Gardening Is No Crime

Wow!  Insanity in my own back yard.  Watch out gardening friends.  April 20th is coming up.  This could happen to you.

If only the raid, called Operation Constant Gardner, had occurred 4/20/2013 instead of 4/20/2012, this Leawood, Kansas family whose house was raided in a fruitless search for an illegal plant, could just move across the state line to Colorado, where marijuana is completely legal, to flee such an absurd police state in Kansas.  But they're not leaving.  They're staying and fighting:

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/03/30/4151902/futile-pot-raid-spurs-lawsuit.html#storylink=omni_popular#storylink=

Nearly a year after the SWAT-style raid, the Hartes still don’t know what evidence deputies used to persuade a judge to grant a warrant to search their home in the 10300 block of Wenonga Lane on April 20.Their requests for records that could provide such information have been denied by the sheriff’s office.  The lawsuit filed Thursday asks the court to order the release of the records. The information revealed could be used in a federal civil rights lawsuit.  “You can’t send out the SWAT team because people are trying to grow tomatoes in their basement,” Robert Harte told The Star.

Also from the Star article:

The father allegedly was forced to lie shirtless on the foyer while a deputy with an assault rifle stood over him. The children, a 7-year-old girl and 13-year-old boy, reportedly came out of their bedrooms terrified, the teenager with his hands in the air.  And all because the couple, Robert and Adlynn Harte, bought indoor gardening equipment to grow a small number of tomato and squash plants in their basement, according to a lawsuit filed this week.  The equipment was never used for marijuana, the couple says, and no one in the family has ever used illegal drugs.

Adlynn Hart said the family has the "utmost respect" for law enforcement, but wants to make sure that tax dollars are properly used and that other families — with fewer resources than the Hartes have — aren’t subjected to similar tactics.  "We feel like it’s un-American and we need to do something about it," Adlynn Harte said. "I told my son last night that doing the right thing takes courage."

Let's do the right thing and contact our elected officials to ask them to stop the insanity.  This is not a state issue.  I'm happy for our Colorado neighbors' rational laws, but they don't help my neighbors here in Kansas.  Marijuana needs to be decriminalized at the federal level to stop more ridiculous and harmful raids from happening.