Elevated Electric Bill Prompts Pot Raid
 

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0330044pot1.html

MARCH 30--When California narcotics agents armed with a search warrant recently arrived at the Carlsbad home of the Dagy family (Mom, Dad, three kids), they expected to find one of those indoor marijuana production facilities. You know, the kind where the high-intensity lights stay on all day so the plants grow, grow, grow. As the below search warrant affidavit notes, a check of the Dagys utility records showed "excessive" electrical usage, consumption "very consistent with an indoor marijuana operation." In his affidavit, Detective Mark Reyes also noted the Dagy family's suspicious "trash dispensing pattern" and mentioned that a drug-sniffing dog, one Storm, "showed a positive alert" when he sniffed near the family's garage. Investigators had also planned to conduct some kind of fancy aerial infra-red surveillance, but bad weather grounded those plans. So imagine the surprise when about eight armed narcs raided the Dagy home on March 19 and found absolutely nothing. No evidence of pot anywhere, not even stashed in the children's toys. Seems that the coppers mistook the family's constant use of the dishwasher, washer/dryer, three computers, four ceiling fans, and other electronic devices as evidence of a felony drug operation. Oops. The Dagys--Mom's a homemaker and Dad's a general manager of 21 Shell stations--would like an apology from the Carlsbad Police Department. Sadly, we'd recommend that the Dagys not hold their collective breath. (11 pages)

And then they claim that it's too hard to get a search warrant, so they need the USA PATRIOT act.

Of course, since the 'war on drugs' is a 'war', it is easy to convince judges to chuck the fourth amendment. Now, with the 'war on terror', the government is conducting two different 'wars' on American soil.

I'm amazed we have any Constitution left.

Maybe we need labels on electric appliances

:shotgun: "Warning, excessive use of this device may subject you to armed intrusion'.:rattat:

Of course, excessive electricity use = more oil use = more money to the middle east = more money to finance terror. This of course means that they should have leveled the place for giving aid to terrorists.

Give them time, they're working as fast as they can.:(