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Consider this a warning about the horrors of marijuana.
Ben Oswald is a friend and neighbor. He's a cabinetmaker
who specializes in restoring antiques, and whenever you ask
anybody in town about finishing wood, the answer you always
get is Go ask Ben Oswald. He knows more about that stuff
than anybody else does.
Ben is a single father and a youth soccer coach. He sings and acts in community musicals. He'll give you a hand if he comes by when your car is stuck in a snowdrift.
Ben also grew some pot plants in his attic. In 1989, the
DEA conducted Operation Green Merchant,
and seized
the shipping records of Rocky Mountain Hydroponics in
Denver. Then they called on people who had ordered
gardening supplies.
At 7:35 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 18, 1989, there were loud
knocks at Ben's door. His 11-year-old son Ethan answered,
and announced Dad, there's some men who'd like to talk
to you.
They were two gun-toting DEA agents; back on
the sidewalk stood two local cops, holding shotguns.
I didn't exactly invite them in,
Ben said.
They opened the screen door and started walking in. I
just backpedaled. I mean, what else can you do when there
are these guys with guns and your kids are in the
room?
They told him they had reason to believe he was growing
marijuana, and when Ben demurred, one agent bared the .38
under his coat and said Don't (expletive deleted) with
us. We know you're growing. Why don't you make it easier on
all of us?
After the arrest and the seizure of Ben's attic garden, the state filed an $88,000 tax lien against Ben, for failure to buy those $100-an-ounce marijuana stamps. They also threatened to take his home, as property used in the commission of a felony.
By sentencing time last Friday, after Ben pled guilty to
felony cultivation, that got whittled into a $5,000
contribution
to the forfeiture fund. Ben also got 30
days in the county jail and 200 hours of community service.
District Judge John Anderson ordered him to donate $1,000
to Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Inc., and to purchase a $600
video called Pot,
which is apparently more
educational than Reefer Madness.
Ben estimates the entire episode will cost him about $25,000, when you add in legal bills and time lost from productive work.
So, I hope the drug warriors are proud of this use of tax money and the resources of our judicial system. A stable, self-supporting member of the community has just had his life derailed by drugs -- or more precisely, by drug laws.
And there is a wider lesson in this. If armed thugs show up at your door without a search warrant, just say no. If you dare.
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