What!
Are there no work camps? Are there no prisons?
Another drug kingpin buys himself out of trouble.
Tom Stienstra, 55, who covers hiking and camping for the Chronicle, was arrested with his wife March 25 after authorities served a search warrant at their house in the town of Weed.
Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Susan Gravenkamp said members of a county narcotics task force uncovered a “sophisticated marijuana cultivation operation” in a barn on the property.
She said officers seized 31 mature marijuana plants and 21 immature plants, 11 pounds of dried marijuana, packaging materials and scales.
Stienstra, his wife, Stephani Ann Cruickshank, and their 18-year-old son all have medical marijuana recommendations, authorities said. …
… Stienstra was released last week from Siskiyou County jail after posting $75,000 bail.
No American taxpayer would begrudge the cost of locking up this guy:
… an average of $10,400 for each pot smoker plucked off the streets by police. Of this more than $7 billion annual total, police costs totaled $3.7 billion, court costs $853 million, and prison costs $3.1 billion. In the nation’s two most populous states, California and New York, taxpayers are faced with an annual marijuana enforcement bill of more than $1 billion. …
Just because Stienstra has twice been named National Outdoor Writer of the Year, doesn’t excuse his heinous crimes.
I’m tempted to chuck my copy of his guidebook, Moon California Hiking in protest. … But it’s so bloody good. And funny.
You must be outraged to see the Get Outdoors blog turn him into a folk hero. The police should raid their offices, pronto.
And, to be on the safe side, invade the homes of Tom Mangan and Tom Chandler. All Toms are suspect dopers.
I weep for the outdoor community to see Noriega North still roaming our trails.
UPDATE: At least the cops have nabbed master criminal Stephen Lovejoy.
besthike.com 