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Health
Utah Cop Killed Because of Personal Medical Marijuana Grow
No family should have to deal with the consequences of the events that occurred in Ogden, Utah on January 3, 2012. So it is with great respect to the families of both Jared Francom and Matthew David Stewart, who no doubt are both dealing with incredible grief of contrasting nature, that I’m offering up these comments.
Whenever a member of law enforcement is killed in the line of duty, like Officer Jared Francom recently was, it’s a tragedy. When the “target” of the military tactical style operation that led to the shootout leaving the officer dead appears to have been a personal marijuana grow, it’s also infuriating.
At 8:40 p.m. on Wednesday, January 3, 2012, members of the Weber-Morgan Narcotics Strike Force in Ogden, Utah conducted a “knock and enter” warrant on the home of 37 year-old army veteran Matthew David Stewart. According to reports, they knocked and no one answered. When they forcefully entered his home in paramilitary style gear, with guns drawn, they encountered gunfire. When it was all said and done, one member of the task force was fatally injured, five members were wounded, Stewart was injured and faces likely charges of aggravated murder (which carries the death penalty) and multiple counts of attempted aggravated murder.
According to DEA Special Agent in Charge Frank Smith, the victims and other agents involved in this operation are heroes, and they were “protecting the public.” I tend to agree with Agent Smith, members of the task force are heroes, but in this instance, they certainly were not protecting the public.
The only public reports about why Stewart was raided indicate that Stewart had a personal, indoor marijuana grow for medical reasons. It’s been reported that Stewart suffers from PTSD and grew a small amount of marijuana to self-medicate. In addition, it has been speculated that the reason why Stewart failed to answer the knock is because he was asleep at the time. He worked the midnight shift and would typically be asleep at the time the raid was conducted.
So, it seems an army veteran who suffers from PTSD was suddenly awoken to armor-clad armed men in his home and he allegedly opened fire. The army vet now likely faces the death penalty. One officer is dead. Five wounded. Countless lives have been ruined.
I’d like Agent Smith to explain to Stewart exactly why he was a threat to the public. There has been no allegation that Steward sold marijuana, or gave it away to kids, or that he was a danger to anyone before the paramilitary-style raid on his house. In fact, his neighbors were shocked to learn that there was any drug activity in the area, dispelling the notion that Stewart was an immediate threat to anyone. Without making a fuss and without causing problems in his neighborhood, Stewart simply grew marijuana for personal medical reasons.
I’d also like Agent Smith to explain to Officer Francom’s family why Stewart’s personal medical grow warranted the over-the-top means of enforcement that has been linked to so many needless deaths and injuries.
Finally, I’d like Agent Smith to explain to everyone why — as he stated to Fox 13 News — this situation isn’t a legalization issue? Clearly, the officers involved were just doing their job. They were enforcing enacted laws that their superiors wanted enforced. However, if marijuana were legal, this and numerous other prohibition-related deaths, including the death of another Utah man at the hands of this very same task force, would never have happened.
So long as marijuana remains a law enforcement issue as opposed to a public health issue, we’ll keep seeing tragic stories like these. Officers and civilians shot, and often times killed, over a naturally occurring plant that is safer than alcohol. It’s sad and it’s sickening, and it’s about time that we finally rethink our nation’s devastating marijuana prohibition.
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Comments
This soldier did exactly as
This soldier did exactly as he was trained to do, and the general public should be held to the same standard. The "War on Drugs" is by no means an excuse for a hard knock. Fix these BS laws or watch real Americans (Veterans and civilian alike) who observe their 2nd amendment rights, leave a body trail. Molon labe mother*****. You kick in my door bc of a natural growing plant, I don't care how illegal, and I'll bring Afghanistan to your front door. This soldier should be awarded! Ron Paul 2012!
EVERY time I go to address
EVERY time I go to address someone's unintelligible ramblings, Mr. James Smith has already done so, and in a more organized manner than my own thought process. Thank you Mr. Smith for attacking the logical falicies of others in such a manner... you make my aneurisms more controllable, lol
Is it too much to hope that
Is it too much to hope that the dead (or WORST-injured) pig is the same one that shot the poor guy with the golf-club?
This BS has to STOP!
There is *NO REASON* for these raids except fear-inducing Gestapo-tactics. They could just as easily have taken him when he walked out the door to go to work - no need for anyone to get hurt or any damage to property...
What ever happened to the days when Joe Friday -- PEACE OFFICER (Not PIG!) -- knocked on the door and waited for an answer to serve their warrant?
If you're chasing a dangerous, armed desperado then MAYBE these paramilitary tactics *MIGHT* be justified, but for 99.9% of cases it's just pigs being pigs.
If everybody would just smoke
If everybody would just smoke some pot, this wouldn't be happening. Get mellow. Smoke some weed. Would you want to die over a plant that has been celebrated for centuries?
Being a military vet, HELL
Being a military vet, HELL yea if someone kicked in my door all armored up and having a weapon, i probably would react the same way!! This is Just insanity!! When will people learn its NOT RIGHT!!! We as Americans have the right to protect ourselves, our home and our families. In this case I feel so saddened by the fact that now this vet will be sentenced to death for doing just that. Protecting HIMSELF!!!
@ Pyretta I agree with you
@ Pyretta I agree with you 1000000000%.
I believe the DEA has far
I believe the DEA has far better things to do than raid a fellow for growing a small amount of marijuana for personal medical use. There are people out there giving kids crank and prescription opiates. Go raid the people doing that. I am sorry for this man who now faces a life behind bars. This entire situation was unnecessary and it is a frightening thought that the DEA can go so over board with their authorities "just because they can". I have mentioned to our local police many times about why they don't do something about the people walking about town with their cheeks drawn in and taking to themselves, skinny as rails and wild eyed begging for money to buy smokes. I asked why when a call is made to the police that a person came smell meth being cooked at a particular residence and they said they couldn't just go bust those people without a lengthy investigation. In the meantime, the public is subjected to the fumes of meth and threats of explosions. Amazing isn't it? I have no answer, only opinions. And opinions, well, you know how they are. I personally think the DEA should be abolished. Our HARD drug problems in America would probably drop a great percentage if they were. But to raid a guy in the middle of the night for a small amount of medical marijuana that he was growing is just out of line. Now a man's life is ruined and another man is dead. Was that small amount of marijuana worth all of that to the DEA?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, more pigs
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, more pigs need to die over this. do not come into my home with out my permission! legalize all drugs look at portugal 10 years ago they did and it has worked! fuck the 1%
Just proves that people who
Just proves that people who smoke pot are "crazy" and dangerous if armed What do you expect from a "drug addict". They say that if you smoke pot you will become "peaceful" Yeah if that was the case this crazy man should have been sitting in "lotus position" eyes closed meditating. All you potheads up there is that the "excuse" you are giving!!! That many people break down into houses pretending to be the police. I have never heard of such cases. Even if there are such cases and you think that the cops outside are armed robbers you can dial 911. Tell them your house is being broken into. If they are armed robbers instead of the police then backup will arrive in a few minutes. If its the police then its all good. You just can't go around shooting cops and telling them I though you were robbers.
Only potheads can come up with such ridiculous arguments to defend their addictions. Yeah their neighbors did not know. Like if they knew it they would keep quiet. Ofcourse these people operate in secrecy. Just because this guy is not handing it out to the kids does not mean others wont. The main reason why any drug is banned is because you can easily slip it into some candy and entice kids at a young age and destroy them. No moderation there. When I was a kid a shop outside are school had shut down because he was giving "charas" laced candy to kids. two students from our school were victims and were in rehab at the age of 7 and 10.
The only reason why they were able to catch the shopkeeper was that drugs were illegal. When they raided is shop he had thrown all the drug laced candy. Then they raided hi house and found him in "possession" of drugs. If drugs were not illegal they would have nothing to hold him.
Later more than 150 kids testified against him from surrounding houses and school and he was convicted. There is not "freedom" in legalizing drugs. ITs a paradox its like asking the "freedom" to be enslaved....a slave to the addiction. Its even worse when people don't know what they are getting into.
Ok you say call 911 hell it
Ok you say call 911 hell it happened so fast why don't think before you speak dumb ass.
@rawraj You are a typical
@rawraj You are a typical anti-everything ranter. Tell me, how many people have you heard of getting high on pot and trashing a bar, hotel room, or their own home? How many people have you heard of committing robberies to get cash for pot?
As far as the victim being "mellowed out" do you know if he had smoked marijuana withing the last few hours? He was sleeping. That's pretty mellow, in most people's world view. You clearly do not understand PTSD. I doubt you have any military experience at all. You seem to love to swagger and boast, but have no interest in truth or rational thinking.
Only uniformed fools spout stupidities as you have. Smoke a joint, mellow out, and learn some facts.
@ rawraj....Although you are
@ rawraj....Although you are entitled to your opinion, I have to disagree with you on most of your post. Yes, I agree that lacing candy with any kind of drug is wrong, selling drugs to kids outside of school buildings is wrong. What I disagree with you on is that this man was crazy and a drug addict. Having teethed on the 60's and having a good time in the 70's, I am here to tell you that pot smokers are not insane drug addicts. I don't do any drugs any longer except what my doctor prescribes me, but I can say that there are far more dangerous drugs than marijuana out there. I am neutral on the legalization of marijuana because it's just more government intrusion into people's lives and it will not stop underground selling and buying but show me one news clipping of a person who smoked a joint, then got in their vehicle and wrecked that vehicle into another vehicle, killing the people inside. Show me one news clipping of a person who smoked a joint then went nuts and shot up a shopping mall or school. Now, liquor is legal to buy. Maybe start there on an addiction that is deadly. Fact is, marijuana is actually a naturally grown herb. There is medical proof that is does help some medical conditions and the people who prefer to use it as such are probably smarter than those who prefer prescribed opiates from their doctor. The side affects of pot are not as dangerous as the side affects of many prescribed medications. Sure, it is stronger than it may have been 30, 40 years ago but I don't see people out robbing and killing for a "doobie". That tells my age maybe...lol This man was startled out of a dead sleep and when that happens, you have no idea for a period of time exactly what is going on. I am a woman who spends three weeks out of the month alone with a grandchild. I have legal firearms in my home for self protection. If I am woken in the middle of the night with chaos happening, I will grab my personal firearm because I will not know who it may be or what they are trying to do except break into my home. Marijuana did NOT make this man do as he did...the DEA tactics did. It's a tragedy either way on this, but I put the blame on the DEA.
@ rawraj....I also disagree
@ rawraj....I also disagree on something else. You did not mention this in your post but I felt the need to express it. I hear, quite often, that marijuana leads to harsher drugs. I disagree with that completely. I know people who have smoked pot since the 60's. Now in the 60's and maybe a time or two in the 70's, they experienced LSD but their primary choice is pot. These people are mellow, down to earth and just enjoy peace and harmony in life. My take on the idea that pot leads people to use harder drugs is this: It isn't the pot that leads a person to harder drugs, it's the company in which you run with that does. Some people just like using illegal drugs no matter if it is coke, meth, X or whatever other drug is out there. But most of the pot smokers I know just stick to pot and they are the most non-violent people you could ever meet. They do not do it around children nor do they offer it to children. I think law enforcement needs to act on all the advertisements they issue about "hard" drugs. The advertisements are there but the help programs are not. Unless of course, you have a healthy bank account. Many communities receive federal monies for drug rehab programs that simply do not exist. Wonder what all they use that money for? Anyhow, that is just my opinion on what leads people to use hard drugs. It seems acceptable to take a legally prescribed depression pill that could make you have suicidal thoughts, yet, don't get caught growing a few personal marijuana plants for medicinal purposes because you suffer from PTSD. Better to take a legally prescribed pill that could cause you to commit suicide? Makes no sense to me.
I'm almost fifty-six, married
I'm almost fifty-six, married nearly thirty-two years, am the father of six kids.
I smoked marijuana one time and hashish one time when I was age nineteen or twenty. I never became addicted. I have never used cannabis again, nor used any other illegal drugs, since then(by the way, I do not even drink alcohol). I have zero interest in ever using cannabis or other recreational drugs. So, I don't write as a "pot-head".
In my whole life, yours is only account I've ever heard of a drug-dealer lacing candy with cannabis to give to kids in order to get them addicted. I'm not saying it's never happened other times, but it's obviously a rare occurrence in the US, else the US news media, which loves sensational stories, would have been regularly reporting about "drug-dealers giving kids cannabis-laced candy!". US dealers lacing candy with cannabis is probably as rare as this tragic police shooting is a rare occurrence. Both occurrences are exceptions-to-the-usual. It'd be illogical to ban all US police entries based on this one exceptional tragedy. Same goes for banning cannabis based on rare incidents such as you describe. People slipping cannabis into candy to entice kids isn't the "main reason" cannabis is banned in the US.
About that shopkeeper, you wrote, "If drugs were not illegal they would have nothing to hold him....Later more than 150 kids testified against him from surrounding houses and school and he was convicted." I agree he should have been imprisoned for endangering and harming minors. But it's nonsense to insist he couldn't have been caught and held if cannabis hadn't been illegal. From what you relate, it sounds like the police first noticed him because of what happened to some of the kids. If cannabis was legal in the US, it'd still be illegal to give or sell to minors, same as alcohol is. So, the police would have investigated further, heard from those other 150 kids you mentioned, and then arrested and charged him, and he'd been convicted for giving cannabis to and endangering the welfare of minors.
Your "freedom to be enslaved" paradox would be true only if all or at least the majority of the people who use cannabis became addicted to it. They don't, however, just as the majority of people who use an already-legal drug, alcohol, don't become enslaved to it.
(Note that my arguments here concern only cannabis, not other illegal drugs.)
The only thing "rare" about
The only thing "rare" about this situation was that this time the PIGS* got the worst of it. It's usually the non-violent beings (kids, dogs, grandmothers, kittens etc) in the house that end up wounded or dead in these fascist "raids." Follow the link in TFA to the Cato.org list of innocents harmed by this sickness.
I don't know what this person claims the "shopkeeper" was giving kids, but ending prohibition would NOT end the fact that it's a crime to "lace" food with drugs - especially for kids. Its an argumentum ad absurdum!
Next, explain to me why we (rightly) had to have a Constitutional amendment to grant the Fed.gov the power to ban alcohol - and THAT amendment was REPEALED - but they can since ban whatever they wish on a bureaucrat's whim without even action of CONgress??
Lastly, Please tell me what more basic, fundamental Liberty there could possibly be than the right to decide what I'll do with (or put IN) my own body, so long as I harm nobody else?
You think you're FREE?!
We're *ALL* *S*L*A*V*E*S* - and we're not even smart enough to know it!
Think I'm "over the top"?
Most of us work 5 months a year for the benefit of "Massa" - I mean "the Fed.Gov."
Just like Massa, the Fed.gov gets THEIRS first - then WE get whatever is left over... Just like slaves who were allowed to work for their own profit once they finished what Massa wanted.
Just like Massa, the Fed.gov tells us where we can go, what we can do and so-on...
Break any of Massa's rules - even in private - and he'll send his "enforcers" around to deliver a whipping!!!
We're all PROPERTY - and it's long past time for the slaves to REVOLT~!
I'm sorry for the dead/wounded PIGS'* children, but the pigs themselves just got their just desserts for violating their oath - wherein they swore to protect and defend THE CONSTITUTION!
Enough is ENOUGH!
DD
* Peace Officers ain't PIGS. If you don't know the difference, you're either a pig or a sheep!
Just to clarify my opinion,
Just to clarify my opinion, although I'm not and have no interest in being a cannabis user, after considering the pros and cons through my decades, I feel cannabis use should be legalized in the US.
Although I basically agree with the idea, " ...what more basic, fundamental Liberty there could possibly be than the right to decide what I'll do with (or put IN) my own body, so long as I harm nobody else...", I do see one qualification to it.
Things which I choose to do might not directly nor immediately harm someone else, but might mean I indirectly hurt others or put others in the situation of having to help me. For example, if I choose to overeat to obesity which causes a stroke that paralyzes me, am I going to expect others to help me around the rest of my life even though I was the one who hurt myself by my overeating?
Same with drugs -- if I choose to drink so heavily at a party that I overdose on alcohol, should anyone, including emergency personnel, be expected to expend their time and effort helping me? If I have young kids, and I choose to use meth in the privacy of my bedroom, can I honestly say that my freedom to put whatever I want into my body will not indirectly harm them?
My point is, even though we should have the freedom to put whatever we want into our bodies, we need to carefully consider not only the immediate and direct but also the indirect and long-term consequences our choices can bring on others. I need to be sure exercising my freedom is not unreasonably nor unnecessarily infringing on someone else's "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness".
I am absolutely glad that
I am absolutely glad that this cop is dead and my dad says he plans on sending him money to his jail commisary account so he can buy ice cream and stuff. Too many people bust into houses pretending to be police. You wake up some dude you can expect to get shot. Glad he is dead and I hope the other 5 cops die too or are crippled for life. lulz
Ok so... Armed men storm your
Ok so... Armed men storm your house to perform a condoned version of armed robbery, maybe kidnapping afterwords, you did nothing wrong, were trained by the US Military how to protect your self, you did what you were supposed to...did nothing wrong and now...facing the death penalty. So sad, I am sorry for this person. One day us citizens will be free. "Free at last all mighty, free at last".
Sad story. I'm with
Sad story. I'm with songbird21, legalize it and tax the crap out of it.
“And how we burned in the
“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family?"
"If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”
Before any search warrant is
Before any search warrant is executed there should be an attorney representing the accused before the judge that issues a search warrant. If there is a need to avoid pre-warning the accused, the attorney could be a public defender. Seizures should be restricted to items mentioned in the search warrant and only when evidence that those items were used for criminal activity. My nephew who is currently doing a tour in Afghanistan after two tours in Iraq said that a number of soldiers are going AWOL. Certainly those who go AWOL are also having PTSD and should be treated as well.
Seriously. Just legalize it
Seriously. Just legalize it and tax the hell out of it.
It is not a tragedy when
It is not a tragedy when someone gets shot kicking in a door to someone else's house.
That this door kicking followed the law is just proof that the legislators should be hanged.