'I just planted seeds, I thought they were flowers': Grandmother, 67, busted for growing marijuana

[Liberal_in_LA]

'I just planted seeds, I thought they were flowers': Grandmother, 67, busted for growing marijuana in her garden

Grandmother Alberta Kelley has become the toke of the town.



The 67-year-old from southern Pennsylvania was accused of being a pot-smoking pensioner after police found seven well-cultivated four-foot marijuana plants growing in her garden.

But Kelley, from Fayette County, said she is innocent. The green-thumb said she unknowingly planted the seeds after being duped by a stranger.

How does your garden grow? Grandmother Alberta Kelley said was duped into planting the pot plants by a man who said they would look pretty in her garden

She told the judge and jury that a man she did not know approached her, gave her some seeds and told her if she planted them she would grow the prettiest flowers she has ever seen.

Kelley said the man had a beard and wore a Smurf hat.

-----------------------

She was acquitted after the jury believed her version of events. She was not available for comment, but was undoubtedly on a high as she left the court - a natural one of course.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2083386/Grandma-busted-growing-pot---claims-duped-planting-man-said-look-pretty.html#ixzz1ijrkYXEL

[RainDog]

1. LOL n/t

[tridim]

2. She should be able to grow Cannaibs if she wants.

And she should be able to smoke it or put the flowers in a vase.

[MH1]

37. Agree 100%.

People shouldn't be criminalized just for growing a plant that grows naturally in the locale and isn't invasive. (People who plant pachysandra, on the other hand .... j/k!)

If a person grows a plant on their own property and isn't selling it or giving it to minors, the government should stay out of it.

[Kalidurga]

3. The most she shoulda got was a warning...

seriously looks like a case of over zealous prosecution.

[Occulus]

6. No. The most she should have gotten was

NOTHING

because this plant should be legal in the first place.

[Warren DeMontague]

26. The most she shoulda got was appreciation for her horticultural ability

the war on pot is fucking idiotic and out of control.

[surfdog]

41. A warning?

The lady was growing drugs

And her story sounds like total BS

Seniors are notorious for acting confused after getting caught shoplifting

Sounds like she played the confused card and got away with it , something that wouldn't work for me

[frylock]

44. they should've thrown the book at her..

laws are laws.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

48. They shoulda pushed her down and busted her hip!! That'll learn her!

[Romulox]

62. LOL at your screen name!

You want to glom onto the cool of the drug-culture (um, ATHF?) but then want to talk tough on the internet about rousting pot-heads.

[frylock]

88. cmon, man. you should know me well enough by now to detect sarcasm

[Romulox]

89. Jesus Christ. That's embarassing (for me!) Sorry! nt

[frylock]

90. no worries..

see you down at the trenton tar pits?

[Romulox]

94. "Look, I'm better than you, okay? I just am."

Sorry again, man. Sometimes, I just see red and go into a posting-gasm.

I'm not going to edit, because I think it reflects on me, not you!

[ohheckyeah]

45. Surely you jest.

She played the confused card? I don't know whether to laugh or cry at that statement.

[Ikonoklast]

46. Funny, you sound a bit confused right there.

You lost? Seems like it.

[Romulox]

63. Um, do you KNOW who that man in your avatar pic is? Do you KNOW what he was famous for?

Is it embarrassing to not understand context?

[Warren DeMontague]

67. "You could've cut her feet off

she'd never do it again."

[Warren DeMontague]

68. THANK GOD. SOMEONE TAKES THIS AS SERIOUSLY AS THEY SHOULD!@!!!!!!

I WONT BE HAPPY UNTIL OUR PRISONS ARE FULL OF ALL THESE POT TOKING HELL-GRANNIES! THROW THE FUCKING BOOK AT EM, I SAY!

[dixiegrrrrl]

73. "Seniors are notorious for acting confused after getting caught shoplifting "

Broadbrush much?

[immoderate]

92. Oh?? Since I turned 65, I've been using this a lot.

Being that confused requires a lot of self confidence.

--imm

[greytdemocrat]

4. That's a great story!!!

Gotta let her off.

"A Smurf hat"???? AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

[Ecumenist]

5. Really, People? who was she hurtingwhether she knew what she was growing or not?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

7. I cannot believe the actually pressed charges on her in the first place.

That is insane.

[Warren DeMontague]

27. I can.

We let rapists and murderers go free so we can make more room for pot smokers in prison.

[yellowcanine]

8. Oh right. "A man with a beard and a smurf hat gave me some seeds." That old chestnut.

And the jury bought it. Sly old grandma. Sh looks older than 67 by the way. Must be from all that toking.

[Retrograde]

13. As I approach that age...

I have to remind you young whippersnappers that sex, drugs and rock'n'roll are not new inventions. Someone who is now 67 was in his or her twenties in, say, 1967. Unless she spent her early adult years cloistered on Mars I think it's unlikely she's totally unaware of what marijuana plants look like.

I don't smoke, but I still say legalize it.

[Arkansas Granny]

43. I'm in agreement with you. I have nothing against her growing pot and think

we should all have the right to do so. However, I find it hard to believe that she didn't recognize the plants when they started growing. Even non-tokers of that age have probably seen enough pictures, if not the real thing, to know what it looks like.

[dixiegrrrrl]

74. I had a 30 year old neighbor who grew a pot plant and did not know what it was.

and I had another neighbor who panicked when she found a false aralia growing in her yard.

[Art_from_Ark]

76. One of my professors was growing a Japanese maple

and I thought it was a pot plant (the seeds had not developed on it)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Acer_palmatum0.jpg

[ohheckyeah]

47. If she wasn't into smoking pot why would she know what it looks like?

I've never seen a marijuana plant - I've seen plenty of baggies of the stuff but not the plant itself.

[frogmarch]

14. I'm 68 and she looks

quite a lot older than I do, and I think I look about right for 68.

I wonder why she looks so old. I didn't know pot could cause that.

[limpyhobbler]

18. southern PA has that effect on people.

[nebenaube]

24. most old pot heads actually look younger n/t

[RebelOne]

49. I agree. I will be 73 next week

and I do not have near the wrinkles that lady does. I think the news probably get her age wrong. I think she is probably 83.

[frogmarch]

51. I too think the news probably got her age wrong.

I've never known anyone in their 60s or 70s to look that old.

[PA Democrat]

95. That picture is not her. Check the link and you'll find it is some other

elderly woman arrested for possession of pot. The caption under her photo reads:
Arrested: Great-grandmother Noelene Edwards, 74, also claims her innocence, after she was arrested with 40 bags of marijuana in her handbag

Video of 67 year-old Alberta Kelley here:

http://www.wtae.com/video/30144638/detail.html

[frogmarch]

96. The video won't play for me,

and I don't see the picture of Noelene Edwards at the link, but I certainly believe you that the picture we've been talking about isn't of 67 year-old Alberta Kelley.

Thanks.

[provis99]

22. the picture is of Noelene Edwards, a 74-year old.

she's the one with forty bags of marijuana in her handbag.

[Mariana]

71. Either the jury bought it

or they just decided to let her off regardless.

[Historic NY]

9. Wow I'm glad to have killed the one we found ...

growing in the wood behind my property. I think the birds must have picked up a seed or two from the pot head kid up the street.

[yella_dawg]

83. Actually, bird seed contains hemp seed.

At least some formulations do. Take care if you dump your bird cage refuse in the flower beds because it's great fertilizer. I ended up with a plant in the flower beds that way.

[gateley]

10. Whew! Thank God the War on Drugs is working! That was close! nt

[pipi_k]

11. Hahahah!!! They would have let my mom off too

Years ago when my younger brother (17 years younger than I am) was a teenager he had a small pot plant growing in our mom's kitchen window.

She didn't know what it was, so when my brother went on a camping trip with some friends, he asked her to take care of it. Well, my mom has a black thumb.

And she ended up killing it.

And on top of it, felt horribly guilty.

Until years later when she found out she was really caring for a baby pot plant.

[Solly Mack]

12. And that's how the legend of Johnny Potseed was born

[Bluenorthwest]

32. There was lots of wild growth, when the Marihuana Tax Act was passed in 1937

Eradication of wild marijuana was one of the top priorities, although the scope of the plant's growth meant such efforts were limited to following tips and random finds, they did in fact eradicate much of the wild growth.

[cyglet]

60. It actually does

they send out law enforcement to eradicate it in the summers. (Your tax dollars at work.)

[RainDog]

15. here's a REAL criminal

From the documentary Stoned in Suburbia

She was sentenced to community service and vows to continue what she was doing.

[roody]

17. Thank you!!

[RainDog]

19. welcome!

the entire video of the first one is available on google vid. it's hysterical - the woman with really long blond hair talks about how she looooooved jimi, in the biblical sense.

[shanti]

34. in that first video

about the 6:30 mark, the man says he smokes 1/2 an OUNCE a day, wut?!!!

[RainDog]

55. that guy

was one of the biggest smugglers of the 1960s.

he's sort of a legend. he made millions.

[REP]

16. Uh-huh.

My mom (77) plays the sweet old lady card when she gets busted speeding in her 400HP car. Old doesn't equal dumb. Or sweet.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

23. my thoughts exactly! (but anyone busted for pot is innocent in my book) n/t

[Warren DeMontague]

28. Good for her, then.

It's a dumb fucking law, and well past time we stopped harassing people for a harmless plant.

The smurf hat thing was a nice touch, though.

[Bozita]

20. So, ... I guess the cops won't be able to take her house under the drug forfeiture laws.

Both the cops and the prosecutors involved are real assholes.

[bottom line]

21. :)

[Warren DeMontague]

25. WOO HOO! Throw away the fucking key!!!

DRUGZ IZ BAD! DRUGGZ IZ BAD!! And fightin' teh drugzz is lucrative shit, man! $$$$$$$$$





Keep smokin that weed, little old cancer grannies!!!! we'll build more prison cells!

LOCK EM UP! LOCK EM UP! WOOOHOOOO $$$$$

[JackRiddler]

39. Hey, at least in the USA...

all fascism is local!

[Warren DeMontague]

53. Who says there are no jobs, huh?

Look, they're employing probably 12 dudes there, all to kick down the door of one stoner and haul her off to prison at taxpayer expense.

[JackRiddler]

58. And each one of them counts double on account of the size, right?

Looks like two offensive lines.

[Romulox]

65. Look at all of those huffing, out-of-shape, wheezing "law enforcement officers".

[RainDog]

29. found the mug shots of the perps

[boston bean]

31. Alberta and the Weedstock!

[Ratty]

33. My mom made this mistake

When the next door tenants moved out she brought all their potted plants over to our yard. There she tended them until my brother came into the kitchen one morning and announced "You're all under arrest!" (he was kidding - he's not a cop). Needless to say that sweet lady was horrified.

[tawadi]

35. lol

[marlakay]

36. my mom wouldn't know what it looked like either

when i was a teen in the early 70's me and some friends had a few plants in a small planter, she had no idea…

and she thought the smell was incense…lol

[mainer]

38. Opium poppies are regularly grown in New England gardens

They're really gorgeous, too. I've even seen them growing in the historic garden of an art museum. The law is unclear as to whether you can be prosecuted for having them in your yard.

[RainDog]

56. poppies are legal to grow in the U.S.

including the kind that are used to make opium.

however, it is illegal to grow them for the purpose of making a drug... iow, they're legal to grow as an ornamental.

in the pot granny video I posted upthread, she's growing poppies right out in the open while being arrested for growing cannabis for herself and her friends.

I assume the person who made this video included those poppies on purpose - to make a little point for those who would "get it."

one guy in the U.S. was targeted for growing poppies in his yard b/c he wrote a book about how to use them. the rationale is that he was growing them "with intent to do something illegal."

[mainer]

91. There was a report of a florist who got in trouble for using opium seedpods

in floral arrangements. That's where the whole debate came up about whether they're legal or not to grow. I asked a gardening columnist from the NYT about this, and even she wasn't sure.

[RainDog]

97. we might be talking about the same general moment

it is legal to grow the particular variety of poppy that produces opium. it's not legal to use this pod as a source of an illegal substance.

the DEA doesn't like it that people grow ORNAMENTAL flowers - at what point do we tell these folks to get the fuck out of our lives?!?!?!?

the war against gardening is absurd. I would never want to extract the material from poppy pods. however, I do like poppy seed bagels. if I had gone wild with them the day before a drug test, I could have a false positive for opium. I've made a traditional Polish poppy seed cake for christmas - the level of poppies far exceeds that on bagels. I guess I was a criminal as a teenager and didn't know it.

this article, from the wonderful writer, Michael Pollan, talks about the incident that led to a raid on a guy who wrote about his experiments with his garden.

http://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/opium-made-easy/

the flip side of this is that the former Deputy Drug Czar under Bush Jr., who stated medical cannabis was ridiculous, is now shilling for the company that wants to market medical cannabis in the U.S.

another Bush WoD appointee is also working for them.

They are trying to claim that THEIR cannabis isn't the same as the cannabis grown in the U.S. (Their cannabis is currently grown in the UK and their attempt to keep cannabis illegal to grow here is to outsource growing their cannabis for the U.S. to Japan.)

This is simply another example of the way in which corporations are entitled to more civil rights and liberties than American citizens. Makes me want to puke.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1170&pid=123

[Fuzz]

40. C'mon. This happened?

[sarcasmo]

42. Tax it and legalize it, this country makes me ill.

[ohheckyeah]

50. Why tax it?

Why not just let people grow the damn plant and leave them alone?

[Warren DeMontague]

54. If it's going to be sold as a regulated product like booze, it should be taxed.

Many people will want to go to the trouble of growing their own legal weed, many won't feel like bothering. For the folks who want to buy it at 7-11 like a 6 pack, they can pay taxes on it.

People can brew up to a certain amount of beer for themselves at home every month, legally, even though sold alcohol is regulated and taxed. I would think a similar situation could be arranged for legal pot.

[Matariki]

52. What were the police doing in her back yard?

How did they "find" her plants?

[ddeclue]

57. Umm yeah.. right...

[Warren DeMontague]

69. I know, it's hard to believe

that our tax dollars are being wasted on people who grow pot.

[ddeclue]

75. almost as unbelievable as her story..

[Warren DeMontague]

77. WELL THANK GOD SOMEONE DID SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

Just think what would have happened if she had been allowed to grow that plant in peace!

FUCKING CHAOS, THAT'S WHAT!

[RainDog]

78. civilization would fall if grandmothers were allowed to grow cannabis!

who would EVER trust them to bake cookies with their grandkids again?!?!?!?!?

[Warren DeMontague]

79. I think they should call it "Grannabis"

when there's a 70ish yr. old lady involved.

[RainDog]

80. They should have to SUFFER

the aches and pains of aging. Why should they ever assume they have a right to decide what foods or medicines to put into their bodies. The state should be able to tell everyone what to do with their bodies!

It's moral to think you have the right to cause pain and suffering!

Think of the children!!!!

They might grow up and tell the govt to fuck off!!

[Warren DeMontague]

81. Sort of like how we can't have terminally ill patients addicted to pain meds.

St. Peter will be mad if he has to detox them at the pearly gates!

[RainDog]

85. Yeah. The DEA is trying to tell doctors how to treat patients

those patients with chronic pain - by second-guessing their dx's and targeting doctors who are pain specialists.

it's a good thing my head can't explode from processing all the insanity that goes on in the name of the WoD.

Our WoDder, who art in D.C.
Corruption be thy name
Thy profits come
Thy will be done
Or thee will kick our asses.

[ddeclue]

86. Hey I really don't care man.. I just think the story she's telling now is ridiculous..

If it were up to me legalize and tax.

[yodermon]

59. jury nullification may be the only path to legalization n/t

[Mira]

61. I think she is not telling the truth, starting with her age n/t

[Romulox]

64. You mean this MONSTER is now on the streets, free to garden again?

[Liberal_in_LA]

66. lol. yeah. Lock your doors.

[marmar]

70. Proof positive that the drug war has reached farcical proportions.

nt

[RainDog]

82. Oh, it's worse than most of us know in all sorts of ways.

Check this out -

The former deputy drug czar under Shrub is now working for Bayer/GW Pharma to make pharma cannabis legal while keeping American-grown cannabis illegal.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1170&pid=123

[spanone]

72. we're such a stupid nation sometimes

[yella_dawg]

84. Just to clarify...

I have a full beard and on occasion do, indeed, wear a smurf hat. I have not, however, been in Pennsylvania in over thirty years.

[Warren DeMontague]

87. The real question: How big was the SWAT team they used to bust her?

How many vans, helicopters, semi-automatic weapons & bulletproof vests did they have?


How much money did all this useless shit cost the state?

[Uncle Joe]

93. I hope this is the beginning of a jury nullification movement in regards to cannabis.

There is no logical or just reason for MJ not being legalized, this war against the people is counterproductive, dysfunctional, draconian, unjust and unAmerican.

On the other hand Smurf Hats for adults should be outlawed.

Thanks for the thread, Liberal_in_LA.

[RainDog]

98. SMURF HATER!