The April Fools Edition: The Mountain Crackpot
~ by Bud Price ~
Recently, a dilemma struck the county as far as what to do with an excessive amount of illegally produced marijuana.
At the beginning of this month, the local sheriff came up with an idea to use the marijuana in a fundraiser to raise money for local law enforcement agencies. Since the beginning of 2018, local police and sheriff’s deputies have led a successful campaign aimed at shutting down illegal marijuana grow operations within the county. Since the law changed at the start of 2018 that limited houses to growing only a dozen plants for personal recreational use, authorities across the county have confiscated hundreds of pounds of marijuana and substances containing the plant’s active ingredient, THC.
Since the busts started occurring over a year ago now, most of the illegal narcotics have been sitting at the local sheriff’s office stored on the property inside a metal portable storage unit. Anyone who has gone to or driven by the department’s office can easily smell the skunk-like aroma the plant creates.
So, why do the law enforcement officials continue to store the confiscated drugs without disposing of them? Well, according to the local sheriff Mike Jasonsell, the narcotics are considered evidence and must be kept throughout the suspect’s entire court process. After the court proceedings are finalized, the drugs then become the property of the sheriff’s office.
At first, local officials said that the plan was to either bury the drugs (that are legal in Colorado in small amounts) or burn them in a pressurized chamber to destroy them. However, recently the sheriff had a change of heart and decided to use the drugs to raise money for first responders in the region and offer community members short-term happiness in the form of a buzz.
On Sunday, June 31, the sheriff’s department will hold a fundraiser that is open to anyone over 21 years of age. The event will feature live reggae music and is called “The First Annual High Mountain Smokefest.”
The sheriff has agreed to offer a section of the department’s property to hold the event where people can enjoy confiscated marijuana that was grown illegally. The price to get into the fundraiser is $40.20 and the admission includes all of the marijuana you can handle plus free barbecued food and live entertainment.
The event is being sponsored by Higher Than A Kite Glass, Inc. that is going to provide several different types of smoking apparatuses to be used during the event including vaporizers, hookahs and bongs.
“Marijuana is legal to consume in Colorado but it is against state law to grow large amounts of the drug,” Sheriff Jasonsell said. “However, we decided that it was silly not to use the confiscated narcotics to give back to the community, make people happy, and create strong relationships with law abiding citizens that wish to partake in using the legal drug.”
