You could probably roll up a stash of dried Montauk daisies and smoke them. While it may not produce any noticeable effect, at least the process is legal.
What's not legal? Growing marijuana without a licence. And as Alberta resident Ryan Thomas Rockman learned this past July, he had been cultivating a species of late-blooming daisy that so resembles marijuana, it led police to erroneously bust him for running an illegal grow-op.
As the Toronto Star notes, the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team (ALERT) has since dropped charges against the 41-year-old after lab tests revealed the 1,624 plants they seized from his home sprout pretty white flowers instead of THC stores.
"It baffles me, to be honest. At the same time, I don't want to try to point the finger of blame at them either because they're still just trying to do their mandate and make it home every day," Rockman told the Lethbridge Herald.
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But the context was fertile for this sort of mix-up. The Star reports that police had dropped by the Rockman residence to check up on one of the man's relatives who was under a court-imposed curfew.
While inside, they discovered Rockman smoking marijuana and allegedly in possession of both dried marijuana and cannabis resin. He faces charges for possession for the purpose of trafficking, possession of a controlled substance, and production of a controlled substance thanks to his resin supply.
So it's not difficult to understand why, upon spotting over a thousand leafy green plants growing outside the house, police would alert the ALERT team.
"The guys believed they were dealing with a sub-strain of marijuana," Insp. Dan Konowalchuk, head of the combined forces special regional enforcement units, told the paper.
"There are some similarities to the (marijuana) plant when you look directly at the plant. But are they identical? No, they're not. (Even so) the guys thought they we dealing with a large grow operation and they responded accordingly."
Though Rockman has been cleared on the grow-op front, he will appear in court on Friday to answer to his additional charges.
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And he may consider himself lucky compared to the subjects of previously mistaken raids.
The Hamilton Spectator tells the ghastly tale of a man who suffered a head wound and multiple broken bones after police burst into his home on a cocaine bust.
Turns out, the actual drug dealer lived next door.
A Brock professor received an unpleasant surprise last year when, upon returning home from a conference, he discovered that police had ransacked his house based on a false electricity theft tip from Hydro One.
But all three men fared much better than John Adams. ABC News reports that the 61-year-old Tennessee man was watching TV with his wife last week when police pounded on his door on a drug bust mission.
Not believing they were police, Adams feared he was the victim of a home invasion and grabbed his gun. During the ensuing melee, Adams was shot and killed. His wife was handcuffed in the other room.
The actual drug dealer? You guessed it. Next door.
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