"I had jury duty early in December, and I expected the usual: The clerk calls potential jurors including me to the box, the prosecution "thanks and dismisses Mr. Redmond," and I go home-disappointed, honestly, because I always want to be on a criminal jury: If I was facing charges, I would want someone like me on the panel. In 40 years, I've been accepted once."
"As I walked to the courthouse on McAlister Street, I saw two people smoking fentanyl on the street, one of them in obvious distress as two deputy sheriffs tried to prevent an overdose. Nobody sells fentanyl at a Phish concert. Deaths from ecstasy use are very rare (and generally involve heat and dehydration at crowded dance parties), and I've never heard of anyone dying from psychedelic mushrooms, which are effectively legal in San Francisco these days anyway."
"It was stunning, really: District Attorney Brooke Jenkins had filed multiple felony charges against a 67-year-old man for allegedly selling LSD, ecstasy and mushrooms outside a Phish concert. It gets worse: According to the defense lawyer, Dan Meyer, as many as 20 cops were on the scene outside of the Civic Center Auditorium April 22, 2025, with a drone overhead, doing "buy-bust" operations."
A potential juror observed jury selection for a case charging a 67-year-old man, Fred McChesney, with multiple felonies for allegedly selling LSD, MDMA and mushrooms outside a Phish concert. The defense reported up to 20 officers and a drone conducting buy-bust operations outside the Civic Center Auditorium on April 22, 2025. The defendant openly favored mushrooms and displayed a bicycle with Christmas lights and a 'shroom guy' sign. An undercover officer asked if he had 'molly.' Twelve jurors acquitted McChesney on all felony counts. The case raised concerns about heavy enforcement for psychedelics, apparent misallocation of taxpayer resources, and contradictions with local decriminalization trends.
Read at 48 hills
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]