Eleni Polinski was a rising pot star in New York. Even Carmelo Anthony said he loved her stuff. Then a stunning police raid upended everything and shattered her family. Rosalind Adams draws on a wealth of surveillance footage, electronic communications, and other materials to tell a story that highlights “how razor thin the margin can be between whether a person in the cannabis industry is celebrated as an entrepreneur or charged as a criminal”:
The raid began with an anonymous complaint about a loud argument that triggered an hours-long police response and drew at least 10 vehicles to the home at its height. First, cops checked for evidence of a possible fight, then the fire department searched for explosives, and finally emergency support teams were called in after cops reported an alleged firearm.
They never discovered signs of a conflict, a gun or anything hazardous.
They did find a lot of plants. In the home were dozens of unique strains the pair had developed — from seeds or cuttings collected from skilled cannabis breeders around the country. The genetics were invaluable to their brand and impossible to replicate.
A firefighter surveying the home that night quietly told a colleague: “Somebody ratted someone out.”
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“If you thought that the cannabis business, with its counter-culture, middle-finger-to-the-system ethos would have a single method by which all new strains receive their name, you must be high.”
Queens of the Stoned Age
The Green Angels—a collective of weed-dealing models—runs a high-end, multimillion-dollar pot operation based in New York City.
