cannabisnews.com: End of the Rainbow

End of the Rainbow

Posted by FoM on September 11, 2001 at 07:38:51 PT
By Jacob Sullum
Source: Reason Magazine

Despite what pot smokers say, it’s not true that marijuana never killed anybody. It killed Grover Crosslin and Rolland Rohm.

Crosslin and Rohm were shot to death during a five-day standoff with police at the Rainbow Farm Campground in Vandalia, Michigan. Cass County Sheriff Joseph Underwood Jr. said the men, who lived at the campground together and were free on bail after being arrested in May on drug charges, had both aimed guns at law enforcement officers.

The confrontation began on August 31, when Crosslin, Rainbow Farm’s owner, started setting fire to buildings at the campground, which the government was planning to seize through civil forfeiture. During the standoff, shots were fired at a news helicopter and a police airplane.

This outburst of violence belies marijuana’s image as a drug of love and understanding--the image that Rainbow Farm, a notorious haven for pot smokers, sought to promote with its peace signs and dancing bears. Advertised as a place where "families with alternative lifestyles can relax comfortably and privately in the beautiful rolling hills of Southwestern Michigan," the campground brazenly appealed to hedonists by proclaiming, "At Rainbow Farm FUN is still legal."

In case you didn’t get its subversive message, Rainbow Farm openly admitted that it supported marijuana legalization. The "Alternative Campground & Concert Arena" regularly hosted events such as HempAid and RoachRoast, the very names of which were an affront to decent, drug-free people everywhere.

The name of Rainbow Farm’s "coffee bar" was The Joint, its logo an obscenely fat marijuana cigarette. The campground also had a Hemp Gift Store and a shop called Smoke World that sold "pipes and accessories," ostensibly "for use with tobacco and legal herbal blend products."

A disclaimer on the campground’s Web site insisted that "Rainbow Farm DOES NOT promote the use of illicit drugs by anyone." Who did they think they were fooling?

Naturally, the authorities could not tolerate the sort of "alternative lifestyle" practiced at Rainbow Farm. During a two-year undercover investigation, state and local agents posing as hippies bought marijuana from people attending events at Rainbow Farm. "You would be amazed," one officer told the South Bend Tribune last May. "You go in there, drug use is just everywhere."

The police shot videotape that documented the shameless behavior of Rainbow Farm’s customers. "In one scene," the Tribune reported, "a man handed a bag of marijuana to another. Then, a group of people was openly passing a marijuana cigarette as toddlers played nearby." There were also reports of nudity and outdoor sex--none, of it, unfortunately, caught on videotape.

The investigation resulted in six arrests. Crosslin and Rohm were charged with manufacturing marijuana, operating a drug house, and felony possession of firearms--offenses that carry sentences totaling more than 20 years. The government closed down the campground, put Rohm’s 12-year-old son in a foster home, and began forfeiture proceedings to seize the 34-acre property.

Sheriff Underwood described Crosslin as "agitated" by these developments, and Crosslin’s sister said he was "very angry with the government and the way they have done things." But how long did he think he could continue offending his neighbors’ sensibilities?

"These guys weren’t exactly growing corn," observed Charles Giacona, vice president of the Right to Decency, a group based in Warren, Michigan. A Vandalia resident told The Detroit News the confrontation "was coming for years, with those people out there advertising marijuana. They were rubbing the cops’ noses in it."

Rainbow Farm’s defenders (believe it or not, there are some) offered the usual lame excuses. "These people weren’t hurting anybody," said one (probably a pot smoker himself) after the arrests in May. What about the children?

Another likened the forfeiture of Rainbow Farm to "stealing"--ridiculous, because stealing is illegal. Some even suggested that people had a constitutional right to gather at Rainbow Farm in protest of the war on drugs--as if the First Amendment had anything to do with getting together to complain about the government.

During the standoff, Crosslin’s father warned that his son apparently felt some sort of principle was at stake. "When he believes in something," he told the Associated Press, "he’s going to take it all the way to the end." Vandalia Mayor Sondra Mose-Ursery explained that Crosslin thought "he should be able to do what he wants on his own property." It’s amazing what people will believe after they’ve smoked enough dope.

Jacob Sullum's weekly column is distributed by Creators Syndicate. If you'd like to see it in your local newspaper, write or call the editorial page editor.

Source: Reason Magazine (US)
Author: Jacob Sullum
Published: September 11, 2001
Copyright: 2001 The Reason Foundation
Email: letters@reason.com
Website: http://www.reason.com/

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Comment #8 posted by dddd on September 13, 2001 at 20:31:53 PT

Reason & Logical conclusion

"Despite what pot smokers say, it’s not true that marijuana never killed anybody. It killed Grover Crosslin and Rolland Rohm."

OK,,,,so if that statement makes sense,,,then perhaps Jacob Sullums next article will start like this;

"Despite what everyone thinks,it's not true that terrorists killed people in the events of September 11th.The Boeing Aircraft company is responsible for this disaster..."

or maybe.....

"Despite what police say, it’s not true that drunk drivers ever killed anybody. It was cars that killed.... "

or..

"Despite what some people say, it’s not true that President Bush never killed anybody.He killed thousands of people on Monday..."

dddd

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Comment #7 posted by observer on September 13, 2001 at 14:03:49 PT

Modest Proposal ...

'' . . . I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout. . . . ''

-- A Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift (1729)

http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~benjamin/316kfall/316ktexts/swift.html

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Comment #6 posted by FreeJP on September 13, 2001 at 13:38:10 PT:

I could not resist

here is what i could not hold myself back from sending to TReason Magazine :

I found Jacob Sullum's article about the rainbow farm simply outrageous.

" Some even suggested that people had a constitutional right to gather at Rainbow Farm in protest of the war on drugs--as if the First Amendment had anything to do with getting together to complain about the government"

this is insidious ! You call people who smoke the wrong herb criminals and then blame the constitution for defending criminals . by saying this , you make torching paper out of your constitution. Those who suggested that they are free to peacefully assemble are much brighter and more patriotic than you .

by Today's practices , George washington himself would get an armed raid on his property for growing an industrial quantity of non-smokable hemp. Maybe he would get killed...

How can any sensible human being find decent cold blooded murder of Harmless citizens by the police and indecent growing plants ? How can someone who have a soul pretend that people have no right to question the policies that turn them into dead meat unworthy of owning anything as soon as they touch a plant others don't like ? Here in Canada we are almost free, almost because we still have evil influence from your horrific drug war. If growing plants on your private property is an offense , then there is no word bad enough to describe the behaviors of those who enforce it . But what about the children ? the greatest dangers for them is that of being shot by the police, denied student aid, be considered criminal for the rest of their lives and serve longer punishment in jail than rapists and murderers for a mistake they commited in their youth. (it is true and it will continue: do some research and you will find out.) The only crimes i can see going on here are SPYING ,THEFT and MURDER all courtesy of your great government of freedom , by the people , for the people... Drug lords and drug warriors alike are WAR CRIMINALS ! If pot would be legal ,or at least tolerated by your republicrat dictators you would not even know what was going on at Rainbow farm and still no one would have complained. Everyone who wish to smoke would grow their own and Criminal organisations would go bankrupt . No guns,no protests , no overcrowded prisons, no blood ,no war , no torn families . I'm not pointing at anyone in particular but if you are against freedom of speech and against privacy but for war, i suggest you go live in Afghanistan where you will find more of your values honored.

TReason Magasine,

please forgive my arrogance , I am very upset right now and simply wish that such things don't happen in my country under the bullying of your government.I don't hate Americans at all . Actually , I like them. I just hate the American government for what it is doing to his people and that is how you should also feel .

it was too much truth thrown too fast ... I almost fear prosecution !

[ Post Comment ]

Comment #5 posted by E. Johnson on September 11, 2001 at 09:05:43 PT

It's not funny

With a comment like this, and the fact that Reason magazine is basically a Libertarian publication, I think this article was perhaps tounge in cheek.

It didn't work. Maybe that's because marijuana prohibition is so sick and hurtful, there's isn't anything funny left to say.

[ Post Comment ]

Comment #4 posted by mr.greengenes on September 11, 2001 at 08:51:15 PT

Sarcasm

"Some even suggested that people had a constitutional right to gather at Rainbow Farm in protest of the war on drugs--as if the First Amendment had anything to do with getting together to complain about the government."

With a comment like this, and the fact that Reason magazine is basically a Libertarian publication, I think this article was perhaps tounge in cheek.

[ Post Comment ]

Comment #3 posted by E. Johnson on September 11, 2001 at 08:41:33 PT

Dear editors, have you lost your Reason?

Dear editors,

When I read your article on the Rainbow Farm shooting, I thought I'd
somehow slept through Winter and Fall and somehow magically been awaken
on April Fool's day. Otherwise a magazine called Reason would never be
printing such unreasoning and irrational crap.

Marijuana is substance. It is neither violent nor non-violent. It is a
plant. It has no hands, it can't shoot. So get a handle on your
metaphors because you're sounding just plain ridiculous.

Any violence that has emerged from marijuana has emerged because of the
methods our society has chosen to try to control it. About 700,000
marijuana users are arrested per year. They are arrested by people
wearing guns. They are held in steel cages and guarded by people wearing
guns. They are faced with the threat of gun violence, even when they are
not shot.

Clearly these gun-based methods of controlling marijuana have not
worked, and now American society is faced with the choice to either
continue to escalate the degree of violence and coercion employed to
keep people from this beneficial and useful plant, or to accept that is
a beneficial and useful plant and stop pointing their guns at people who
use it and grow it.

By the way, another dirty un-Reason-able rhetorical trick you've
employed in your assault on reason here is to characterize the Rainbow
Farm as holding some representative population of marijuana users in
America.

That is as reasonable as characterizing all American Christians by what
happened at the Waco compound.

Well, apparently it is not April Fool's day, and your article was not in
jest. I'm worried about this, because when a magazine that calls itself
Reason indulges in such bigoted and unreasonable fantasy, it's not a
good sign for this country.

[ Post Comment ]

Comment #2 posted by E. Johnson on September 11, 2001 at 08:23:52 PT

Bigotry as a means of social control

They have to demonize the people whose rights they want to remove.

[ Post Comment ]

Comment #1 posted by greenfox on September 11, 2001 at 07:51:30 PT

F*CK mass media

This is such a smear job... it makes me sick. Read between the lines and notice the tone.

sig,fik,
-gf

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