Off Topic: My Dumbest Mistake

I had intended to keep my posts here bitcoin related but I wanted to tell a different part of my story today. I wanted to tell you about the biggest, dumbest and most profound mistake of my life. One mindless action that still has ramifications to this day.

About twenty years ago, I cut down some ditch weed. For those of you who don’t know, ditch weed is a term for wildly growing cannabis. It’s normally found in the ditch along country roads, among other random places, and can not get you high.

After a few too many drinks, two buddies and I started talking about local rumors. One of the most popular was that this farmer was actually growing high quality weed in the ditches around his land because it would blend in with the natural stuff. In our intoxicated mind-frame, we decided to snag some and see.

What we knew was that it needed to be dried and cut off the plant to smoke. So, without much thought, I put them in a closet to let them dry out. I was a regular smoker at the time and really didn’t think much of it.

A few weeks later, there was a fight between me and a roommate. She left the house and was not heard from for some time. The rest of us just assumed she was blowing off steam or was just embarrassed by how heated it had got. What she actually did was get her sister’s name put on the rental agreement after the fact (small town living) and then call the police and sign a search warrant.

The police showed up, went straight back to my room and grabbed the plants. They then informed me that they would do a sweep of the block to find anything else to charge me with.

Honestly, I expected a fine, some probation or a few weeks in jail at most. When I went to the hearing, the guy before me had been arrested with over an ounce in his car. The judge postponed sentencing until he had time to discuss punishment with the guy’s parents (an apparent local). At this point I was still optimistic about the situation.

Thanks to my public defender(pretender), I plead guilty in exchange for the prosecutor lowering the charge from Manufacturing/Delivery to Attempt to Manufacture/Deliver and recommending a lighter sentence.

The judge looked at me and said that for pleading guilty to the crime of Attempt to Manufacture an Illegal Narcotic, I was to be remanded to the State Department of Corrections for 1 to 2 years.

So at 19, for cutting down some ditch weed to see if I could get a buzz, I was treated the same as the operator of a meth lab. I spent a year locked up with the most diverse group of criminals I have ever been forced to meet.

I don’t care that I can’t own a gun or get a liquor license or welfare. I don’t care that people look at me differently after learning about it or that police treat me differently after running my record. I have to tell every potential employer about it, which is one of the many reasons I chose to go into business for myself. I care that I no longer have a voice in this country. Because of the state I live in, I can’t vote, because of a dumb mistake by a 19 year old kid.