New Law Alert--FL Growers

Not sure where to post this(my first post), but this forum had the most viewers and I think this is very important for everyone to be aware of. Literally minutes ago, FL passed a law called Senate bill 390 or House bill 173. Session :Bills : flsenate.gov

This law says that if you are caught growing in your house 25 plants or more it is automatically intent to sell/distribute and a 2nd degree felony/15 years. If a child is present it is a 1st degree felony/30 years. Basically you are the equivalent of a rapist. The guy that introduced the bill had the balls to say it was aimed at "organized crime". What a great fucking state. It will take effect 7/1/08 if signed and there is a 0% chance it wont be.

damn, america and the rediculous laws once again, i feel sorry for you guys who live there

You can bet it will be signed,lawmakers are smart as hell when it comes to pushing laws that pay their salaries.

Their favorite trick is to somehow work a catch 22 into the law that includes children,after that no lawmaker who desires to keep their elected position will go against signing the bill into law.

Can you imagine the headlines,joe blow congressman refuses to sign bill that protects children,its a carrerr killer.

I have been following this thing and originally they had a provision in the bill that said if you were caught with ANY AMOUNT of a controlled substance with a child present, i.e. in the house, you were guilty of a felony. It was removed in committee due to the potential "sunstantial consequence" of prisons filling up too much. Can you imagine?

Apparently their evidence lockers must already be filled to the brim, now they don't have to store any grow equiptment as evidence or anything else when this bill gets signed into law.
If they think the PC has pictures or whatever or used in any way that may have facilitated a crime , they can now take a picture of the item, then smash it to bits on site of the suspected grow. Imagine if you were growing catnip, and they suspected it was herbage? Or maybe at one time you may have grown cannabis or if they thought catnip was ganja, or maybe find a joint or two in your home, They could come, snap a picture, then smash whatever they feel like smashing.

Then if the case is dropped, you have no recourse, and cannot sue them for destroying your property. This is an absurd bill for so many reasons. You know it's just nuts, I've grown herbage for many years, never sold so much as a stem. Usually it's the small personal grower that gets it up the @ss with these loopy bills and laws. It's really a sad state of affairs with these drug laws. If they listened to the people, these laws would never get passed.

Here's the consolidated version regarding this bill and destruction of property.

In the prosecution of an offense involving the manufacture of a controlled substance, a photograph or video recording of the manufacturing equipment used in committing the offense, including, but not limited to, grow lights, growing trays, and chemical fertilizers, may be introduced as competent evidence of the existence and use of the equipment and is admissible in the prosecution of the offense to the same extent as if the property were introduced as evidence.

(4) After a law enforcement agency documents the manufacturing equipment by photography or video recording, the manufacturing equipment may be destroyed on site and left in disrepair. The law enforcement agency destroying the equipment is immune from civil liability for the destruction of the equipment. The destruction of the equipment must be recorded by the supervising law enforcement officer in the manner described in s.
893.12(1)(a) and records must be maintained for 24 months