UP IN SMOKE

[Dr. Greenthumb]

by Jim Piechota, (Source:Bay Area Reporter)
03 Aug 2006

California
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Burning Rainbow Farm by Dean Kuipers; Bloomsbury USA, $24.95

It was southwest Michigan's best-kept secret, according to Dean Kuipers, a journalist who was raised 20 miles from where Tom Crosslin and his younger life-partner Rollie Rohm founded Rainbow Farm in Vandalia. Established as a peaceful, pro-marijuana-use space supporting concerts, rallies, and general gatherings for the like-minded, the farm caused no harm, and everyone who worked there generally kept to themselves, with the exception of the huge hemp festivals that drew thousands of followers to the site several times each year.

But when Kuipers read about the sudden deaths of these two gay men by FBI sharpshooters, he writes, "the shootings in Vandalia smelled funny the moment I read about them." Angered by the injustice of what had transpired, Kuipers decided to investigate, and the bulk of his findings are engagingly reproduced in this revealing expose.

The author shows that Rainbow Farm thrived with the assistance and patronage of a variety of different types of people, "the vast majority of them responsible adults with children and businesses and churches." Folks suffering from medical conditions like glaucoma and epilepsy trekked to the area for the mental and physical relief that the pot plants grown on the Farm provided.

Kuipers' depiction of the two men's courtship and their daily life tending to the Farm makes for a sweet story, but one that quickly sours as the increasing attendance at enormous gatherings like Hemp Aid 98 and 99 began to attract the attention of the local prosecutor's office, not to mention Crosslin's brazen attempts to legalize marijuana use via a Michigan ballot initiative. In a raid on the Farm, the two men were busted with numerous marijuana plants thriving in the basement, and that was all that was needed for a misdemeanor hearing.

The men blew off the court date in favor of a plot to burn down the farm, all in the name of free speech and the right to privacy.

Crosslin and Rohm, whom Kuipers calls "activists who pushed the limits of the First Amendment," stood strong and defended their land, with media giants like CNN and Fox News right there on-hand to capture every patriotic word they uttered during the armed, five-day standoff that ensued. But since all of this drama began just two days prior to the events of September 11, 2001, what could have been a monumental event in marijuana-regulation history was soon overshadowed by that much grander-scaled tragedy.

Instead of Crosslin and his partner looking like defenders of American's rights, in the eyes of a terrified, blundering government with a global catastrophe on its hands, the two men were now classified as terrorists.

Kuipers writes that the whole situation became more of an unsolved murder mystery when, days after Tom and Rollie burned Rainbow Farm to the ground before the Feds could confiscate the property, the news of their shooting deaths by government-sanctioned "snipers hidden in the trees" broke to news agencies.

The author does justice to his subject matter, and with exceptional dexterity brings to light the hypocrisy that continues to infiltrate and damage many of today's beneficial if controversial causes.

The struggle continues, and books like these serve as healthy reminders to us all that the War on Drugs can be a deadly one.