The family was growing six plants: 3 tomato, 1 melon, 2 butternut squash. Apparently it's sometimes ok to search homes without probable cause, even the home of two ex-CIA agents. I'm the last person to encourage a lawsuit but I'm glad this couple has the resources to fight back. Have you seen this story yet?
Kansas couple: Indoor gardening prompted pot raid (AP)
Shopping at a hydroponics store is not probable cause. I shop at hydroponics stores. I buy fertilizer, net pots, those white square hydroponic pots, miticide etc. at hydroponics stores. I always pay cash. This kind of story reminds me of the reason why. I also occasionally see stories about police knocking on someone's door because a neighbor called the cops after seeing neon light shining from a basement window every night. Those of us that grow indoors, grow hydroponically, or even just shop at hydroponic stores do need to be careful. Granted, I'm a bit more paranoid than most, but it's because the last thing I want to be on any government list. Everything I grow is has been legally obtained and is as legal to grow as a tomato plant. Stories like these just go to show you that tomorrow this could be any one of us really, even if you've just got a couple vegetables growing in your basement.
Not sure what to say about this. The part of the story that most interests me is "The couple filed the suit this week under the Kansas Open Records Act after Johnson County and Leawood denied their initial records requests, with Leawood saying it had no relevant records."
ReplyDeleteSurely if you're going to send law enforcement to search someone's house for evidence of drug manufacture, there would have to be some record somewhere of why you're checking that specific house instead of the one next to it. (Without relevant records, how did they intend to prosecute the Hartes, in the event that the search found pot?)
So law enforcement is not only lying, but they're lying obviously and stupidly. (Assuming that the article itself is factual, which I suppose we can't actually be sure about.) My problem is that I can't think of a good reason why they'd be lying at all, much less obviously and stupidly. Perhaps the police in Leawood, KS are just not very bright?
They must've had some kind of records. The operation on a whole did catch quite a few illegal growers, there must've some kind of an organized focus with some reasoning behind it. This kind of large scale operation doesn't get thrown together in a day. I'm interested to see how this case plays out and what law enforcement's defense was here because someone's clearly lying.
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