I'm glad we're spending so many resources and so much time to find people growing pot in the US. It's time well spent to battle the stoner scourge, and people growing it domestically represent a much higher risk than dealing with drug dealers in Mexico.
It's a bonus that we got this menace to society to commit suicide when confronted, too. He might have tried to fool us with his having a family, and working with the beekeepers to resolve the problem preventing them from producing honey, but the man even did cocaine. The streets are safer with him off of them.
edit: yes, satire.
So...
1. Bees start to turn red, causing people to think of the maraschino cherry factory. They're tested and found to be carrying red die #40.
2. The cherry grower looks for help with all the bees coming into his factory.
3. The New York Times runs an article implying that the bees are red because they're harvesting factory runoff.
4. The bees are found to be harvesting from vats of cherries in transit within the factory. Those vats are sealed, and the red bee problem is no more.
5. The Brooklyn DA's Office notices the Times coverage. They've investigated the factory owner for marijuana production already, but failed to find anything they could stick him with. They suggest to the Department of Environmental Conservation that this merits an official check of the factory for illegal syrup runoff.
6. The DEC checks for illegal runoff, and also for marijuana. They find neither.
7. A new DA is elected and decides to drop unresolved cases. This prompts the Office to try one last time to get the cherry factory guy.
8. Although it is now definitively established that there was no illegal runoff and the bees were feeding on in-production vats (which they're not doing any more), the DA's Office gets the DEC to investigate the factory once again for, you guessed it, illegal syrup runoff. They justify this based on the old news coverage.
9. The DEC finds no illegal runoff. They do find marijuana this time, though.
Truly, a high point in good governance. How exactly can the DEC investigate this guy for a problem that (a) it's already investigated and found no evidence of, and (b) is supported only by a theory that is already known to be false? :/
Even more tragic considering the recent ruling about drug dogs. Police officer handling K-9, wants to please DA who wants to search so he does something that alerts the dog to please him?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/08/04/...
> You have to think that were it not for the instantly accessible gun in an ankle holster, the moment of panic and perhaps shame might have just passed. He might even now be producing cherries with the method that became prevalent after Prohibition made alcohol as illegal as pot has been.
Of course the anti-gun Daily Beast couldn't go an entire article without blaming a gun for something a person decided to do.
among the big themes in this tragic story, a minor gem :
"Cote went on, “Beekeepers (particularly the hipster versions) in Brooklyn sometimes (often?) lead a myopic sort of existence wherein only their world view, or their set of needs, is valid or important.”"
while it may seem only hipster related, one can see how DA/LE behavior in this story pretty much lends itself to the same "myopic" description. And in general it is among the main characteristics of our species.
It's crazy how obsessed these people are. They would not let up. And for what?
The guy employed parolees so they wouldn't turn to crime and he himself didn't have a criminal record. Sad he took his life.
Every time an event like this happens, or kidnapped victims are revealed being hidden in a house for the past 15 years, or a previously unknown serial-killer is finally caught, it makes me wonder how many of these events are still carrying on unnoticed.
I can't say anybody is better off now that this guy is "off the streets"
How close to being legalized is pot in New York?
Strange that the article sounds puzzled at why he took his life, when it's clear that a drug kingpin would get a 'rest-of-your-life-and-more' sentence. Even if he got a 'lenient' sentence, the guy was 57 and would spend the rest of his healthy days behind bars. Not much of a mystery there.
Can someone explain what these traps are? "One of the investigators noticed that a set of steel shelves was on wheels. He yanked on them and they did not roll. He then noted that they were held in place by magnets in the way of “traps,” the secret compartments used in cars to hide guns and drugs."
Related (police pretexting):
How is this hacker news?
But the bees didn't reveal the cannabis farm. The Brooklyn DA used the bee incident as a pretext to search the farm and plant twice, while accompanying another agency, and used a third-hand 6-year-old tip to find where a hidden staircase was.
And the rest of this story is so tragic.