Drug Squad Raids Suburban Garden, Mistakes Daisies for Pot

As I have explained in many previous articles, the war on drugs is a total fraud and the world would be a lot better off if there were not prohibitions on objects or nonviolent actions. One of the most ridiculous things about the war on drugs, especially in regards to the prohibition of marijuana, is the fact that at the end of the day it’s just a plant. If you really think about it, we have come to a very strange place in society when plants are illegal.

The idea of banning plants looks even more ridiculous when a swat team shows up with a warrant to dig up and confiscate 1624 Daisies that were mistaken for marijuana. Believe it or not, this actually really happened back in July, but news is just now starting to surface that this wasn’t a successful bust. At the time when police were first interviewed Staff Sergeant Wes Houston said that “This is a significant bust, given the size of this operation.” As he greeted reporters he was actually proudly displaying garbage bags full of daises, thinking that he was holding marijuana.

(Can you spot the difference between Marijuana & Montauk daisies?)

Now, months later that same officer is talking to reporters again, only this time admitting that the whole raid was a mistake. This week he told reporters that “In any investigation, police count public safety as our top priority, our decision to seize the plants was made with the best information we had at the time.”

It has since come forward that “the best information” they had at the time would have been enough to make any sane person think twice before schedualing a raid, or atleast before ripping the garden up. First off this garden is in plan view, in a back yard in a suburban neighborhood where these daisies have been growing for over a decade, obviously not a drug running operation. Ryan Thomas Rockman the owner of the garden had even told the police exactly what the plants were, yet they refused to even investigate any further, and the whole raid squad totally mistook these daisies for marijuana.

Unfortunatly for Mr. Rockman, his well-tended back yard garden wasn’t the only casualty in this act of theft, vandalism and home invasion. Rockman freely admits smoking pot to alleviate back pain, and says he’s applied to the federal government for a medicinal marijuana license. Coincidentally, during the course of the raid, police found 1.5 pounds of marijuana and 6.3 grams of resin in Rockmans house.

Now, a 41-year-old grandfather who uses a safe and effective medicine to make his life easier is facing serious charges, and has his reputation totally soiled in his community. Even though he is an open user and advocate of medical marijuana, the police have still put out official word that he was manufacturing and trafficking drugs, a situation that he says has had a significant impact on his reputation.

Prohibition advocates would say that since this search did result in confiscation of actual drugs, that the raid was warranted. However, the drugs that were found were merely an unintended consequence of a raid that never should have happened to begin with. Nonviolent people are not criminals, and people like Mr. Rockman who use drugs responsibly are not any kind of threat to society.

What is a threat to society is the growing police state that is bringing violence upon nonviolent people, kidnapping them, putting them in cages, and robbing them of every last cent that they have over the course of their probation or parole.

J.G. Vibes is the author of an 87 chapter counter culture textbook called Alchemy of the Modern Renaissance and host of a show called Voluntary Hippie Radio. He is also an artist with an established record label and event promotion company that hosts politically charged electronic dance music events. You can keep up with his work, which includes free podcasts, free e-books & free audiobooks at his website www.aotmr.com