Remember all of the police representatives opposing industrial hemp because they said they would have a difficult time distinguishing it from marijuana, and the hemp advocates saying that it’s very easy to tell the two apart? Well, maybe we gave them a bit too much credit. Apparently the Georgia governor’s task force for drug suppression can’t tell the difference between marijuana and okra.
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/okra-mistaken-pot-mans-garden/nhbHW/
That’s not to say that okra looks a lot like marijuana. It’s more of a comment about the people charged with making that determination.
I’m glad the okra grower is speaking out about this, and telling people about the warrantless aerial search of his property that led to the heavily armed raid. I’m glad he’s telling people how he felt, on his own property, harming nobody, growing some gumbo fixins, and being SWAT raided by goons armed to the teeth. I’m glad he is trying to make people understand that this was a very volatile situation, and their mistake could have very easily resulted in his violent death, as has happened many other times. He could easily be yet another example of collateral damage in the war on drugs.
We need a war on the war on drugs. It’s long overdue.
I like okra. Now I’m hungry for gumbo. I’m glad that farmers are bravely defying the violent prohibition on okra so I can make gumbo.
I keep reading these stories, like the story I read two minutes ago stating that a grand jury in Georgia had found no wrongdoing when a no-knock marijuana SWAT raid resulted in severe burns to a toddler’s face when a flash bang grenade was thrown into his crib, and I wonder how much of this abuse are we going to take? Is there no limit to this? Will we keep voting for more government initiated violence directed at innocent bystanders in the war on drugs, or, at worst, against criminals whose crime has no victim?