poor people bad parents, as most poor parents do just fine. You're, understandably, misplacing the blame.

[BuyingThyme]

14. Looks like some kind of space alien animals grazing.

[Hosnon]

15. I agree marijuana should probably be legalized but I don't really take a shine to

arguments from Nature, either to support the use of something (plants) or to oppose a lifestyle (homosexuality).

[parasim]

17. yeah, and then think about this...

This drug is legal:

VIAGRA is prescribed to treat erectile dysfunction (ED).

If you take any medicines that have nitrates in them (like nitroglycerin for chest pain)—every day or even once in a while—you should NOT take VIAGRA.

Discuss your general health status with your doctor to ensure that you are healthy enough to engage in sexual activity. If you experience chest pain, nausea, or any other discomforts during sex, seek immediate medical help.

The most common side effects of VIAGRA are headache, facial flushing, and upset stomach. Less commonly, bluish vision, blurred vision, or sensitivity to light may briefly occur.

In rare instances, men taking PDE5 inhibitors (oral erectile dysfunction medicines, including VIAGRA) reported a sudden decrease or loss of vision. It is not possible to determine whether these events are related directly to these medicines or to other factors. If you experience sudden decrease or loss of vision, stop taking PDE5 inhibitors, including VIAGRA, and call a doctor right away.

Although erections lasting for more than 4 hours may occur rarely with all ED treatments in this drug class, to avoid long-term injuries, it is important to seek immediate medical help.

If you are older than age 65, or have serious liver or kidney problems, your doctor may start you at the lowest dose (25 mg) of VIAGRA. If you are taking protease inhibitors, such as for the treatment of HIV, your doctor may recommend a 25-mg dose and may limit you to a maximum single dose of 25 mg of VIAGRA in a 48-hour period.

If you have prostate problems or high blood pressure for which you take medicines called alpha-blockers, your doctor may start you on a lower dose of VIAGRA.



What gives? Nature(God) has given us a wonder plant and we condemn it. However, we embrace man-made drugs that if they do the very thing they are designed to do for longer than 4 hours you must go to the emergency room...

Yet, the worst side effect of cannabis is paranoia... and that is the only aspect of it that is man-made...

[Hekate]

18. Declare the "war on drugs" over. Decriminalize pot and tax it like tobacco. Empty the prisons.

Great gods. What a waste of human life it is to make growing, selling, possessing, and smoking marijuana a crime.

We are all losers in this "war." The prisons in this country are overflowing, and an inordinate number of prisoners are there for pot busts. By the time that young man gets out of prison he will have done a graduate course in the school of crime. :-(

Hekate

[1620rock]

20. Yeah, empty the prisons of pot folks and fill them with repuks.

[lonestarnot]

29. A second!

[Cobalt Violet]

34. But we will need many more prisons for that.

Looks like we better get busy growing to finance the prison expansion.

[parasim]

24. Nice thought, but it'll never happen.

I really really hope I'm wrong, but ever since "civilized" man figured out that he could control a large portion of the population by controlling it's favorite drug, it's pretty much over. Let's face it, the man won.

I mean, pot is such an easy way to bust somebody and lock them up. There's a lot of profit in locking people up.

[bigmonkey]

52. Defeatist.

In my experience, every single time someone prefaces a statement with one of the "let's face it" variants, they are about to state that resistance is useless. Resistance is never useless, but giving up is always helpful to authority, whether legitimate or illegitimate.

Resistance and winning aren't the same thing. Talking in this defeatist way is actively helping the bad guys.

[The Backlash Cometh]

65. There's a lot of profit to growing pot in your garage and selling it to

the kids, too.

Just wondering, we don't approve of cigarette makers targeting kids, but how do you feel about regulating someone who is hiding marijuana in his garage and sellling it to customers unknown? Or worse, having it somewhere where the kids can steal it?

[BlackVelvet04]

37. Why should anyone pay taxes on marijuana?

Grow your own, control the quality yourself and screw the government getting paid for it.

[Hekate]

56. Why should anyone pay taxes on alcohol and tobacco? Habit and convenience

Actually, a person can legally make their own wine and beer -- and I assume grow their own tobacco -- so many gallons per year for personal consumption, not sale. (My mom and her friends experimented with home made wine one year. It was a hoot -- also pretty mediocre. Some folks make very good wine at home.)

"For personal use and not for sale" being the key. When you sell the product the government taxes it and a special stamp is placed on the package. People purchase product at the store out of habit and convenience, and presumably because French and Californian vintners make better wine. And so forth.

We should take our lesson from Prohibition, when alcohol manufacture, sale, and consumption were banned. All that happened was that an entire crime industry was spawned -- in which the very violent Mafia was heavily involved -- and otherwise lawabiding citizens were criminalized as well.

Legalization and taxation of pot is a pragmatic win-win situation. The government takes an interest (as in taxes) in regulating all sorts of commerce. Pot would naturally fall into the same category as alcohol and tobacco, both of them mood-altering drugs in their own right. Otherwise law-abiding citizens would no longer be criminalized, people could still grow for their personal use if they chose to, and an entire class of real criminals would have to go do something else with their time.

I don't smoke pot, but I am friends with many who do and I've given this a lot of thought over the years. When my mother was going through chemotherapy for her breast cancer she vomited herself into a heart attack. I wish for her sake she had had access to medical marijuana to quell the nausea and increase her appetite. The current laws make no sense at all, and are cruel and inhumane.

Hekate

[ContraBass Black]

23. I see the work of a meticulous gardener.

[yellowdogmi]

28. I find it absurd that this plant is illegal.

To me it is like criminilizing garlic. Too much garlic can cause detrimental physical efffects. Why is one safe and legal and the other will send you to jail? I know Big Pharma. My most effective strategy for fighting this prohibition is to challenge it. There is a company from canada that produced a very nasty additive for gasoline. MTBE. When California outlawed this additive the company sued that state using the WTO rules. Of course the company won. I think 420 friendly activists should do the same thing. There are open markets in some parts of the world where this is a legal commodity to sell. I believe our prohibition could be challenged under the same process. The federal goverment is prohibiting us from access to a free market.

just my two cents.
:smoke:

[Ghost in the Machine]

30. off to the greatest! Marijuana laws are a joke...

I'll never understand why the government won't legalize it, control the industry the same way they do tobacco and alcohol, and place a tax on it. Imagine the taxes that could be realized from doing it this way.

I've read some opinions here that think it stays illegal because of the fines/revenue from arresting people. I could go along with that opinion, but looking further into it, wouldn't they make more from taxes? Most people ( i'm talking about the average user, buying maybe a 1/4 to 1/2 oz per week for personal use, not street dealers, etc.) usually only get busted once. How much you want to bet that wasn't the first and only time he bought some? How many are out there, every day, who never get busted? Why not legalize and tax.... and get their money too? It's not really rocket science, it's simple math. 100% of the people arrested every day does not equal 100% of users. What are they catching... 10%? 20%? 30%? That's a lot of tax dollars slipping away. Tax dollars I would gladly pay if I could walk into a store and buy a pack of pre-rolled Panama Reds or Gainesville Greens, or.... well, you get the picture.

PEACE!

Ghost

[cynatnite]

31. I don't think he was growing it because of how much he loved the plant...

He made his money without paying taxes on it, may have used less than safe pesticides on it and may have sold it to who knows how many people no matter their ages.

I think you're romanticizing this a bit much, IMO.

I'm all for legalizing pot, but I want it regulated to the hilt.

[BlackVelvet04]

36. Yeah, the FDA does a great job, eh?

Seriously, the government screws up everything they touch. Why should marijuana be regulated? Keep it illegal to sell but legal to grow. Everybody grows their own and are responsible for the quality.

[Telly Savalas]

38. "The government screws up everything they touch"

Thanks for the right-wing talking points.

[BlackVelvet04]

46. Grow up. n/t

[cynatnite]

40. If pot was legalized...

do you think the pharmaceuticals are going to stand on the sidelines? I don't think so. They'll scream loudest for the regulating of the drug. Once that's done, they can get their hands on it, market it, squeeze out the little guy and corner the industry.

Personally, I prefer the regulation of pot. There are some crazy idiots in the world who don't have a working brain cell. At least one jackass will attempt to put pot on steroids or something to get a bigger plant and strive for a better high. I want pot legalized, taxed, regulated and not for consumption by anyone under 18.

Either way, I see pharmaceuticals making sure they get a huge cut of the pot pie :)

[BlackVelvet04]

45. If it's illegal to sell, and it's illegal for

anyone under age, which is true with alcohol, why get the government involved? Let everyone grow their own.

[cynatnite]

47. And about the time some jackass decides to soup up pot...

and it harms a few people or even one person the party is over. It doesn't matter whether it's sold or given to a friend. That's been the history of most drugs in this country.

Pot is popular enough that the pharmaceuticals aren't going to sit by and do nothing. They'll want to package and market it. Given how much power they've got in D.C. they won't let pot go legal unless they've got their hands in it. That means certified growers and mass production.

Pot will be given a name brand and sat on shelves for adults to buy. You've got your choice. Regular or extra strength.

Oh, and it won't be cheap.

[The Straight Story]

53. They do market it - called Marinol (nt)

[Greyhound]

63. Read up on this a bit. You will find that the pharmaceutical industry is one

of the key reasons that pot is illegal. Then, read some more and you will find that the reason it was outlawed in the first place was the absolutely atrocious paper and chemical industries. We are denied the many benefits of this miraculous (for the religious minded folks) plant simply so that Hearst, DuPont, etc. could make or keep their fortunes.

[Downtown Hound]

39. I'm just curious but, do you expect a pot grower to report his/her earnings

to the IRS? The government made the plant illegal. People want to smoke it. If Uncle Sammy wants to collect money on it, he needs to stop jailing people for it. End of story.

[cynatnite]

41. The OP was romanticizing it, IMO

My point was that this guy wasn't doing it out of love for the plant. Sorry you missed it.

[Cobalt Violet]

32. I see the potential for a lot of pain and suffering being relieved.

Even the potential for some people to be cured.

All going to waist because of stupid prohibition left over from last century.

And I too see the how tragic this man's life will become because no one did anything about the dumb laws.

[Warren DeMontague]

33. Yeah, I see my tax dollars being pissed away to wage "war" on a relatively benign product

large numbers of people want.

I agree. It's ridiculous, and it's costing us to the tune of $40 Billion a year- not including the incarceration costs for millions of non-violent offenders.

[Major Hogwash]

Good thing Bush never did illegal drugs, huh?

Oh, I forgot he did.

Coke and weed.

Not to mention all that booze.

[Cleita]

42. Oh damn it's Bakersfield!

Betcha new R-congressman Kevin Mcarthy, formerly of Kevin-Os Deli (paraprashing here)doesn't want to know about this. I don't believe that he never bought a dime bag, but I can't prove it.

[The Straight Story]

54. Yeah, and I will be living there in about a month :/ (nt)

[progressivebydesign]

43. umm.. I see someone growing drugs. Tobacco is a plant, too.

Drugs that have ruined countless lives.

[Cleita]

48. I gave up smoking fifteen years ago. I have to admit that

the way tobacco companies packaged cigarrettes over the years was evil. Howver, after fifteen years, I smoked tobacco again with a group of friends. The tobacco was Egytian and it was smoked through a hookah, which we passed around. (Forget the germs. It wasn't important at the time.) The wierd thing is that I really enjoyed the smoke, yet I didn't want to go out and buy a pack of cigarettes. I don't understand. I was so into forgetting my addiction that I knew I could never, ever take even a drag off of a cigarette without starting up again, yet I enjoyed that smoke and have no desire to smoke because "I need to".

[Warren DeMontague]

73. The drug WAR has ruined countless lives.

My dad died of lung cancer from tobacco. I know people whose lives have been fucked up seriously by booze. But you know what? Prohibition. Doesn't. Work.

Let me say that again, Prohibition. Doesn't. Work. It causes way more problems than it's ever going to "solve", and besides that, the idea of a nanny and daddy state telling consenting adults what they can or can't do with their own bodies- even if those choices are harmful- is deeply, fundamentally offensive and wrong. Period.

Far better, in my mind, to take the $40 Billion we spend on the "drug war" (most of it aimed at pot) funnel it into honest education and treatment on demand which will help addicts, particularly those addicted to the dangerously addictive substances (like alcohol and tobacco). Meanwhile, legalize, regulate, and tax the shit out of marijuana, taking the tax revenue from what is the number one cash crop in many states and plowing it into a SPHC system for all our citizens.

The drug war is a boondoggle, a sham, and a waste of money and lives. All we've gotten out of our "war" on pot smoking is cancer grannies being hauled off to prisons stuffed to the gills with other non-violent drug offenders. I really can't fathom why anyone would defend it.

[Time4Peace]

49. Kucinich might help change all this...

Kucinich is a supporter of industrial hemp, the non-psychoactive product of the cannabis sativa plant. He is also a supporter of medical marijuana and of the federal rescheduling of marijuana, where it is currently illegal as a Schedule I drug, classified as having “no medical value.” This classification clashes with states such as California, which have legalized medical use of marijuana, and leads directly to the current rash of raids on medical marijuana dispensaries by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency. Kucinich is expected, St. Pierre says, to be a sponsor of a new bill to be introduced in March that would decriminalize pot.

http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=4969&IssueNum=191
:applause:

[meow mix]

50. he could have improved his legal odds by remaining compliant with state medical marijuana laws

but from the picture it appears he overstepped the parameters by quite a lot.

[Major Hogwash]

51. We need more replies - the poor old dead blonde woman threads are beating us.

While people are still dying in this country from a lack of the use of medical marijuana.

[The Straight Story]

55. One does wonder - if she was able to smoke it might it have helped her?

I know it is a bit of a stretch...

[Burma Jones]

60. Well, you can't go around growing Pot

It's something Mexicans and Negroes do to steal our Women!!!!!!!!

Just in case.....
:sarcasm:

[sweetheart]

64. primitive lighting

It looks like the plants are about 6 weeks in to flowering on a 12/12 cycle,
and that he's not getting enough ventilation through the grow room. Plants
need constant airflow, much like they get outdoors, and boxed in to a garage,
it causes them to have problems, hence the yellow leaves on the bottoms.

He really should look in to flourescent bulbs:
http://www.envirolites.co.uk/reflectors.html
, they are cooler and can be placed around the plants so that more than the top cola's flower.

I bet they busted him based on the smell. His ventilation looks like shit.
He thought he'd save money and not use a carbon filter.
http://www.growell.co.uk/p/0231/GroWell_Complete_Extraction_Filtration_Kits.html

It looks like they disconnected his vents to take the photo, but that the vents are
for the lights only, and did not create a negative pressure in the grow room to
prevent the stinky flowers from blessing his neighborhood with a pungent smell.

500,000 is an absurd valuation for that. The buds are not even heavy enough to
weigh down the plants, so they are not near big enough to be worth anything significant.
Those thin buds would turn to nothing once dried and cured.

Well, i hope they take his lights and donate them to someone in the north who suffers from SAD.

How tragic, another young life fucked over for civil disobedience.

May the blessings of lord Rama come to him.

[spanone]

70. Yet a doctor can over-prescribe the shit out of 'legal' or 'corporate' drugs

and be a model citizen.