Driving stoned bill clears 1st Colo. hurdle

[CanSocDem]

19. One day...

...a couple of years ago, I happened on an RCMP checkpoint, shortly after 'burning one'. The smell in my van alerted the cop at my window and I was asked to pull over to the side of the road.

The cop in charge came right over and asked if I had been smoking "marijuana". It was clearly too late to lie so I 'fessed up to "sharing one" with some friends before I left town. I was escorted to the back seat of a patrol car while 2 or 3 cops piled into my van. After a few minutes they came over threatening to take me back to Winnipeg (100 kms) where they would tear apart my vehicle unless I told them where the pot was hidden.

It was in a small pocket of my travelling bag, but I thought if they haven't found it yet, they must be more clueless than usual. So they kept looking for another 10-15 minutes coming back to the car I was in, repeating the threat and I kept saying, "To the best of my knowledge, there is no pot in the van."

One cop got in the back seat with me, looked me straight in the eye and asked if I thought 'smoking marijuana helped my driving...'. I met his gaze to see if he was serious and when I couldn't tell for sure, I lowered my eyes and in my most chastened voice, I replied "NO".

To my everlasting amazement, they found nothing and eventually let me continue on my way. To their credit, they had scared me enough that I didn't even look for my stash until I was almost 100 miles down the road. I thought they might have scooped my little film container and the roach in the ashtray but when I got up the nerve to pull over and look, I found both.

In celebration, I burned another and vowed to always make sure I had a window open and good ventilation while smoking enroute.


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