(Imperial Valley Press) CALEXICO — An 85-year-old Calexico man was arrested this week on suspicion of trying to smuggle 217 pounds of marijuana at the downtown Port of Entry, a press statement reported.

Thirty-five wrapped packages of marijuana that carried an estimated street value of $98,800 was found in a compartment at the bed of the truck. The senior Calexico resident whose name was not released was arrested for his alleged role in the attempted smuggling effort and the CBP seized the marijuana.

Well, let’s see, if he’s charged in federal court, that 217 pounds can get our octogenarian smuggler 20 years in prison and a million dollar fine.  Maybe with good behavior he could get out before his 100th birthday.

ATLANTA (AP) — An appeals court on Thursday overturned the conviction of a former Atlanta police officer sentenced to prison for lying to FBI agents about the killing of a 92-year-old woman during a botched drug raid.

A Fulton County Superior Court judge sentenced [Arthur] Tesler to 4 1/2 years in prison and six months probation last May. Tesler has also pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges.

Kathryn Johnston was killed by a barrage of bullets fired by officers who stormed into her home in November 2006 with a no-knock warrant.

Police originally said officers had gone to Kathryn Johnston’s northwest Atlanta home in 2006 after an informant bought drugs there. But after finding none, officers tried to cover up the mistake by planting baggies of marijuana, prosecutors said.

Two other officers, Jason R. Smith and Gregg Junnier, pleaded guilty to state and federal charges. Tesler, who did not fire a shot, faces sentencing next month after pleading guilty to a charge of conspiracy to violate civil rights resulting in death.

Tesler was in Johnston’s backyard when plainclothes officers burst in through the front door the night of Nov. 21, 2006, using a special “no-knock” warrant to search for drugs. Johnston fired a single shot from a rusty revolver at the intruders, but hit no one, and officers fired 39 bullets, hitting the woman five or six times, prosecutors said.

via The Associated Press: Conviction nixed in deadly botched Ga. drug raid.

Does it bother anyone else that police missed at least 33 shots at close range against a 92-year-old woman?  Or that cops thought that finding planted weed on a dead elderly woman wouldn’t raise a few eyebrows?  Or that cops in Georgia are running around with a couple of baggies of weed on them “just in case”?

I even have a small (very small) degree of sympathy for the officers in this case because their job requires them to serve these no-knock warrants to catch what they believe will be gun-totin’ drug-addled violent thugs.  The lying and planting evidence is inexcusable, of course, but treating all drug warrant as if they are taking down Tony Montana is bound to get innocent people and police officers killed (see: Corey Maye).

Why can’t police officers watch a suspect’s home, wait til he leaves the home, and apprehend him, when they can see he’s not armed? I know the no-knock warrants are so a suspect doesn’t have the time to flush the cocaine down the toilet, but why are no-knocks given for marijuana raids?  Lights, ballasts, pots, soil, and live plants are not exactly easily disposable, there should be plenty of time for police to knock, identify themselves, and enter calmly.

Milkman who supplied cannabis to elderly faces jail
A milkman who supplied cannabis to elderly customers to ward off their “aches and pains” is facing a possible jail term in Britain.

Robert Holding, 72, pleaded guilty in Burnley Crown Court to two counts of supplying and possessing the drug, newspapers reported on Tuesday.

The court in Lancashire, north-west England, heard that Holding supplied cannabis to 17 households when residents left hand-written requests out with their empty milk bottles.

Defence lawyer Phil Holden said Holding had told police the drug was for “elderly people with aches and pains”.

“Those who he supplied, and there were not many, were through word-of-mouth and his customers were all of a certain age,” The Daily Mail quoted Holden as saying.

Adjourning the case for a pre-sentence report, Judge Beverley Lunt flagged a likely prison term.

“You must understand these are serious offences and in my judgment the likely outcome is an immediate custodial sentence,” she said.

Thought #1 – the milkman who delivers weed is named “Holding”?  File this one in the Dr. Mitch Earleywine Appropriate Names File*.  And then his defense lawyer is “Holden”?  Really?

Thought #2 – I didn’t know there really were still milkmen in the world, much less those who will deliver cannabis.  I thought these days milkmen only existed as plot devices in pornography.  So I’m told.

Thought #3 – A 72-year-old man is delivering cannabis to other elderly people and you want to throw him in jail?  Because, what, stoned geriatrics are a threat to society and a drain on productivity?  Because smoking pot is a serious danger to their health and longevity?  I think when you reach a certain age (let’s say the average life expectancy at your birth, like 72 or so) you should be allowed to use any drug you like.  That’s your final age to wait for — 16 for driving, 18 for smokes, 21 for booze, 35 for President, 55 for AARP, 65 to retire, then, finally at 72, you get to smoke, drink, snort, shoot, and eat whatever you like.

Thought #4 – Keith Stroup has made a point about growing older and the aches and pains that come with it and that use of cannabis at a certain age is by definition medical.  I agree with him, although I think I set the age at about 22.

* I so dubbed this file based on talking with Dr. Mitch Earleywine – a researcher who’s authored many studies on alcohol use.  Earleywine, alcohol, get it?  Then he told me of cocaine research done by a Dr. Blow, LSD research done by Dr. Fried, and he has a grad student who works on his cannabis research named Smoker-Barnwell.  Just this last month the Michigan medical marijuana clinic opened and the ophthalmologist who wrote recommendations for medical cannabis is named Dr. Eisenbud.