In another stomach-turning example of judicial injustice and marijuana-related arrests, Patricia Smith’s recent appeal has been denied. This New Hampshire-based nurse with no criminal background will do time for growing marijuana in her own home, in addition to paying over $35,000 in fines. Please forward this story. Patricia Smith hasn’t gotten the same media coverage as Patricia Spottedcrow and others, though is a victim in this never-ending “war on drugs” nonetheless.
New Hampshire’s highest court has upheld a woman’s marijuana-growing conviction, ruling she had no reasonable expectation to privacy in a wooded area of her property from which police observed her house and detected the smell of marijuana coming from a vent.
Patricia Smith of Haverhill was charged in 2009 after police raided her house and found a pot-growing operation and 120 plants. During court proceedings, a superior court denied Smith’s motion to suppress evidence.
In appealing to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, Smith’s attorney argued that police violated Smith’s constitutional right to privacy and protection from unreasonable searches when they essentially conducted a stakeout in the woods behind her home.
Source: Boston.com
Beth Mann is a popular blogger and writer for Open Salon and Salon. She is also an accomplished artist with over 15 years of experience, as well as the president of Hot Buttered Media. She currently resides at the Jersey shore where she can be found surfing or singing karaoke at a local dive bar.
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