18 charged after metro-wide raids to seize marijuana

Federal officials proclaimed Thursday that they'd charged 18 people in a sophisticated marijuana-growing operation that used several houses around the Twin Cities.

[Jack McGuirk]

My advice for the eighteen suspects is plead not guilty and read Hank Rearden’s speech to the court from Atlas Shrugged in your defense. The day has passed when twelve of your peers could be found who would be willing to lock you in a cage for decades because you had the courage to grow, trade, or consume the most useful plant on earth. Hand out Fully Informed Jury Association leaflets at the courthouse on the day of jury selection. Jury nullification is bound to play a central role in ending cannabis prohibition!
Free Marc Emery!
Install Ron Paul!
Go Kopbusters!
http://www.youtube.com/watch...
http://www.youtube.com/watch...

[Nope]

Just worthless people who DON'T want to pay taxes. Good riddance U f in scum.

[Bubba]

this is so wrong in every way, asian making asian people look bad

[Pete]

What a crock of BS. The plant police....what a joke make it legal and tax it!$24 million....I'm sure the states vig would be about 75%.

I wish the cops would catch some real criminals for a change, you know like rapist, murderers, etc. Harder than chasing plants around town I know....wake up cops! It is the 21st century!

The "Drug War" is lost and is nothing but a cash cow for law enforcement and we are the herd of taxpaying cows!

[Pete]

Jack McGuirk wrote:

My advice for the eighteen suspects is plead not guilty and read Hank Rearden’s speech to the court from Atlas Shrugged in your defense. The day has passed when twelve of your peers could be found who would be willing to lock you in a cage for decades because you had the courage to grow, trade, or consume the most useful plant on earth. Hand out Fully Informed Jury Association leaflets at the courthouse on the day of jury selection. Jury nullification is bound to play a central role in ending cannabis prohibition!
Free Marc Emery!
Install Ron Paul!
Go Kopbusters!
http://www.youtube.com/watch...
http://www.youtube.com/watch...

Right on brother!

[change sucks]

cops do what their local govts tell them to do. if you remember bill clintons state of the union address he swore to push for more funding on the war on drugs. look it up its public record. it was one of the things i actually agreed with him on. cause hes right, druggies bring down the quality of life to people that have to live around them.

[change sucks]

Pete wrote:

What a crock of BS. The plant police....what a joke make it legal and tax it!$24 million....I'm sure the states vig would be about 75%.
I wish the cops would catch some real criminals for a change, you know like rapist, murderers, etc. Harder than chasing plants around town I know....wake up cops! It is the 21st century!
The "Drug War" is lost and is nothing but a cash cow for law enforcement and we are the herd of taxpaying cows!

well that wouldnt happen if people followed the law in the first place and didnt use it.. what your complaining about is 100% fault of drug users.. go purchase legal goods and the govt will collect the taxes not to metion putting people to work instead of criminals , drug lords etc.

[wrong]

change sucks wrote:

cops do what their local govts tell them to do. if you remember bill clintons state of the union address he swore to push for more funding on the war on drugs. look it up its public record. it was one of the things i actually agreed with him on. cause hes right, druggies bring down the quality of life to people that have to live around them.

Notice the words "federal authorities" in this article? Local police doing the bidding of the feds on our tax dimes is not what we ask for when paying taxes. Clinton and the Byrne Grants is all about getting police union votes and publicity in times of re-election. The Bush Administration, in one of the few things I actually agreed with, saught to drastically reduce or eliminate the Byrne grants as they had no quantifiable ROI. Obama's administration, in an ode to the Clinton era, increased this spending. I'd love to hear how marijuana users "bring down the quality of life to people that have to live around them." The neighbors admitted that they didn't even know the grow ops were there. How is something that goes undetected affecting anyone? Violence is a legitimate concern, but considering the illegality of marijuana is what makes it so profitable, the policy of prohibition is what should come under scrutiny here. A plant has never hurt anyone, but the policies of the "drug war" have failed and are demonstrably destructive to society. Prohibition's time was up with alcohol in the 30's. Same thing only worse is playing out now with marijuana. Take control and legalize, regulate, tax, and bring America's #1 cash crop into the light of day and eliminate the criminal element.

[wrong again]

change sucks wrote:

<quoted text>
well that wouldnt happen if people followed the law in the first place and didnt use it.. what your complaining about is 100% fault of drug users.. go purchase legal goods and the govt will collect the taxes not to metion putting people to work instead of criminals , drug lords etc.

Why champion the use of alcohol and cigarettes? They kill millions annually, yet marijuana use has never resulted in a death in human history. You speak as though abstinence from all intoxicating substances is a "natural" part of human evolution. Nothing could be further from the truth, and this is why prohibition never works. People have a desire to experience an "altered state." If they want to do so using cannabis, rather than addictive substances like alcohol and tobacco, let them! The policies of prohibition are far more destructive than the plant itself. It's hard to argue otherwise, but I'm all ears if you care to offer up some iota of evidence to suggest the "war on drugs" has been successful in any way. Many Americans would love to hear it, as their patience with the "drug war" has run out, and even the United Nations is calling for the decriminalization of drugs. The U.S. is force-feeding these policies to the world, and our own people don't even agree with the laws. We have 5% of the world's population and 25% of the world's prison population. Do we just keep stuffing everyone in jail? Who's gonna pay?

[gimme a break]

This is what Minnesota weed growers USED to look like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch...

[Rob]

change sucks wrote:

<quoted text>
well that wouldnt happen if people followed the law in the first place and didnt use it.. what your complaining about is 100% fault of drug users.. go purchase legal goods and the govt will collect the taxes not to metion putting people to work instead of criminals , drug lords etc.

Actually, by your reasoning liquor store and coffee shop owners should be classified as criminals, seeing as they provide drugs. The difference is those drugs are legal and taxed. If marijuana were legal, there no longer would be any more criminal behavior associated with it other than what we see with legal intoxicants, and you can bet it would be heavily taxed, as are alcohol and other "sins", and most users would willingly pay said taxes. So what I'm complaining about is 100% the fault of misguided, inconsistent, hypocritical drug policy in this country (and ignorant, ranting, right-wing social conservatives).

[John T]

Oh, boo hoo. They broke the laws on the books and now they should pay.

[wrong yet again]

John T wrote:

Oh, boo hoo. They broke the laws on the books and now they should pay.

Correction: WE will ALL pay.
I certainly don't want to hear any conservative "no new taxes" rhetoric from people like yourself. Paying for prisoners does nothing to further our society, and is a huge burden on everyone. No one that is charged with a "drug crime" is going to have a chance of getting a normal job upon release. They're branded for life and it only furthers the cycle of crime. If ya can't get a job, back to the black market you go. Short-sighted comments such as yours only magnify the ignorance people exhibit on this topic. We ALL pay for this.

[Rob]

wrong yet again wrote:

<quoted text>
Correction: WE will ALL pay.
I certainly don't want to hear any conservative "no new taxes" rhetoric from people like yourself. Paying for prisoners does nothing to further our society, and is a huge burden on everyone. No one that is charged with a "drug crime" is going to have a chance of getting a normal job upon release. They're branded for life and it only furthers the cycle of crime. If ya can't get a job, back to the black market you go. Short-sighted comments such as yours only magnify the ignorance people exhibit on this topic. We ALL pay for this.

Although you've made a pretty good stab at educating the mindless minions of the socially conservative mindset, your insightful reply has no impact on the likes of Jaunty John-T. Jesus is his drug. So he KNOWS what's right and wrong. No shades of grey there. No doubts. No mind.

[John T]

Rob wrote:

<quoted text>
Although you've made a pretty good stab at educating the mindless minions of the socially conservative mindset, your insightful reply has no impact on the likes of Jaunty John-T. Jesus is his drug. So he KNOWS what's right and wrong. No shades of grey there. No doubts. No mind.

Are you attacking Christians? How utterly enlightened of you. The intelligentsia will save the world, yet again.

[wrong wrong wrong]

John T,

How do you propose we continue to pay for all of the people caught up in the drug war? You can go by any label you wish, but the "socially conservative" people often are the ones who side with prohibition, and they generally offer up little more than "jail em all" commentary as though this madness of the drug war can go on indefinitely, and the justification they offer up is often a morality-based opinion, rather than an examination of fact. You don't have to do drugs, or like them, but this policy of prohibition is hugely destructive and just plain not effective. It's obvious it has not worked, but when people like yourself are pressed for details on how to improve the situation, it's often, "more of the same, but even more," as being the "fix." That is absolute insanity.

[Rob]

John T wrote:

<quoted text>
Are you attacking Christians? How utterly enlightened of you. The intelligentsia will save the world, yet again.

I'm attacking the kind of "Christians" who make no-mind, compassionless statements regarding the latest victims of the entirely unjust witch hunt known as the drug war. Remember compassion? Jesus Christ preached it. Most conservative Christians are so self-righteous in their belief and certainty that they've found "the way" and are "saved" that they've forgotten how their hero would have acted and spoken. I'm sickened by YOUR lack of enlightenment. It bodes ill for not only Christianity but the world.

[Just gotta hope]

wrong yet again wrote:

<quoted text>
Correction: WE will ALL pay.
I certainly don't want to hear any conservative "no new taxes" rhetoric from people like yourself. Paying for prisoners does nothing to further our society, and is a huge burden on everyone. No one that is charged with a "drug crime" is going to have a chance of getting a normal job upon release. They're branded for life and it only furthers the cycle of crime. If ya can't get a job, back to the black market you go. Short-sighted comments such as yours only magnify the ignorance people exhibit on this topic. We ALL pay for this.

.
They DIE early in prison.

[change sucks]

Rob wrote:

<quoted text>
Actually, by your reasoning liquor store and coffee shop owners should be classified as criminals, seeing as they provide drugs. The difference is those drugs are legal and taxed. If marijuana were legal, there no longer would be any more criminal behavior associated with it other than what we see with legal intoxicants, and you can bet it would be heavily taxed, as are alcohol and other "sins", and most users would willingly pay said taxes. So what I'm complaining about is 100% the fault of misguided, inconsistent, hypocritical drug policy in this country (and ignorant, ranting, right-wing social conservatives).

Bill clintons 1999 state of the union address.

Tonight I propose a 21st century crime bill to deploy the latest technologies and tactics to make our communities even safer. Our budget will help put up to 50,000 more police on the street in the areas hardest hit by crime and then to equip them with new tools, from crime-mapping computers to digital mug shots.
We must break the deadly cycle of drugs and crime. Our budget expands support for drug testing and treatment, saying to prisoners: If you stay on drugs, you have to stay behind bars; and to those on parole: If you want to keep your freedom, you must stay free of drugs.

[change sucks]

Oh and im sure most of you know clinton is a left winger. he does carry a bible with him alot .