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Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Oakdale / He knew inspector was coming, kept his pot plants

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posted by Bob at Tuesday, March 04, 2008

4 Comments:

Blogger Bob said...

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Grower says they're just for his health
By Nancy Yang
nyang@pioneerpress.com
Article Last Updated: 03/03/2008 11:34:56 PM CST


Oscar Roger Quast wants his marijuana plants back.

The two-time St. Paul mayoral candidate had them taken away after what was supposed to be a routine fire and rental inspection. Oakdale Deputy Fire Chief Kevin Wold picked Quast's apartment purely at random and came across the plants in a closet.

Quast was arrested later that day, Feb. 20. He told police he didn't think he was doing anything wrong.

"They're just plants," he said. "Just a couple of months, that's how old they were ... just little kids."

Quast said that he has health problems — part of his stomach was removed because of ulcers — and that he smokes marijuana so he doesn't feel sick. With money being tight, he decided he would try to grow his own stash.

"Me and my grandson, we're living on $800 a month," said Quast, a reader of High Times magazine.

According to an incident report, police also executed a search warrant at his home and found lights, fertilizer, rolling papers and a small amount of dry marijuana.

The case has been forwarded to the Washington County attorney's office for charges. Oakdale authorities said that this is the first time they have found a growing operation during inspections but that it's not uncommon to either smell or see marijuana joints during an inspection.

Quast might have gotten away with his growing operation if it hadn't been for his electrical cords.

During the inspection, Wold saw the cords going inside the closet.

"Extension cords don't normally run from the bedroom into the closet," Wold said. "I asked him what was in there, and he said, 'nothing.' "
Quast gave police the real answer when they arrived.

"I told them exactly why I was doing it ... that it helps me so much that I wanted to see if I could grow it," he said.

Quast said that he knew Wold would be in the building that day but that he didn't do much to hide his plants. His apartment ended up being the first inspected. In Oakdale, 15 percent of the rental units on any site must be inspected.

Quast, who ran for mayor in 1985 and 1993 but never made it past the primaries, maintains he's not a criminal. Past Pioneer Press articles show he was arrested for smuggling marijuana into the Stillwater prison and sentenced in 1982 to six months of jail time and probation.

Now, Quast wants his plants returned.

"I surely would like to have them back," Quast said. "But they're probably dead by now. Nobody's been taking care of them for the last two weeks."

6:11 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sounds like they learned from St Paul who currently does their inspections with a cop present and then when they see soemthing they can charge you with, they're on you like flies on honey. Nice way to get around the 4th amendment.

8:30 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

War on Drugs, Patriot Act and and all of this new security shit the Republicans have sold us lock, stock and barrel have strangled the 4th Amendent.

8:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

There was a case in Mpls. where a woman lived in a duplex. The people in the other unit called the ploice because there was an intruder. The police found the intruder and asked the woman in the (other) unit if they should search her place to see if anyone had broken in her unit.

She said okay.

They did not find an intruder, but did find her pot plants and charged her.

She was a cancer patient and grew the pot for medication.

At the jury trial, she was found not guilty.

9:58 PM  

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