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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmerica's Biggest Pothead gets seven years
I told you about Michael Ihler before. Ihler, of St. Maries, Idaho, is the guy who claimed his 597 pot plants were for personal use.(You may remember Ihler was the guy who tore part of the roof off his house so the weed growing in his living room would get natural light.)
He got 5 years fixed prison time, 2 years indeterminate time (meaning if he doesn't adequately reform in the first five they can leave him in there for two more) and a $15,000 fine.
Ihler is so fortunate I'm not his judge. This asshole went into his sentencing hearing with the standard "I put marijuana in front of my family, relationships and responsibility" canned line that everyone who majorly fucks up uses to try to sweet-talk the judge into a lower sentence. And if he had been busted with four or five plants I might believe it. But this asshole cut off the roof of his fucking house so he could run a commercial pot farm in his living room. He is the closest thing to a drug lord St. Maries will ever see, and I would have put him away for 20 years.
spanone
(135,900 posts)jmowreader
(50,567 posts)There aren't enough people who smoke marijuana in the whole of Benewah County to use all the marijuana he was growing.
If he was growing enough plants for himself and his friends...okay, you got to give him five years just because there's a mandatory minimum but certainly no more than that. At 600 plants he's one of the Inland Northwest's major pot suppliers.
What really pisses me off about this guy is the AA line he was laying down in court. If he would have come right out and said he was a pot farmer but he saw the error of his ways, okay five years. Or if he would have been lured into growing a handful of plants by the siren song of the demon weed, okay five years. They give you no leeway below that. But the devil weed Marihuana led him to tear the roof off his house? I just watched Reefer Madness and I assure you that no one in a drug-addled haze ever tore off the roof. No, unbridled greed led him to plant 597 pot plants; claiming the evil weed itself rather than the $150 an ounce it sells for here led him to do what he did would have led me to lock him up until he was eligible for Medicare.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)bunnies
(15,859 posts)Must be some seriously shitty weed.
Inkfreak
(1,695 posts)P.S.
people who include those huge freaking stems when weighing it out, suck ass
snooper2
(30,151 posts)Response to jmowreader (Reply #13)
Post removed
lob1
(3,820 posts)7 years and $15,000 is a lot of time and money for being a farmer.
Occulus
(20,599 posts)A very, very sick mind.
librechik
(30,677 posts)legalization must happen and soon. The right makes too much money off prisons.
former9thward
(32,097 posts)librechik
(30,677 posts)CBGLuthier
(12,723 posts)damned if I know why but ok.
Incitatus
(5,317 posts)He should have known what would happen, but I have no problem with marijuana even if he was growing it to sell. If I was on the jury, I wouldn't care what evidence they have, I would have opted for nullification.
Bonx
(2,078 posts)hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)SomethingFishy
(4,876 posts)and house this person for 20 years. Really. It's a brilliant plan.
The war on drugs is off the deep end. I watched a "Meth Raid" on TV a few nights ago. About a dozen regular cop cars, a SWAT van, and some undercover cars, to bust a guy who's "Meth Lab" amounted to a fucking jug in his backyard.
Let's keep pissing in the wind, it's quite clever. Really.
HappyMe
(20,277 posts)He didn't kill anyone. As far as the house goes, it's his house.
RevStPatrick
(2,208 posts)In fact, please don't do anything, anywhere, ever.
Other than rant on the interwebz.
You can keep doing that all you want, because nobody really cares.
RainDog
(28,784 posts)as your post indicates, as well.
what separates you from republicans? you offer "kinder, gentler" fascist sentiment?
DCKit
(18,541 posts)As if being a complete moron wasn't its own reward.
People that dumb end up in the Darwin awards - not a problem, as long as they don't take any innocents along with them.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)You are someone I would not care to associate with in any form.
jmowreader
(50,567 posts)In Idaho, growing for personal use carries a one-year minimum. If you grow at least 100 plants you are assumed to be dealing. If you're growing 600 plants, obviously you're dealing. He has always maintained this stash was for personal use.
Then he comes into his sentencing hearing and starts telling the judge the evil weed made him do it? He even played the "addiction" card.
If the guy would have come right out and said he was growing pot and selling it because there's good money in pot, or because people should have the right to use pot, or he couldn't get any other job (in St. Maries that would have been highly believable - 11% U3 unemployment) then okay, give him as little time as possible. I would prefer to give him no time because pot should be legal. But you have to take responsibility for your actions. To claim you became one of the Inland Northwest's biggest pot farmers because the evil weed made you do it holds as much water as claiming too many Twinkies made you shoot Harvey Milk.
It's not the weed that pisses me off. It's all the lies.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)I'll give you a hint-unless he's growing ditchweed it ain't no humongous amount. And if he's selling it for $150, it's definitely not kind bud.
OriginalGeek
(12,132 posts)The real point is that he shouldn't have even been nabbed. What he was doing should be legal.
SomethingFishy
(4,876 posts)So I take it you think Bill Clinton should have been impeached. After all he LIED about his "crime".
Your posts reek of an anti-pot crusader who doesn't want to admit which side he's on. You went from "oh that asshole tore off his roof, he should get 20 years", to "if he had told the truth he should get minimum time...
Sad...
Celldweller
(186 posts)More like a hobbyist.
Maybe he just wants a nice variety of plants. Maybe he harvests very selectively and keeps only the nicest crop?
And 597 plants doesn't mean 597 plants, 6' tall with pine cone sized buds drooping from the stalks...
That might include clones and garbage, possibly males depending on his technical prowess.
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)backscatter712
(26,355 posts)"Let's ruin this guy's entire life because I don't like the plants he grows!"
Makes me fucking sick to see this shit.
Logical
(22,457 posts)OriginalGeek
(12,132 posts)I would have thrown the case out.
Let him walk and apologized for wasting his time.
Quantess
(27,630 posts)What's so wrong about that? I bet he didn't even use hazardous pesticides.
JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)Very large--enough to cover all the taxes on the product he sold down the years, that he didn't pay.
Remember how they got Al Capone? It wasn't his criminal activity--it was that he didn't pay TAXES on the profits he made from his criminal activity.
Le Taz Hot
(22,271 posts)Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)hobbit709
(41,694 posts)Logical
(22,457 posts)otherone
(973 posts)Inkfreak
(1,695 posts)The problem here is he is doing some serious time for pot. Fracking pot man. I have never fucking met someone who says it should be illegal. I mean personally. I meet people. I talk. And if it comes up they always kinda lower their voice and say "yea, it should be legal." I don't get it. It sucks. I'm a good guy and a productive member of society. But I'm a criminal cause I love the green.
I should add, I understand the risks of my love of the green. And I would discourage my kids from abusing it. My Mom ripped me a new asshole the time I was caught smoking while skipping school. She was more angry about not applying myself in school than with the pot. As an adult with a good job and having "my shit together" she could care less if I smoke. I usually refrain from beig high around her still....she likes to tease me if she suspects I am. I love her!
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)Logical
(22,457 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)stop people from getting high.
I'm sorry, prison cells are, first and foremost, for people who do violent shit to other people.
Not someone who grows pot. Not even a lot of pot. Not even someone who does it, makes money off it, and lies about why they did it.
It should be fucking legal, regulated, and taxed. Enough already. The drug war itself is the font of stupid fucking lies, not the pothead farmer.
quinnox
(20,600 posts)I am very straight edged (don't smoke, don't drink) and even I tried pot when I was a teenager. It didn't do a damn thing. No sensation or feeling at all.
You sound like an ignorant right winger who thinks all drugs are the same, and are all hard drugs and scourges of the Earth like heroin or meth, and don't know what you are talking about. It is harmless compared to other drugs, that kill people on a regular basis and ruin their lives.