Just how widespread is 420 Day nowadays?
So much that a mere mention of the national holiday for pot smokers in the checkout line at Sam’s Club in Topeka elicited a comment from checkout dude Nick.
"What high school kid hasn’t heard of 420 Day?" Nick quipped. "Half the students at school would take off on that day."
Meanwhile, back in KCMO, Coffee Wonk owner Micah Riggs has seen better 420 Days…
After getting robbed one morning last fall, Riggs called the cops to report the crime.
Big mistake.
Things started out well enough. But as more police continued to drop by – culminating in a visit by vice officers – Riggs biz was searched and his stash of "legal" incense was confiscated. Not the K2 formulation that Missouri had banned last summer, mind you, but a new "legal" formulation.
A new formulation of synthetic pot with none of the illegal additives Missouri had banned.
"I mean, I still have felony charges against me by the city," Riggs says. "Last month they put some charge against me for selling a controlled substance, even though I was not. They say I was selling the old stuff (K2) that was banned. Even though I have the lab work that shows I was not."
Leaving Riggs with a bunch of legal fees and no inventory to sell.
"I think I’m going to win but they’re bleeding me dry," he says. "The legal fees are killing me."
The case could boil down to Missouri "analogue" laws and if the smokeable incense Coffee Wonk was selling is analogous to the banned K2.
"If it has a similar molecular structure" it’s analogous," Riggs says. "But the thing about it is, it doesn’t have a similar molecular structure."
Meanwhile, as pot worshippers up the street at It’s a Beautiful Day celebrate all things pot, turning up their noses at "unnatural" synthetic smokes, life goes on for Riggs and Coffee Wonk.
"I’m still here, I sell two blends, Pandora and SIN," he says. "I have to pay for my lawyer somehow. This time a year ago on 420 Day I was in Jeff City testifying before the state legislature. I think I made myself a target because (the police there) were writing my name down."
weird
i read this same article in the pitch 3 weeks ago. stay fresh hearne!
Give Hearne a Break…
Give Hearne a break – he was blogging this quickly from his new Fiat.
Nice try, Pitch Snipers but…
This is a 420 Day update, guyz.
I’ve written about Riggs before, too – before the Pitch as a matter of fact. And like here, in more and differing detail. For example, that Riggs is still selling the substances that were confiscated and that his legal fees are eating him alive. Uh, nothing about any of that in the Pitch story. Or that the 420 crowd takes a dim view of the fake pots. Nothing in the Pitch about that. Or that Riggs testimony in favor of K2 made him a target. Nothing in the Pitch story about that.
So your point is….
Oh yeah, that I’m driving a Fiat. Perfect!