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Georgia Man Busted for Growing Pot

LogicSoDeveloped

LogicSoDeveloped

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Oct 12, 2010
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GWINNETT COUNTY, GA — Medical marijuana is not yet legal in Georgia, but that little technicality didn’t stop 52 year-old Kevin Sheehan from growing marijuana to help relieve the pain he has felt from rheumatoid arthritis for the past decade. Unfortunately for Sheehan, local police see things differently, and on Tuesday seized 36 plants from his home and placed him under arrest.

"I'm not a drug dealer, I'm a sick old man."

"You can look at my hands. You can look at my ankles. You can look at my knees. I am riddled with a horrible disease that's killing me."
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Police have charged Sheehan with possessing marijuana with intent to distribute, a felony charge with a possible ten year sentence if convicted. They claim that the 36 plants have a street value of $489,000, and the local newspaper is painting Sheehan as a drug dealer with a “marijuana laboratory” in his bedroom.

“I’m not a criminal. I’m not a drug dealer. I’m a sick old man,” Sheehan told WSB-TV after his arrest, while calling for medical marijuana to be legal in Georgia. “You can look at my hands. You can look at my ankles. You can look at my knees. I am riddled with a horrible disease that’s killing me.”

Police say they received a tip last week about an alleged “drug operation” at Sheehan’s home. Gwinnett police went to Sheehan’s home Tuesday intending to conduct a “knock and talk” investigation, and claim that when Sheehan opened the door, they noticed an “overwhelming odor of marijuana” inside the home and asked to enter. Sheehan allegedly consented.

Inside, police allegedly found 36 mature plants, lamps, timers, and 148 grams of usable marijuana, a little over 5 ounces.

Although police did not have a search warrant for the home, a police spokesperson said “”The officers very easily could have obtained a warrant at that point.”

source: http://www.thedailychronic.net/2012...l-pot-im-not-a-drug-dealer-im-a-sick-old-man/
 
why bother getting a warrant if you can just barge in and say the homeowner consented to the search?

When they busted Udonis Haslem in 2010, they said he signed a search consent form. Has anyone here ever been presented with such a form by the cops prior to a search? I've never seen it before.
 
Great job, your putting a sick old man into prison for a decade. All because he grew his own medicine.

Meanwhile, children are getting raped & adults are getting murdered. But it'so kay because they stopped somebody from smoking a fuckign plant...


I Really hate this world sometimes..
 
I really hope the judge throws this out. This is even more reason to get medical marijuana programs in every state. Whether or not people agree on whether it should be totally legalized, at the bare minimum, people like this should have access to cannabis as a medicine. I mean, fuck, he has a serious illness, is he really a threat to the community? Or was he actually just trying to cope with his illness in the safest way possible?

Maybe Georgians will get lucky and this will spark a debate on medical marijuana in that state.
 
Why did he consent?

I feel for the man and have his best interests at heart, but I have to admit he was ignorant of the laws which are supposed to protect him in his own home. At least make the fuckers get a warrant or break down your door, something you can use in court. If you consent you're basically admitting guilt for anything they find in your house that's against "their" laws.

Shame.
 
Well, another one bites the dust for weed..........only time will tell where this war against weed will go.


LMAO@ $489,000 worth of plants/weed........what didnt they just say 1 million dollars & get it over with their lies.
 
Newbierock said:
Great job, your putting a sick old man into prison for a decade. All because he grew his own medicine.

Meanwhile, children are getting raped & adults are getting murdered. But it'so kay because they stopped somebody from smoking a fuckign plant...
Click to expand...

This.
 
Georgia is so fucking draconian when it comes to drugs (even pot) that they can throw you in jail for finding a seed in your car. Even if the federal government legalized weed, Georgia would probably still arrest people for it. Or it would at least be one of the last state to allow 'medical marijuana' out of all 50 and there would be so many restrictions only 2 people with aids would be eligible to get it ... lol fucking south.
 
I doubt he really consented.

The desire to enter was worded in such a way as to imply that he had no choice about the search, or...

He just stepped aside and let the cops in, assuming he had no choice and having not been informed otherwise, or...

He actively refused consent, and the police wrote the report up differently, knowing the judge would believe whatever they wrote over some poor sap who couldn't afford a big bucks lawyer.

And that's what it really comes down to. For all the talk on drug boards about never letting a cop search you, the fact is that this is less a constitutional right you're invoking, and more an expensive stalling technique, requiring a lawyer's help, that may or may not work. For those without the resources to pull this trick, if you're in possession of drugs, you're essentially fucked the moments the cops decide to pay attention to you.
 
MyDoorsAreOpen said:
I doubt he really consented.

The desire to enter was worded in such a way as to imply that he had no choice about the search, or...

He just stepped aside and let the cops in, assuming he had no choice and having not been informed otherwise, or...

He actively refused consent, and the police wrote the report up differently, knowing the judge would believe whatever they wrote over some poor sap who couldn't afford a big bucks lawyer.

And that's what it really comes down to. For all the talk on drug boards about never letting a cop search you, the fact is that this is less a constitutional right you're invoking, and more an expensive stalling technique, requiring a lawyer's help, that may or may not work. For those without the resources to pull this trick, if you're in possession of drugs, you're essentially fucked the moments the cops decide to pay attention to you.
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Indeed.

Although honestly, he was fucked the moment somebody ratted him out. NO EARTHLY FORCE would've stopped those cops from scoring that bust.
 
^ I agree. Even if the guy had met the cops outside in front of a locked door, or refused to answer when they knocked, I wouldn't have put it past them to kick in his door and then retroactively obtain a warrant, written to look like it had predated the bust.

Back on Overgrow.com, the party line was to hide it from absolutely everyone that you were growing marijuana.

No sell, no tell, no smell, no yell.​


Because in the end, the only thing protecting a marijuana grower from the law is having nothing about them that would even make them a person that law enforcement officers (and those allied with them) would take a second look at. If you enter onto their radar, it's probably because someone or something piqued their interest. The USA may indeed qualify as a police state nowadays, but I don't think we've yet gotten to the point where law enforcement scrutinizes uninteresting citizens at random, looking hard for any little evidence of drugs. All I'll say is, if I were growing my own medical marijuana for what I believed to be a legitimate medical reason, I'd take pains to ensure as few people as possible in my life even remotely suspected I'd ever tried the stuff. I'd sport nothing in the way of possessions, preferences,or physical appearance that anyone could even loosely connect with drugs in their minds.
 
TheLostBoys said:
Well, another one bites the dust for weed..........only time will tell where this war against weed will go.


LMAO@ $489,000 worth of plants/weed........what didnt they just say 1 million dollars & get it over with their lies.
Click to expand...

Because dude, they used a conservative estimate, it was obviously more like 1 and a 1/2 million dollars worth of pot.

but yeah, MyDoorsAreOpen is right about that, the less you stick out, the less they are likely to suspect you.
 
I'm all for growing your own if you need it for medical reasons
but 36 plants? plus a stash of over 5 oz...

even if you're a shit grower and manage a measly 8th oz. per plant - that still yields you 4.5 oz...
now unless you are smoking 24/7 4.5oz should last you a while. certainly long enough to get another grow going... its not like it takes a year to crop out a set of plants...

I understand that not everyone who uses cannabis for medical reasons wants to bother with growing so maybe they'd like to grow one big crop then sit on their harvest for a long time... but its unfortunate that doing so is a good way to get busted.

anyone think it would be a bit different if he was busted with 2 or 4 plants? higher chances of the judge throwing it out perhaps?

it should be reasonably easy to hide the grow of one or two plants... but doing so with 36 plants is asking a bit much.
 
^ While you are correct, it is a stinkin' shame that we have to worry about how many plants to grow.
Nature gave us such plants, not the government.
There is no rational reason why the government should control them.
 
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