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.”
More picks about marijuana
The Last Great Weed Smuggler
“Before the cartels took over, Harvey Prager built a life on millions of dollars of drug money. One prosecutor called Prager ‘the last of the great amateurs.’ This is his story.”
Purple Haze
“Cannabis returns to Kathmandu.”
How Weed Strains Get Their (Amusing, Provocative, Downright Wacky) Names
“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.”
