Busted Letter #116 – Nosey Neighbors

My family and I recently moved from Texas to Oregon so I could obtain a medical license to grow buds. I was able to get my card and everything was going great when all of a sudden our landlord passed away and the house we were renting was put up for sale. So we had to find another house for rent in less than a month.

We settled into a new house but I had not been able to set up a new growroom right away. So, I took the six clones I had from my previous growroom and put them in the dirt in the new backyard not even thinking that they would survive. However, most of them did make it and got pretty big themselves.

It was late September and buds were packing on, the aroma was wafting over to the neighbor's yard and they felt the need to play private detectives and snoop over our fence. That led them to call the police – and these are the same people that look us in the face on a daily basis when our children play together still to this day!

Anyway, every November I have to renew my license to grow here in Oregon. I was waiting to renew my card and update my new address in November when we were accused of illegally growing marijuana (growing at an unregistered site). They came and arrested my wife and I. They also confiscated my computer in which they found a two-year old picture of my daughter picking raspberries with marijuana plants in the distant background. Because of this we were charged with endangering our children along with felony possession of a controlled substance.

Additionally, my wife watches two kids for some extra income. The parents of the children my wife watched knew about my growing pot and had no problem with it as it was locked up in my garage. They even wrote letters in our defense, hoping we would not get harshly punished. However, the DA charged us with endangering their children as well - all because we did not register our new address.

So now my wife who hardly ever smoked and has never been in trouble her whole life is a convicted felon. It was felony possession of a controlled substance because it was over an ounce of dried plant matter (go figure, we moved to Oregon so I could grow good medicinal marijuana but back in Texas you can possess up to two ounces without a felony charge).

They took like $3000 worth of grow equipment and all of my precious ladies! I went to court to try and recover my grow equipment but they refused to give it back. I even showed them that I got my license back to grow my own medicine again. The judge just said I took a chance by not registering my grow area and ordered it destroyed.

So, now I am on probation for all of that and can get thrown in jail for using my prescribed medicine from a licensed physician, all because my probation officer and his boss believe that the medical marijuana program (OMMP) is "a bunch of bull**** "! I have let him know on several occasions that I have Crohn’s disease and need marijuana in order to eat and keep my food down (as well as helping with other symptoms I have, that I would rather not discuss. If you know anything about the disease then you will know what I am referring to).

I just got some new grow equipment and will love the day I am off probation and can enjoy smoking without having to go to jail for it!

Moe Esco