This is from Steve Hagar, the HT editor, who is about as trustworthy as Mr. Cogo here but it does give "food for thought"
Here is the URL this came from:
The house sits near the crest of a dike in a remote section of Holland near the German border. Built around 1880, it’s a grand structure with 15-foot ceilings, elaborately carved moldings and…
stevenhager.net
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A Dutch radio show would continue the research by interviewing a Santa Cruz sheriff who confirmed Watson’s arrest on cannabis charges. I wrote a blog “The Mysterious Mr. Watson” that drew out a lot of these characters, although I had to ban some when flame wars erupted. The original blog comments were lost when High Times threatened a lawsuit regarding my website, although I did retrieve the blog itself through the WayBack Machine. Nevil was well aware the snitch who turned him in was his remailer in Michigan, Ray Anthony Cogo. He provided a link to Cogo’s grand jury testimony.
Ray Cogo.
Cogo responded by claiming Nevil was MI6 and I was CIA and he turned over hundreds of names of seed buyers (even though Nevil instructed him to destroy those records immediately after mailing to protect the customer’s identity) in order to shut down our intel op. Obviously, Cogo bartered those names and addresses as his get-out-jail-free card. Nowhere in his testimony is any mention of MI6 or CIA, and if Cogo’s real motivation was exposing spooks why not go to the press with that story? In fact, Cogo has been offered many times to discuss his testimony with a podcaster and always refuses.
Very little of what you read about this online is unbiased. The pro-Watson sock-puppets and supporters claim Watson was never busted and he is a true hippie at heart whose life was transformed by LSD, and not the ruthless capitalist he really is.
The pro-Cogo camp is very small and peppered only by kooks from intel’s Tin Foil Hat Patrol, as anyone can easily find Cogo’s testimony to the grand jury, but they create just as much noise and confusion as the pro-Watson camp. The first person to expose Watson’s bust in print in America and accuse him of being a government agent was Joe Pietry, who also claims I am a government agent. (File under: get your influencer out in front and run off a cliff.) There never was any evidence Nevil nor I were intel influencers. In fact, I’ve devoted much of my life to exposing real ones inside the counterculture, most notably Kennedy, the lawyer who ran the Weather Underground, stole High Times, threw out the mag’s investigative journalism, and ran that once-esteemed publication into the ground while sucking out all the profit.
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From my time on ICM, I'm learning to let this shit go. As my wife Harley Farley said so eloquently, "Why are you wasting your time, arguing with strangers on the Internet, over things that happened 25 years ago?"
This is a perfect example of that, why am I wasting my time????
Mc Cormick is a dick for reasons other than you are but guess what, yor're a _dick_ too!
Again mu, sorry for fucking up the vibe you have developed here, but history matters.
"You are unfamiliar to me, yet you exhibit a similar lack of discernment as many individuals in this industry, readily accepting baseless claims and unfounded accusations against innocent parties. Your apparent belief in such notions as 'big foot' and your reference to 'high times' and Steve Hagar further underscore this tendency."
JUSTICE DEPT. TARGETS HIGH TIMES
By Michael Isikoff
July 16, 1990
After Editor Steven Hager and three other High Times officers were served the grand jury subpoenas in late May, the magazine received a follow-up letter from the U.S. attorney's office in New Orleans declaring High Times the target of the grand jury investigation.
The magazine's lawyers then moved to quash the subpoenas on First Amendment grounds -- a motion that was denied at a June 20 hearing before U.S. District Judge Adrian G. DuPlantier in New Orleans. At the same hearing, portions of which were closed to the public, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lawrence Benson identified a number of statutes that the magazine was being investigated for violating, including conspiracy to distribute and possess drugs and conducting a "continuing criminal enterprise," according to attorney Michael Kennedy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ-StunNBsw&t=290sSteve
The individual in question, Steve Hagar, who previously held the position of editor at High Times, neglected to disclose that the act of ordering seeds was unlawful.
Their defense was that they advertised the catalogs containing the seeds, but never explicitly informed the public that they could place orders for the seeds.
This was a reprehensible act of deception and manipulation. However, in 1990, Hagar conceded to this fact following the Green Merchant incident.
The emergence of Green Merchant was primarily a consequence of th
e politicization of the publication.
According to Steve Hager, who has served as the editor since 1986, the majority of the establishments targeted by Green Merchant had previously advertised in either High Times or Sinsemilla Tips.
The resultant raids instilled sufficient fear among advertisers to force Sinsemilla Tips out of business, while High Times managed to endure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ-StunNBsw&t=290sSteve
The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) program, established under the Office of National Drug Control Policy, was created in 1989 following the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988.
Its primary objective is to formulate policies, priorities, and objectives aimed at eradicating illicit drug use, manufacturing, and trafficking.
The National Marijuana Initiative, led by Tommy LaNier in San Diego, collaborates with other drug task forces and pharmaceutical companies, providing samples for testing.
LaNier emphasizes that utilizing the database aids authorities in identifying the ***seed stock used globally.***
***Additionally, it offers insights into the plant lineage of different growers and those who sell seed stock online***.
Despite the evolving legal landscape, sending cannabis seeds through the USPS remains illegal.
However, hemp and hemp-based products, including cannabidiol (CBD) with a tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) concentration not exceeding 0.3 percent, are permitted in domestic mail.
This is contingent upon the mailer complying with all applicable federal, state, and local laws,
***and plans approved by the USDA under 7 CFR Part 990, which pertain to hemp production, processing, distribution, and sales.***
Furthermore, the mailer must retain records establishing compliance with these laws and plans, including laboratory test results, licenses, or compliance reports, for at least three years after the mailing date.
Shipments of hemp and hemp-based products, including CBD, are prohibited in international mail, including deliveries to overseas military and diplomatic Post Office addresses (APO, FPO, and DPO).
Its only in this industry that those who want answers go to the very people who have their giant dick stuck in their asshole to get the answers