Busted...

Hello all, as the title unfortunately suggests... My garden is no more. It hurts me very deeply in many ways but in others I am actually glad it is over.

You see, for the past 2 1/2 years I've lived in constant fear of someone finding out about this that shouldn't. I haven't had a girlfriend in about 2 years because of it-worried that a girl would not only find out really fast, but blow me in even faster.


In the end, it wasn't an informant that got me busted. It was my own mistake that did it.


I was pulled over about 6 months ago with hydro and a glass pipe in the car. The cop checked my trunk and found indoor growing magazines, an old box for an 8" inline fan, and my old work shirt from when I worked at the hydro shop. He knew I had grown the weed he had found in the car from all the evidence- especially the bud that looked like it had never touched a bag- because it never had. I denied it up and down- said I was a horticulturalist that was facinated by plants. It was mostly the truth.

I never thought that they would start investigating me over it... However, they did. It only took a few months after they saw my car at the hydro shop again to pull my power bill from the power company and compare it with my neighbors'. Then they came out to the house and walked around it a few times trying to see in and smell growing weed. The smell was controlled but not completely gone because I needed a new a/c and it was kinda 'resined up' or something- the smell coming out of it was like a cashed bowl of dro- NOT growing weed at all.

It was all they needed for a search warrant. This is the story of what happened to me that day.

I hope you all understand that in sharing this story- I only want to show you the mistakes I have made and show you just how the police can catch you without an informant at all.

I hope in some way I can be the "canary in the mineshaft"- the sacrifice that lets you know of impendending doom if you do not immediately get the fuck out of the mine.

I only do this because I care about a lot of you. I really hope that one day marijuana is decriminalized- but for now, we can only risk jail and fear of going there constantly. I know the feeling very well- the feeling of someone out to get you and you don't deserve it at all...

It is a noble cause- to grow fine cannabis, better than you could ever buy at any price. It is not without the inherent risks though. I feel it was worth it on one hand, but considering my wreck of a life at the time... It wasn't on the other.

I disappointed my family and put my mother and brothers at risk of being arrested along with me- should they have been at the house at the time. Thank God they weren't.

I made promises that I ended up breaking because I was ignorant, immature, and very arrogant to boot. I was completely wrong about the police not caring about my relatively small grow that was for personal use. I was completely wrong about the police not getting involved if I wasn't a drug dealer out slangin in the hood'. I was wrong again about them not checking my power bill without an informant too. Dead wrong. I blew myself in not even realising it. I never expected the informant to be myself by accident. What a twist...

So here's how it goes, for all of you who think that this isn't that big of a deal.(which included myself just a week ago)



It was about 8:55 in the morning when I heard a knock at the door. I was sleeping and still very tired from working late the night before. I had just picked up some extacy to have a party with a girl I've known forever- we were going to finally hook up.

All of a sudden I hear, "Sheriff! Open up!" My heart sank into my stomach immediately. I pulled the covers over my head and held my breath. He came to my window and knocked some more. I didn't move a muscle. I thought perhaps he was there on some call about a disturbance in the neighborhood and didn't want to open up the door for him to smell the weed and see all the bongs lying around. I would have been handing myself over.

Then at 9:00 my alarm goes off. I'm thinking "FUCK! Now he knows I'm here..." Then my phone starts ringing. Great.

So after awhile he goes away. "Wow that was close..." I think to myself and begin to wonder what he was there for. So I go out my side door after throwing some shoes on without even putting on some socks. I didn't even put a shirt on. It was kinda cool outside but didn't really mind- I was just going to see what he wanted and then go back inside.

I walked around the house to find he was nowhere in sight. I looked down the alley that leads to my house and didn't see anybody. Then this big, white van pulling a trailer turns into the alley, looking like my neighbors. They always pull a trailer up and load stuff onto it from their yard. I lived next door to the Beverly Hillbillies to say the least... Many times I have been woken up to them slamming stuff into a trailer at 8:00 in the morning, or to barking dogs, or even worse... The dunebuggy at 1:00 in the morning... MORE than once I might add. So I didn't think anything of the van until it stopped in front of me.

All of a sudden all the doors popped open at the same time like the FBI vans in Grand Theft Auto. Out jumped men with helmets, riot shields, and assult rifles. They were screaming at me to get on the ground. I was so shocked that I put my hands up in disbelief.

Wrong move.

I was taken to the ground by this overbearing fat hog of a guy, screaming at me to get on the ground. He tackled me with the sheild when I was just standing there with my hands up; almost putting my head into one of my precious strawberry plants that are doing great right now. My chest was scratched and I was handcuffed in the back very tightly, as the goon squad started breaking my door down with a battering ram. I was trying to tell them that I would open the door, but it was too late. They ran in with guns raised screaming "search warrant! Get on the ground!!!" Then, "We got a grow room!!!" Thank God I was alone.

I could not imagine my mother's face if a cop pointed an assult rifle at her and screamed at her to get on the ground-let alone handcuffing her and taking her to jail with me. Or anybody I know for that matter. No one was allowed over to my house that I didn't love and trust completely. I couldn't imagine putting any of my family in that type of situation because of my own ignorance... But I could have. I really could have.

The rest of the story is much less exciting and more depressing. They ransacked my house while I sat handcuffed on a chair outside my house. They set up a table and started bringing out my grow equipment. My hoods, my ballasts, my fans. All 4 8" inline fans. Then they started ripping out my plants that were halfway through bloom, tossing it all through the window.

My precious plants... My babies as I affectionantly call them- were treated like trash. They just threw them in these huge paper bags. I was so shocked I didn't even cry until later. They took all my genetics- everything. Then smashed the equipment with a sledgehammer outside my house because they didn't have room for it at the lockup. They got it all on video.

Then the craziest thing started to happen- the cops changed from these overbearing assholes to these slightly hippie-ish dudes freaking out about how amazing the garden was to them. I couldn't believe it. They told me it was the most sophisticated, clean, and organized setup they had seen for a personal grow. Told me I had a passion for it that was apparent. They even noticed the quality of my other (non-pot) plants outside and commented that I had incredible talent at growing. One guy made it very clear to me that he was not trying to be a smart ass when he told me that the quality of the bud was "a 9". He repeated himself several times and looked at me as if I was a rock star on tour, eyes wide and nodding like a little kid on Christmas. I'm positive that this dude smoked some, if not all, of the harvested weed he confiscated. I KNOW he was a stoner. Not a doubt in my mind about it. There was 3 of them actually. I knew they were either ex-druggies or still in the loop but working for the police to cover their ass. They were the only ones not wearing gas masks into the house.

It was their genuine appreciation for the plants and quality of them that led me to believe these guys actually smoked- but it was their pressing comments and general giddyness that really made me think they were planning on smoking what they confiscated. I'm dead serious about this. I wasn't charged with possession either, and they had found over 3 oz's of the best stuff I had grown. All of my best colas including one of the most incredible flowers I had ever grown- a huge 19 gram bud of Cheese. Biggest I had ever seen a Cheese flower get, and it was just beautiful.

In the end they told me they thought I was a good guy (not Al Capone they said) and they were going to give me a break on this and that. Weren't going to charge me with possesion, weren't going to charge me for trafficing. They didn't find any money to warrant trafficing though- I smoke the weed.

Then the real bullshit part of this story happens... They find some acid tabs and X-pills in a drawer. Having either of those are just as bad, if not worse, than growing your own weed. They definitely were going to charge me with those. I would have flushed it down the toilet if I had known that they had a search warrant when the cop first started knocking... They really tried to set me up when I think about it.

Now for the grand finale' of horrible things to happen to a stoner/pot grower/glass collector... They started bringing out my bongs. They got about 75% of my collection. Very sedimental pieces too. There were a few clean ones here and there they said they couldn't take because they were clean. Irronically, the ones that were clean were the most sedimental of all. I am really grateful for that on a deep level. A couple of my pipes survived a police raid. They are true soldiers, through and through. Medals of Honor were awarded to them for valor in the face of extreme loss of life all around them. They stood were so many had fallen, true juggernauts of glass.

I still haven't been home for an assessment of the actual damage, but I think it's for the best. I don't want to smoke marijuana right now because of an agreement I have made with my father. If he was going to bail me out of jail (yet again) I was going to try it his way for once. He had let me have my way against his will- an expression of true love for a controlling father. Instead of not talking to me, he ignored it and treated me like I wasn't doing what I was doing against all of his urgings to stop. He loved me and still treated me like a good son despite the indoor pot garden he totally objected to.

That's where I am right now- back at my father's house. I am much more comfortable here, let me tell you. My own place never got me laid like this house has. Irronic, isn't it?

Oh well, what's done is done. I will always be Mr.GoodStuff deep down. There are things no amount of disaster can take from me.

One of those things is my integrity. They tried to bribe me into turning in one of my friends or becoming an informant. I was blown away they would offer me a reward for being a traitor... I had heard of it before but had never seen it- and it's just plain ugly. I thought justice was about loyalty and integrity, among other things. Not being a traitor, let alone rewarded for it. To turn brother against brother is against the very principles upon which this great nation was founded. We became great because of loyalty to our country and our cause. Not from being a bunch of snitches. What a joke.

Anyways to wrap up this rather long and depressing story and end it on a good note- I bonded out today and feel great. I don't care what they have taken, it can always be replaced with even better stuff.

I don't know how you guys feel about me being sober, but I really want to try another way for once. I will always love and respect marijuana for what it is, but living a life of fear and isolation is too much for me to bear. If and when I grow pot again remains a mystery at this point (I'm leaning on yes of course but just to be realistic) I will do it legally. I will never again grow marijuana and become a criminal in the eyes of the state for it.

I am not a criminal. It's an unjust law. It should be broken to be honest. Hell, even Dr. Martin Luther King said that it was just as much our responsibility to disobey unjust laws as much as it was to obey just laws. Or something like that.

However, in the eyes of this state- growing your own weed is a crime. So be it- I won't live in this state and grow marijuana ever again until it is legal for me to do so. I hope you all understand where I'm coming from.

I hope you all have enjoyed reading this and can get something good out of it. I love you all and will be around from time to time still. See you around the board!


-MGS