By Matt Agorist
Darlington, MD — It is a travesty enough when the drug war lays waste to the rights and lives of entirely decent people who’ve harmed no one simply because they choose to ingest a substance deemed illegal by the State. However, because the drug war is such an immoral and barbaric practice, entirely innocent people are also swept up in the dragnet of tyranny and ignorance. Case in point: a couple in Maryland were raided by cops for posting photos of legal morel mushrooms they picked and ate.
On Friday, John Garrison and his girlfriend Hope went foraging the mountains for some morel mushrooms. Morels are known to those in the region as being the safest mushroom to hunt for as they are very easily identified due to their unique look. From mid-April to mid-May, lovers of nature and good food, like John and Hope will find them growing near trees or where there used to be trees.
Garrison was so excited that they had found a bunch of them, that he posted a photo on Facebook of he and Hope’s bounty along with his plans to “sautee them with brown sugar and cinnamon and see how that turns out.”
A great night of good food was set to follow an awesome day of hiking and foraging. That is, however, until the wheels of the police state drug war caught a whiff of the mushrooms.
Garrison made the post that they were about to saute the mushrooms at 9:09 pm. Only hours later as he and Hope sat back with full bellies, police showed up.
“We had just finished eating the Morels we found today and heard a knock on the door. A police officer and an RA were standing outside. We let them in and as soon as the police officer walked in he asked us why we were eating mushrooms and posting about it online. He thought he was on the biggest bust of his career thinking we were having a magic mushroom party before I explained to him that Morels are a native choice edible mushroom similar to truffles,” explained Garrison.
However, this cop—clearly unaware of the tasty morel and hell-bent on busting kids for eating mushrooms—just knew he had caught himself a pair of hardened criminals who’d dare to expand their consciousness in the sanctity of their own home.
“He wasn’t convinced. So I rummaged through the trash to find a peice (sic) of a Morel so that he would have evidence that we weren’t taking psychedelic mushrooms. I showed him and he still wasn’t convinced that they weren’t magic mushrooms, Which was shocking to me because morels look nothing like a psychedelic psilocybin (sic) mushrooms and I figured a police officer would know what illegal drugs looked like. A second police officer showed up and I showed her the Morel and she immediately knew it was a Morel which was a relief. They processed our ID’s and eventually left. What an experience,” Garrison wrote on Facebook.
Indeed, it was a troublesome experience and, had anything made police fear for their lives during this interaction, things could have turned out a lot worse.
Equally as troubling as cops raiding your apartment over Facebook posts for legal mushrooms is how they found out about it in the first place. Were police simply trolling Facebook that night and saw Garrison’s post? Or, did some “good citizen” do their due diligence and “see something and say something”?
Either way, both of those scenarios are undesirable and facilitated by the state’s immoral and violent drug war. Until the dinosaurs in the prison industrial complex—who keep the drug war alive to reap massive profits off of persecuting people for victimless crimes—are exposed, this madness will continue and others will not be as luck as John and Hope.
Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Agorist is also the Editor at Large at the Free Thought Project, where this article first appeared. Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter, Steemit, and now on Facebook.
His biggest mistake was letting the police in.
Once again ignorance that has the power of the state behind them go searching for & harassing innocent people while they let the real criminal go untouched & protected because it’s not politically correct.
Moral to the story. Don’t post anything. Dump Facebook & any other social media & rob them of their ability to surveil.
When everyone does this just watch them change their tune.
What a bunch of morons in that dept.
This police officer does not have the mental adeptness to be a police officer and should be immediately discharged from the police job and never be allowed to be involved with law enforcement now and for the rest of his life. This is beyond tyrannic, it is evil and the intention is evil beyond evil.
“Good citizens” for hire… At least now you have an alternative to canvassing. Just go and join the troll police. I wonder if they get their commission since it turned out to be legal. By the way, cinnamon & sugar on morels? That seems wrong to me. They’re savory. A little white wine, salt & black pepper is all they need. I’d have raided their house over the recipe.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: It does not matter what you do or don’t do, if it is legal or illegal, ALL that matters at any moment is the personal beliefs, IQ and mood of the cop you encounter.
If he wants to arrest you he will. Your innocence means nothing. And if you scare him somehow, he will KILL you. And then he will get a free vacation and go back to work, knowing the true benefits of being a cop. He will never be held accountable. Never. At all. For anything he does, no matter how heinous.
SOLUTION: Hold cops accountable for every single mistake they make. It is the only way.
But it will never happen, because someone with power and money somewhere WANTS it that way. Period.
Want to come it? Better have a warrant signed by a judge.
Brown sugar and cinnamon? Should be garlic, shallots, and a little white wine and S&P.
YO ! Boobus Americanus ! So, if your doing nothing wrong you would not have to fear the police is the stupid statist mantra from the high road gang. Welcome to to the land of commerce and contracting ! Where the us against them attitude is trained and ingrained. Every org in this mess is a bonafied Corporation that the ignorant call dear Gubmint.
Made up of those who’s lives are a little better as they harvest from the rest of us non stop in the name of your ” Safety “. Statutes, codes, and policy with color of law believed real by the ignorant slaves of the bankruptcy of our nation transferring assets from you to the state. In court, out of court, everything around the court, court.
I leave them alone and obey all I’m told and they won’t hurt me squeals the ignorant. Well, they are here and they are hungry. A congregation place for control freaks and psycho’s hiding and preying among the sheep making by god sure YOU tow the line.
Ben Frank: Those who give up liberty for safety deserve neither.
Thom Jeff: If a nation ever lets private banks get control of their nations currency, the banks and the corporations that grow up around them will deprive you of private property . First by inflation, then by deflation, your children will awaken homeless in a land their forefathers conquered.
John Adams: The Constitution of the United States is meant for a just and moral People. It is wholly unsuited to govern any other.
See any parallels today oh Boobus? You are gone as you once were and good luck getting it back.
Watch your boobtube, believe all the lying bought up media says to you and for Pete’s sake, vote Hillary/ Bernie will ya? I know you gotta run so don’t forget your snap card as I think they have found a way to donate through it to the DNC?
Never let the D.C. through your front door and never go out your front door to meet or talk to them.
If they even step on your property, yell “trespass” from a distance as you scurry into your house.
Never show the D.C. any of your I.D.
They can demand that you prove that your papers are in order, but don’t show them anything.
Answer all questions by alternating between “Am I under arrest” and “Am I free to go”.
If arrested, answer all questions with “I wish to remain silent”.
hopefully they learned their lesson and have deleted their fakebook accts
Once again: Stay the hell off facebook!
The government is evil and their enforcers are even more evil.