Those who read me regularly, or who know me, know I write from the heart. I feel. I try to be impartial. I hear, I see, I read, I listen and I process. You may not know that sometimes I process for a lo-o-o-o-ng time. You probably don’t know I only spend about an hour a week with my writing endeavors.
This week is different. I have been marinating in my head a story told to me by someone I have known since I think the third of fourth grade. I have started and stopped and scratched numerous attempts to get this column out to you.
I have not dug deep enough to write a news article, but I have heard enough to write my column. I hope you follow it to the end so you can ask a couple of questions of our elected and appointed officials, too. And, ask yourself, ‘Is this the Michigan, nay, the America you want to live in??
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Former Clarkston resident, Clarkston High School grad, and honorably discharged United States Navy man Darryl Berry, 53, started growing pot at his Livingston County home in 2012. Medically and state authorized he gardened marijuana in his back yard. His ex mother-in -law needed it. His son needed it. Doctors approved it. With newly voted on legislation as his guide, a need to be in business he read up, figured a business plan and started growing.
State law said he could be the caregiver for up to five medical marijuana patients . . . he could grow, with his patient’s consent their voter-approved allotment of plants, 12 each. Soon he was growing 72 plants in his back yard and providing them to his patients.
State law allowed for his wife to do the same thing. Soon, there were two gardens each growing 72 plants — legally. So legal, in fact, when Darryl planted his garden, he would call in the Michigan State Police to come in and inspect.
‘I don’t smoke marijuana and I don’t want it in my house,? Darryl told me, adding his wife and children lived in the house and he wanted to give the law no reason to disrupt their lives.
He’s a business man and decided to make this his business, to do that meant doing it right. Doing it right, meant making sure the soil was good, irrigation good; it meant daily maintenance, trimming and staking. It meant not processing and selling to any Tom, Dick or Harry who wanted some pot.
Everybody was vetted by their state-issued Medical Marijuana ID card. And, following state law, when his patients’ plants were ready, they’d come and get them. His patients would dry, cure and process themselves.
A couple of times the MSP raided his home/business operation and found all to be up front and conforming to law. It was a good system. With his success, he started consulting with others on how to farm medical marijuana.
Then, last fall happened. September 28, 2015, 8 in the morning. Forty-to-fifty agents stormed his home.
His home raided in the morning. No search warrant issued when it happened. Home torn apart. Wife detained. Son detained. He was detained. All in different police stations.
Over 140 of the biggest medical marijuana plants strike force commandos had ever saw, with base stalks as big around as a medium sized coffee can were ripped up and shipped away. Millions of dollars worth. His bank accounts were frozen. His 200,000 mile truck impounded. Birth certificates, drivers licenses, his patients? medical paper work and all TVs, and electronics, taken.
Oh, and as a competition shooter, his guns were seized as was about $1,500 cash his family had on the premise. Nothing else was found. No wads of cash, no cache of weapons. No illicit narcotics.
Sometime during the raiding of his home, part of a search warrant was shown ? saying he sold three ounces to an undercover agent in Wayne County a year before. Darryl denies this, claiming, plain and simple, ‘They didn’t destroy a single plant. They just bailed them up, loaded them onto semis and trucked them away. The state can legally sell marijuana . . . they stole from me.?
Guilty until proven innocent, and not a damned thing you can do about it because all your assets are in the state’s hands.
The state has yet to charge him with anything criminal. They have filed a civil suit against him to keep his stuff. He expects charges to happen sometime, because, well they have to make it all look legit, instead of like a state-sponsored cash grab it seems to be.
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So, Darryl came to me. His childhood pal, now a newspaper dude. I told him, I’m small potatoes, you need a bigger media to investigate and tell the story and put the heat on the state. He wants to clear his name, he wants to put his life back together. It will cost him at least $50,000.
But guess what. He doesn’t have his money to defend himself against the state. The state does. So, he’s starting up a crowd-funding page. He intends to fight for his rights as an American ? for the rights he swore to and defended while serving in the US Navy.
If he is charged criminally, that’s at least another 50 big ones. If you go to this GoFundMe account, you can read about it in his own words. Share this column. Share the story. Visit www.gofundme.com/re772qv4
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I’m sure I will have more on this in the future. I talked to Darryl for about two hours so there is more detail than I have space for here.