Gothamist: Floral Park Pot Grow House Busted

ebad

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 09:18:03 -0500

This is all coming from a gardener's perspective, by the by.

ebad

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 09:17:09 -0500

How do they get "rid" of the plants? Do they just burn them all? That seems a little risky for the NYPD's sobriety, which is questionable. I wonder if they compost it or just throw it out? Maybe they tie it upside down, dry it in their offices, and keep them as evidence in ball jars like basil.

mihow

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:31:27 -0500

Good point about alcohol being really bad for the body. Imagine if cancer patients were using booze to "feel better" and up their appetite? The next morning would suck.

edEx

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:34:24 -0500

if my electric bill went from its average $300 a month to $800 i would surely be on the phone with the electric company in an instant... wtf?

cwbuecheler

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:32:30 -0500

Monster Mash - I'm not saying these guys don't deserve some kind of punishment. I'm saying that if what they were growing wasn't illegal, they'd be guilty of illegally siphoning power, instead of supporting a criminal underground. And since there's no real reason for it to be illegal except for a combination of grandfathered laws and general paranoid puritanism on the part of this country ... *shrug*. It's just a dumb situation. Yes, the guys who are growing bales of it when they know it's illegal and they know the kind of punishments they're facing pretty much deserve what they get when they get caught. Mihow - Oh, sure. I meant chemically addictive in the way that drugs like valium, heroin, and other narcotics are. People get addicted to booze, certainly, and it's not chemically addictive either. I agree with you that the total number of pot-related accidents and such would increase if it were legalized and more readily available. I just think they would still be dwarfed by the number of alcohol-related incidents because of the specific effects the two chemicals have on your brain. Pot is already VERY available now (the number of people I've met in my life who haven't smoked it at least once or twice is definitely the minority), and it's just not responsible for many large-scale accidents, nor is it as brutally harmful to the human system as alcohol is.

JenChungsBra

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:26:07 -0500

Marijuana may not be physically addictive in that hard-core users will get the shakes or whatever if they have none, but it's definitely psychologically habit forming. Without a doubt. I've seen it in friends.

mihow

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:18:30 -0500

Sorry, let me edit a few things. Addiction can be a number of different things not just the puking your brains out from withdrawal kind of addiction. Also, I am not pro booze or anti pot. I have to reiterate that. But the problem always happens when people abuse a drug. And we all know that a drink every night is not something that will cause a huge problem. It's when you binge drink and then go and drive, that's where the problem arises. I think the same would happen with pot if they made it legal. That's not to say that it shouldn't be. I get the feeling I'm about to be attacked for my comment above. Hits post fast!

mihow

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:00:07 -0500

While I am not anti-weed by any means, nor do i think it should be illegal necessarily, you simply cannot positively make the claim that weed is less dangerous than alcohol since it's never been legal in our culture. You can speculate all you want, but until it's legal and readily available to any dick and jane, then we won't know how "bad" it may or may not be. I think if you really put the research into it you'd find that marijuana is in fact addictive. Also, these guys? Perhaps they were hitting up a little too much of their inventory.

Monster_mash

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 12:37:42 -0500

Yes, legalize it, etc. But these guys weren't growing (just) because they wanted to blow some b's. They're dealers that support a criminal infrastructure that is not healthy for society (I would guess they're facing much more than possession charges, btw). I have less sympathy for that than the average hydroponic hobbyist. And the officers noticed a pungent odor on the street AND they were siphoning the neighbor's juice? How did these guys think they weren't going to get caught?

jibbly

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 12:08:11 -0500

Well said CW, but you forgot to mention the overwhelming amount of poor folk in prison and eventually disenfranchised from the rest of society over a simple plant!

Elderta

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 11:57:54 -0500

*weeps*

cwbuecheler

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 11:43:56 -0500

If people would stop being retarded hypocrites and admit that pot is a fraction as bad as alcohol and should thus be legal, this kind of stuff would stop. People would be able to grow it, and companies would be able to slap it into packs on store shelves, and the government would be able to tax the shit out of it like they do with cigarettes. Instead we have nearly a century of prosecuting people for enjoying a naturally-occurring plant that requires no processing, is not addictive, and has several documented medical benefits, simply because paper companies were terrified by the growing strength of the hemp industry at the turn of the twentieth century. Way to go, America. This is valuable use of our police officers' time! And no, I'm not a pot-smoker, for the record.

Steven

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 11:42:54 -0500

Wasn't the neighbor suspicious or wondering why his bill was so high all of sudden? If he had a bill for $5,000 he probably would have just paid it without any questions.