cannabisnews.com: When A Neighborhood Goes To Pot





When A Neighborhood Goes To Pot
Posted by CN Staff on September 14, 2002 at 08:07:25 PT
By Chris Coursey
Source: Press Democrat 
The jack-booted guys in the camouflage jump suits were a welcome sight Thursday in the rural neighborhood just outside of Sebastopol. It's not that the neighbors have a problem with medical marijuana. In fact, several called themselves strong supporters of the California law that allows ill people to use pot to relieve their pain and other symptoms.
The problem, the neighbors said, was that some 3,300 ripe, lush, leafy plants were growing in plain sight on the hill that overlooks parts of Ragle Ranch Park. The garden was the worst-kept secret in Sebastopol, and the gardener has previously been the target of violent armed robberies aimed at his pot patches.Neighbors feared they and their children might be caught in the middle of a drug war.So when the federal agents swooped in on Thursday morning to shut down Robert Schmidt's huge marijuana garden, residents of Martin Lane breathed a sigh of relief.``It's about time,'' one said.This has been a scary summer on Martin Lane, a short dirt road of a dozen or so houses just northwest of Sebastopol.Schmidt, a long-time pot grower, had shut down his Petaluma operation last year after the city declared it a nuisance. His Bond Street house had become notorious after a 1999 armed robbery in which he and two children were held at gunpoint.Saying he was ``ready for the mainstream,'' he moved his Genesis hospice to a business park and in March rented six acres on Martin Lane from David Charlebois (who on Thursday said he was ``shocked'' to hear about his tenant's crop).Schmidt told his new neighbors that he planned to grow corn, sunflowers, tomatoes.``He referred me to his (hospice) Web site, so I knew there might be some marijuana,'' said Jayne Garrison, who owns property across the street. ``But that was not the issue.``The issue was when the barbed wire went up. Then came the guards, and the guard dogs, and people patrolling the property at night with flashlights,'' said Garrison.Another resident, who didn't want her name used, said her son and his buddies from Analy High School got word of the huge garden at the end of the lane and decided to check it out. She said they were confronted by two men with crossbows.``If this is legal, it shouldn't be,'' another neighbor wrote to several government representatives in a letter this week. ``This doesn't belong in a neighborhood.''In a state where society's ambivalence about marijuana has been codified by Proposition 215, questions such as ``how much?'' and ``where?'' and ``by whom?'' remain very much unanswered.So did the letters from the neighbors of the Sebastopol farm.Until Thursday morning.Agents on the scene wouldn't speak on the record. But several things were clear on Thursday: Schmidt's recent boasts to the neighbors that he had 5,000 plants were only slightly inflated. Neighbors' reports of men armed with crossbows were not exaggerated. And Schmidt's belief that he was operating within the law was not shaken.``This is all legal, you know!'' he yelled from a lawn chair between the house and the barn, where he and several other men sat handcuffed and under guard.The lawyers will figure out whether he's right. But the neighbors hope the case of Robert Schmidt might prompt authorities also to figure out something else.``It's not about whether medical marijuana is right or wrong,'' said Garrison. ``If it's going to be legal in California, it should be regulated. It's a safety issue. It attracts a criminal element. It attracts risk. But you get greater protection and more due process if your neighbor wants to add a deck to his house than if he wants to put a million dollars' worth of marijuana in the ground.''Source: Press Democrat, The (CA)Author: Chris CourseyPublished: September 14, 2002Copyright: 2002 The Press Democrat - Page B1Contact: letters pressdemo.comWebsite: http://www.pressdemo.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Genesis 1:29http://www.genesis129.org/Feds Raid Sebastopol Pot Farm http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14096.shtml$1 Million in Pot Seized in Sebastopol http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14093.shtml
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Comment #1 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on September 14, 2002 at 09:21:13 PT
LTE
This LTE was also sent to the author of the article at ccoursey pressdemocrat.comSirs,  At the end of this article, Schmidt's neighbor Ms. Garrison says, "It's a safety issue. It attracts a criminal element. It attracts risk."  Of course it attracts a criminal element. It's illegal. Theives wouldn't steal acres of pot to smoke it all themselves - they would sell it on the black market. There is no other market for marijuana, since the government will allow it no competition, which is how a plant can cost as much as gold. And who is Mr. Schmidt supposed to turn to if somebody does steal his crop, the police? He is forced to fend for himself.  Does Ms. Garrison consider alcohol to be similarly dangerous? If not for the 21st amendment, she might...
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