Imagine it’s a sunny winter morning in West Valley City and your day is just about to begin.
The air is chilly as the sun climbs the Wasatch Front, so you buddle everyone before heading out the door to drop the kids off at school and then head to work. A typical morning.
As you approach the car in your slow suburban neighborhood, you realize you haven’t warmed up the engine and the iced windows still need to be scrapped before you leave. With cold fingers, you fumble for your keys while your youngest is in your arms – your other daughter calls you from behind.
Her voice is scared when she asks, “Daddy, why are all of the police here?”
Before you can even turn around, nearly a dozen West Valley City Police officers and a DEA Agent, accompanied by loud dogs, violently stop your day. You’re being raided by a SWAT Team instead of beginning your morning commute – but why?
It’s fair to say most who are raided by law enforcement have a pretty good idea why the cops show up that miserable day. Kristopher Kennedy, 42 year-old husband and father of three daughters had no idea why his worst nightmares were coming true that faithful morning – at least until he had a second to think.
Then, the bulb in his head lit up.
It had been over a year since the veteran cannabis home-grower was using a spare room in his basement to harvest precious medicine for he and his wife, Heather Kennedy. That room was lying dormant at the time of the raid leaving Kennedy extra surprised when visited by WVCPD.
At 7:15 a.m. on November 12, 2020, WVCPD led Kennedy into his house in handcuffs to retrieve his sleeping wife out of their bedroom, while his daughters watched from the front yard. He had just been served warrants to search his house for suspicion of manufacturing and distribution of a controlled substance. Serious felonies that can carry up to a 15-year prison sentence. Formal probation is possible, but highly unlikely in most cases within Utah.
“We were in a pretty bad place (mentally), and it couldn’t have been a worse time to have unexpected visitors, especially the cops,” Kennedy said during an interview with Salt Baked City.
According to Kennedy, his wife had recently had a portion of her stomach removed and was dealing with a lot of pain – which led to the abuse of prescribed opioids. Cannabis was helping his wife kick the opioid addiction she acquired after surgery, Kennedy said, but he was carrying most of the weight for the family at that time of the raid.
Just a few months before Kennedy’s life was turned upside-down, he remembers seeing a local news story about a Utah Highway Patrol trooper who pulled over an eastbound car traveling with 313 pounds of cannabis near Tooele. An expired registration turned into a second degree felony carrying a 15 year sentence and a $10,000 fine.
Although he didn’t have plants growing when law enforcement arrived, the father and husband was feeling nervous about the outcome that awaited him and knew the cards weren’t in his favor because of the abundance of equipment and other paraphernalia he had gathered from his 20-year career as a hobby grower.
Fans, different kinds of lights, grow wracks, hydroponics equipment, bubble bags for making hash, and other odds and ends needed for growing craft cannabis were found in the West Valley City basement that day, but not one single living plant – it didn’t matter though.
The equipment was incriminating enough, so law enforcement loaded everything they could in their vehicle to impound in the department’s evidence room. One storage room to the next.
“My grow room is about seven feet by eight feet, and is like a big closet, or could be used as a spare bedroom,” Kennedy said. “You didn’t know about that room unless you were a really close friend or family, and it was locked up all the time with a padlock.”
It wasn’t the constant buzz of ventilation, the strong odor of cannabis leaking from his house, or frequent visitors going in-and-out like you’d suspect. It turned out, photos Kennedy posted under his anonymous Instagram account he created to communicate with other growers led to his investigation, and leaving WVCPD the impression he was a Kingpin Drug Dealer, rather than an occasional hobby grower.
“The cops were a bit let down when they searched my house and didn’t find piles of cash and garbage bags full of weed,” Kennedy said.
Although no cash was found, law enforcement uncovered five pounds of cannabis flower Kennedy had harvested a few months prior from two plants he had hidden in his backyard. According to the grower, these weren’t even planned and grew by accident after chucking some seeds in the yard. This amount far exceeding he and his wife’s 130 gram limit they both can legally possess as medical cannabis patients in the state.
At the end of the day, Kennedy was charged with 11 offenses ranging from child endangerment, possession of a firearm, production of a controlled substance, and two counts of possession of a controlled substance when law enforcement found a jar of psychedelic mushrooms.
Despite the abundance of charges, Attorney Steven Shapiro was able to keep Kennedy out of jail. Instead, he was sentenced to three years of supervised probation and a $400 fine. His wife also received the same charges, which Kennedy says is affecting her professional licenses for work.
“I was the one that bought and used the equipment,” Kennedy said. “I don’t see why they needed to charge her as well. It’s messing her life up far more than mine and that’s just not fair.”
Being a medical cannabis patient definitely helped the Kennedy’s legal outcome, but some are questioning whether their arrest was necessary or not.
Kennedy’s normal role from nine to five is a Production Supervisor for a local auto-parts manufacturer, although he had grown cannabis for over 20 years. He claims he was more of a hobby cannabis cultivator than anything else during those years, and started growing medicine again after losing his infant son in 2015 from SIDS – only a few weeks after coming home from the hospital.
“I was diagnosed with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) after we lost a child in 2015 and also why I qualify as a Utah medical cannabis patient,” Kennedy said. “During that time, my wife got hooked on opioids and we were hurting financially. It was really rough for a while, so I used and grew cannabis for the two of us to remedy the pain. It’s really helped with my wife kicking the pharmaceuticals.”
Kennedy learned to grow cannabis in the 90s when he moved into his own house for the first time at 19 years-old. Although his unique skills could potentially be very profitable, Kennedy kept the occasional hobby to himself and only harvested cannabis to supply he and his family’s own habit – and to save money along the way he added.
“It’s hard to find quality cannabis, especially when I was younger [in the 90s],” Kennedy said. “Once you’ve experienced home grown cannabis, it’s hard to rely on anything else, especially when you are using it for medicine like my family and I do.”
While developing film at a photography studio in Salt Lake City after high school, Kennedy got his hands on some Skunk Number One clones from a friend and says he harvested some of the best cannabis flower he has ever tried.
“I will always remember that smoke and still have friends that talk about it,” Kennedy said. “Since I worked in the film studio, I was able to develop some photos of the Skunk Number One. Getting pictures was rare back then. I held onto them for years and loved reminiscing about the giant [cannabis] colas.”
Those pictures, along with all of Kennedy’s grow equipment are now in the custody of WVCPD. Sadly, he says losing those photos was a lot like losing family heirlooms.
“I got pretty good at breeding strains, and I had a lot of my own genetics saved up from my years of growing,” Kennedy explained. “It takes a lot of years to cross breed those strains and once they’re gone; they’re gone forever.”
Two in three Americans support cannabis legalization according to a Gallup poll taken in 2020. The first time Gallup took the same poll during 1969, only 12 percent of Americans held the same view. Now, 31-years later, 12 percent of Americans identify as a ‘current user’ according to the same poll.
Additionally, about 18 percent of adults say they’d grow their own medicine if cannabis was legal, according to a Denver Post article from 2021.
Even though Americans are changing their minds about cannabis, 34 states now allow medical cannabis, while 18 allow adult-use – you can still be arrested and prosecuted for growing cannabis unlawfully around the country.
Only 16 out of 50 states have yet to legalize cannabis in any form.
In 2002, Weldon Angelos, hip-hop artist and resident of Salt Lake City was punished with a 55-year sentence in prison for selling cannabis valued at $900. He spent 13-years of that sentence in prison before being granted clemency by the White House in 2016.
Since then, Angelos has started the Mission Green Project, an initiative to help those still locked-up in prison for nonviolent cannabis crimes.
Although medical cannabis is legal in Utah, state laws regarding the possession and sale of the plant still have hefty fines – especially those not registered in the state’s medical cannabis program.
Possession of less than one ounce is a class B misdemeanor punishable by a maximum sentence of six months imprisonment and a maximum fine of $1,000. Possession of one ounce to one pound is a class A misdemeanor punishable by a maximum sentence of one year imprisonment and a maximum fine of $2,500. Possession of one pound to 100 pounds is a third degree felony punishable by a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment and a maximum fine of $5,000. Possession of 100 pounds or more is a second degree felony punishable by one to 15 years imprisonment and a maximum fine of $10,000.
The sale of any amount is a second degree felony punishable by a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment and a maximum fine of $5,000.
Cultivation in Utah will be punished based upon the aggregate weight of the plants found and charges are similar to those of sale charges.
Between 2014 and 2016 – 16,465 Utah residents were arrested for cannabis possession, while another 1,164 were arrested for the sale of cannabis, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).
Law enforcement agencies at the federal and state level still devote significant resources into investigating illegal cannabis grow operations, which involve the use of taxpayer money.
While cannabis remains illegal at the federal level, the DEA and other federal agencies are still aggressively investigating and prosecuting cannabis grow house cases. Even in states where cannabis is legal, law enforcement has targeted and raided growers operating in the black market or people who grow cannabis for themselves without a license like Kennedy.
“It’s still hard to think about the look on my daughters faces when they saw me handcuffed, and probably the worst part of this experience,” Kennedy said. “I know I was breaking the law at the time, but was it really necessary to uproot my whole life? I’ve worked the same job for over 15 years, pay my bills, and take care of my family. It seems aggressive to label me as a criminal and railroad my life.”
Since his interview with Salt Baked City in January, Kennedy has been released from supervised probation and is still working at his auto-parts job. His wife, Heather, is still trying to get her charges dismissed so she can keep her professional-licensing.
“It seems like a lot to go through for growing a plant,” Kennedy said. “I feel horrible for all the people who are in prison over it. Biden needs to keep his promise and do something about legalization now.”
An estimated 40,000 people today are incarcerated for cannabis offenses even as the overall legal cannabis industry is booming, one state after another is legalizing, and cannabis companies are making healthy profits around the country.
It’s time for change.
