Veterans of the WOD

Smoker's Lounge
#1

With my state flipping full legal I’ve been thinking a lot about my bust.

Any other veterans of the WOD? I’m not looking for pity, it was a long time ago and I’m a tough old broad. I want to talk to others who have survived a major bust.

How did you get popped? I was arrogant. I had a domestic situation going on and failed to appreciate the kind of trouble a grow could create. June 16th will be 19 years.

I spent one night in jail and ended up with a year of probation which sucked mightily.

I’m at the end of my working career and doubt I’ll be looking for anymore jobs but before the law changed my bust always came up and I’d have to have a really uncomfortable conversation with HR about it and its relevance to my potential employment.

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#2

Looking at 1-3 years in 2010 over 35g. Downstate small town IL so the prosecutors have time to really fuck with you. I refused to cooperate or be respectful which I think pissed them off, and in small counties especially the police and prosecutors are in bed together.

I was walking down the street carrying a case of beer less than a block away to a friend’s party…like his house backed up to mine next street over. Cops busted out of a unmarked car “we need to see an ID for the beer”…I’m like OK they say I smell weed can we search you? I say no they say you’re under arrest anyway doesn’t matter.

Lab sample fuckup…when I went to court, they had the lab results…weighed it there is was under 30g threshhold and was listed as “very low quality” as to THC content…which is odd because it was a big smelly bag of sour diesel. No way 35g became under 30…it was dry and in a cheap sandwich bag. So some kid somewhere in Illinois with a shitty oz probably ended up doing my time. Pigs took my money too. And I don’t mean seized, I mean stole. Had $300+ on me, evidence seized says “$80”.

Still cost me thousands I didn’t have in “drug classes”, probation (2 years), drug testing, attorneys, court costs. I drank too much before then, but those two years forcibly without weed made me pivot to booze and other drugs (which I used before but not nearly at that level). Weed stays in a drug test for weeks, dope and booze just a couple days. I wish bone cancer on the pigs, prosecutor, and judge involved. Ruined 2 years of my life, plus several years after to recover from the alcoholism and utter financial ruin. Became a person I hated.

I have other stories but this is my weed one.

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#3

@FreeAtLast that definitely sucks but you are so fortunate that you didn’t have mandatory minimum sentencing to deal with. I know a guy here who did almost 3 years for growing 2 plants! They literally can’t deviate from the sentencing which is minimum 3 years for ten plants or less, luckily the actual time served can be a little less somehow.

Wanna hear the craziest part? My state is legal now. You can possess up to 6 ounces walking down the street, you can gift an ounce to a friend, you get caught selling up to an ounce they give you a warning the first time, and rec sales will probably start before the end of the year. Still grow a single plant and you’re getting 3 years. Thankfully people are introducing home grow bills but right now the more promising one is a bill that removes mandatory minimums for any non violent crime.

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#4

I forgot about the drug classes! My lawyer made me go to drug counseling proactively. So fuking stupid. I was (still am) what you might call a “high functioning” pot head. I had to sit with this dumb ass social worker as she tried to convince I was a drug addict. We argued a lot and the only thing I would ever cop to was “poor judgement” because I should have known growing with kids in the house and a crazy ex was a bad idea.

I was hanging out with a farmer friend recently and he asked me if I still had my old gear and I fukin laughed…LEO took EVERYTHING. I had a pretty big stash at the time so they managed to miss a couple of z’s lol.

I never stopped smoking, which made my year of proby pretty tense. Let’s just say it’s easier for chicks to pass an observed piss test.

It took me years to dig out of the financial wreckage and it definitely hurt me professionally.

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#5

I was on probation most of my teen years and smoked throughout. Definitely stressful at times lol.

They had me go to some outpatient drug counseling place for my tests and if you got there and said you didn’t have to go they’d give you a huge cup and have you sit in their staff kitchen area drinking water…and just leave you there by yourself! The back door was right next to it so I would drink a few cups of water and pee out the back door a few times until I was pure as a mountain stream. Always passed. I had so much more balls back then cause I can only imagine how much trouble I would have been in if they caught me peeing out the back door :laughing:

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#6

This right here hits home for me. Definitely under court supervision I used more booze and drugs. Used to have my drink an hour and check back into work release and blow zeros reeking like booze.

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#7

It’s funny…the idea is to rehabilitate, but the constant stress, loss of work (cause they’ll take your license for drug charges) and financial burden of being dragged through the system ironically makes drugs and booze even more attractive. And when they say substance abuse test they really mean weed. Most non-addicts can take a couple days off. You’ll get a few weekends in jail and probably more classes if you fail for weed, but probably nothing if you fail booze on paper for a drug charge.

It ain’t easy getting to mandated for profit drug classes and probation meetings when you live in the middle of nowhere, have no money, and can’t drive.

The entire justice system is made to fuck with poor people. And once you’re in the system, it is now hard to leave. I could rant about this shit forever. How bad a sack of smelly flowers can mess up your life.

I had a buddy get caught with a bowl and an eighth in his trunk and they seized his car charged him with possession, paraphernalia, and DUI. A house party with 1/2 a keg got RAIDED like door kicked in by guys in fucking riot gear because they refused to open the door. Local cops sat outside and waited until a judge would sign a warrant for a dozen people drinking and fucking raided it. Broke out windows, busted down doors. For beer. And they ended up writing a few drinking tickets. I’m not exaggerating or embellishing this story. They love playing warrior.

I hate the whole system that turns nonviolent people into criminals. But most of all, I hate the police with every ounce of my being.

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#8

I have had some close calls and been very lucky.

Without getting too specific - cops don’t like people on motorcycles. Don’t transport your gear by motorcycle. To this day, even while legal, I make Mrs Foreigner keep her weed in the trunk. A bullshit DUI charge is easy to fabricate.

I always thought the craziest thing people I knew did was smoking joints while driving. One moving violation with the wrong cop and you’re totally fucked.

The war on drugs is about keeping everyone in a state of constant illegality. I have been at risk of arrest almost everyday for the last 25 years. It’s nonsense.

When I was a lot dumber I did some things and talked too much and enlisted too many people. One of them got busted and told me he let it slip.

I tore down everything. And I mean everything within the hour. The only thing I kept was $800.

Stay safe out there people. The kids born into legality will never understand my paranoia.

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#9

I got sentenced to 8 yrs for cultivation of 144 plants. My 19 year old got mad at me and turned me in.
Was 10 years ago but still stings and keeps me in illegal mode even though I am legal in a legal state.

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#10

I’ve got a similar one to Vernal’s buddy.

Driving home late after work one night( late restaurant hours) and stone cold sober on Memorial Day weekend. Got pulled over about ten minutes from home, in what was the worst town to get pulled over in along the way.

Had just broke my pipe so I had a down stem I was currently using as a chillum and about 1.5 g in my backpack. Had fucked up and left my wallet in the same pocket of my backpack. Cop saw it when I opened to get my license out. He didn’t even know what to do, cuffed me, panicked and called for back up, K-9 unit shows up and I get harassed for like an hour before they even take me to the hospital and make me get a blood draw. That really opened my eyes to how utterly incompetent so many of the cops they put on the street are.

I get charged with possession, paraphernalia, and DUI. Again I was stone cold sober.

Thousands of dollars later, delayed and missing dash cam tapes, flat out lies regarding my demeanor and performance on field sobriety tests, several court dates, and a douche bag wanna be hot shot local prosecutor later, they were willing to drop everything but the DUI, the one crime I didn’t commit. How’s that for justice?

The whole ordeal and aftermath of classes, no license, etc sucked. Although I am glad I didn’t have more on me or get popped somewhere worse. I have that to be thankful for I guess. Fuckers.

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#11

Damn Oldjoints that could have been me. I had four mature plants and a shit ton of clones and seedlings. It was my ex that did me in and my then 8 year old who supplied the evidence. I’m lucky in that I pled down to a class B misdemeanor and didn’t do time. Cost me a fukin fortune.

I had full on anxiety for a long time following my bust. Any time I’d be driving and see LEO in the rear view mirror or unexpected knocks on the door would send me into panic.

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#12

Even in the days of legalization I’m still paranoid. But I’m naturally paranoid to begin with.

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#13

I used to have the same problem when I heard the elevator ding. Triggers.

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#14

Kickbacks on the DUI classes.

What so many people fail to understand about the justice system is that the process is often worse than the punishment. They literally think it goes like “do crime, see judge, spend a couple weeks-months-years in jail”. The process is so much more than, especially if you’re poor, that and every step hemorrhages money. Money that’s hard to come up with. I was in debt for court shit for years and it took so much just to dig out of the hole. I had another buddy who’s parents were super wealthy and he got a DUI and resisting arrest and it was dropped a week later. High priced Chicago attorneys can do infinitely more than one I can afford, God himself can’t help you if you need a public defender.

I asked for a few weeks in jail for my DUI in lieu of “the process”. They wouldn’t do it. It’s all about the money. $800/year forced subscription to probation services (plus drug testing costs at $50/pop) so they can root through your trash and call your employer talking about “vernal’s on probation for weed and DUI does he actually work there”?

Ugh I just wish I could let the hate go but it’s part of me now; this shit gets me so riled up. I’ve been arrested 4 times, and 2 were total horseshit I paid dearly for anyway. I’ve been just hassled by cops many times outside of those incidents.

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#15

That’s gotta be an awkward Thanksgiving.

Sorry man that’s so fucked up I feel for you. Neighbor, girlfriend, friend…awful…but your own child?

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#16

I’ve never been busted. Always been extremely thorough about security. Although I currently live in a legal state and have a state license I still tell no one, show no one, discuss with no one. I’ve had instances where sheer luck kept me from major prison time. Because of this, I doubt I’ll ever put myself in a position where someone else has knowledge of my business. People who know me know I have access to great weed, but they don’t know anything more.

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#17

They get really nice kickbacks from treatment centers. Friend of a friend is a heroin addict and he’s a lifer, been in and out of jail and doesn’t care, dope has him completely. He got popped and when he went to court for it the judge referred him to treatment. Open court he stands up and says “fuck you send me to prison”. The dude is that deep that he just wanted to do his time, max out and get it over with so he could get out and go right back to his habit.

The judge told him he would be doing treatment and the kid said “the fuck I am” and cursed him out. Big shocker he didn’t go and ended up in front of the judge again. They asked why he didn’t go and he said “fuck you send me to prison”. Again through cursing and the kid telling him he wouldn’t go the judge gave him treatment.

The third time the judge started with the treatment again and the kid said something like “how fucking stupid are you? Send me to prison so we can get this over with”. Judge gave him what he wanted that time. How many judges would take that kind of abuse let alone “offer that many chances”? This wasn’t a judge trying to help an addict, it was a judge trying to score another payday.

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#18

I let go of anger a while back and have always been very solid with my kids (28 &24). My life is good in the ways that it counts. I have compassion for my ex, his life is a shit show. I worried that my son felt guilty over listening to LEO (they manipulated him, remember these were DARE days) but he seems to have forgiven himself? He’s 28 now and came back to live with me last year when the pandemic hit.

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#19

Nope not awkward at all. Unlike FreeAtLast I don’t forgive as easily. My kid was an adult and knew full well what would happen and still proceeded so I haven’t seen or talked to them since. I treated that child well so I have no qualms with not being a father to that person.

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#20

Maybe the intensions were good (big maybe), but I think DARE fucked up a lot of kids and family. I remember my 3rd grader thinking I did drugs when she saw me pop some tylenol. Don’t even get me started on how messed up the education system is in the US.

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