Trouble, south of the Mason Dixon
By Ben Daniel
A great adventure with three of my great friends turned quickly to a travesty this past summer, coming home from the All Good Festival in Masontown, West Virginia. We had the utmost amazing time seeing great music all weekend, and on Sunday morning we began to make our way home.
About twenty minutes down interstate 68 our car broke down… …where we were stranded for the day. We had to wait until Monday morning only to find out that the approximate cost of fixing the car would be around $3,300. We had no options—I had to rent a car, being the only twenty one year old in the group. Back on interstate 68, we passed where our car broke down, grimaced, and kept on going. We all said to one another that it could have been a lot worse.
Another twenty miles down the road, just over the Maryland border, the state police and the DEA had a K-9 stop on the side of the highway sniffing out every car that was coming back from All Good. My car was pulled over where my friends and I were ordered to get out of the car and allow a K-9 to sniff the exterior of my vehicle. The cops ran the dog on the opposite side of the car of were we were standing, not allowing us to see exactly what the dog was doing. We never saw the dog sit down—we only saw the police officer throw a chew toy for the dog to pick up.
Long story short, the police found .4 grams of marijuana in the trunk of the car and arrested me on the side of the highway. They towed the car, leaving my friends stranded, and ordered them to hitchhike their way down the interstate, although it is illegal to hitch hike on interstate highways. I spent three hours handcuffed in a trailer on the side of the highway, the amount of time it took the cops to arrest enough kids to fill the paddy wagon. From there, I spent 7 hours in jail, where upon release I was treated like an ax murder and shackled. They made me put on ankle cuffs and a leather belt that had my hands attached to my chest. I was then made to walk across the street in front of the entire town.
Just recently this order was resolved. I had to go back to court in Maryland to find out that for .4 grams of marijuana I will been spending the next year on probation. The reason I am telling you this is because it happens every year and it will happen next year, despite how we all want to say that marijuana should be legal and that it really isn’t that big of a deal. The fact of the matter is that it is illegal.
We have a music culture here, and many of us are a part of it. These events in the summer are great; this year’s line-up looks stellar. The Headliners are Phil Lesh and Friends and Widespread Panic, with a whole lot more thrown into the mix. Take my advice: if you’re going, wait until you get there to start having fun—it’s not worth all of the hassle and grief of feeling like a criminal just to have a little weed.
Short URL: http://www.themountaineer.org/?p=60
Posted by Ben Daniel
on Mar 15, 2008 Filed under News.
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