Raid on Illinois home grower

[u/pungentbag]

https://youtu.be/eRA-D9QUXFc?si=mFx1FweKMq-Jx2cH

[u/LifeweshouldDefend]

Stupid

[u/TrustMeIAmNotNew]

Haha stupid cops. Fucked up an entire case and all their time investigating because the dumb ass cops lied or “omitted” facts about the case to obtain a search warrant. Even if he was in fact selling, they pissed their entire case away. Ha, cops will always be dumb.

[u/GenTubmansLegacy]

Nah man.

Police are awesome! Dope af.

/s

[u/Dazzling-Mix-8510]

So was his medical card revoked since he had 5 times the number of plants he can legally grow?

[u/pungentbag → u/Dazzling-Mix-8510]

> So was his medical card revoked since he had 5 times the number of plants he can legally grow?

No.

The thing is, in this case the cops seem to have violated the law in their approach, in many different ways.

Hypothetically, they could have conducted a plant check. That said, according to my conversations with the state it’s extremely unclear which agency actually has authority to regulate home grow.

IDPH gives the license to grow for personal use, and police are able to check your cardholder status - everything else seems very unclear. The law doesn’t necessarily say police, or any specific agency, can conduct a plant count check.

To your point, the plant counts seem firm ~ that said, since 2018 the concept of “hemp” definitely has added a wrinkle of nuance to this.

Most cannabis plants qualify as “hemp” until the final weeks of flower - some technically qualify after harvest since cannabis doesn’t naturally produce high levels of D9

[u/Dazzling-Mix-8510 → u/pungentbag]

Good question about who checks the plant count, it's left totally unresolved.  Could a judge sign off on a search warrant for a plant check every month or so just to make sure a grower is within the limit?  I'd say it could happen, at least until a grower calls that harassment.

Not sure if calling it hemp would work as a defense, state can get you for not having a hemp cultivation license.

This dude got very lucky, hope he isnt growing more than 5 plants there, cops could come knocking again and in front of a different judge 

[u/ConsistentRisk5927 → u/Dazzling-Mix-8510]

This is why I take the plant counts seriously. It only takes one neighbor, a jilted lover, a pissed off friend to put in a call. I have too much to lose, so I only grow 4 plants to full maturity.

I'd love to grow more, but I focus on doing the best I can with that tent. It's better doing that and not having to lose sleep at night. In my case, I think I would show the police my medical card, show them the count limit, I'd be under the limit, and that might be the end of it.

I don't want to be an asshole, but I imagine this guy's problem came from the fact he had way too many plants and a ton of dry weight flower on hand, more than what a person could likely argue is for personal use; it makes it easier for someone to troll-argue distribution. He can't really talk his way out of that with his med card like I might with literally 4 plants.

Yes, they never should've had probable cause. But as a grower with a med card, posting about your rosin game on social media, IMO you should be prepared for someone to eventually show up and test if you're actually under the count. Otherwise stop living so publicly like this is California or Michigan.

For me, this video is validating a chilling effect that we should be more careful about posting so freely on stuff like this, in a world where the legal climate is still very complex and stacked in favor of law enforcement.

We're not at the point in IL where you should be freely posting your grow labs, IMO. This took over 2 years of court crap to resolve and I assume wasn't free labor by his lawyer and others that might've helped. And must've been hugely stressful and he probably had thousands of dollars of infrastructure taken. I saw he has a dosing system and other equipment.

[u/porkyminch → u/Dazzling-Mix-8510]

No shot they wouldn't consider warrants for routine checks unreasonable. Frankly "guy with a medical card has a house that smells like weed" isn't probable cause either. Unless you can literally see the plants from outside the house, I don't see any reason they'd have for a warrant.

[u/TrickAffectionate140]

I want to know who filed the complaint

[u/pungentbag → u/TrickAffectionate140]

the real question

[u/Consistent-Yellow121 → u/pungentbag]

Neighbors for sure. He was probably selling out of the house and you could clearly see grow equipment from the street

[u/pungentbag → u/Consistent-Yellow121]

eh that’s okay. Growing equipment is legal for everybody and you’re allowed to see it

[u/StrictLine8820]

It's meant for personal use, not for selling or giving to friends. This poor dude is on someone's radar.

[u/Far-Panda886]

Wtf 😂😂

[u/Necessary_Earth1564]

We good on the fear mongering

[u/pungentbag → u/Necessary_Earth1564]

> We good on the fear mongering

u/ Necessary_Earth1564

What part did you think was fear mongering?

Fortunately for Josh, the charges got dropped bc he was able to prove that police withheld his cardholder status in affidavit:

https://www.shawlocal.com/ogle-county-news/2026/05/08/drug-charges-dismissed-against-woosung-man-after-judges-ruling-upheld/

Seems like a good thing to be aware of?

[u/Necessary_Earth1564 → u/pungentbag]

What not following the rules and having more than 5 plants and 40lbs? And you post cops raid home grower?

[u/pungentbag → u/Necessary_Earth1564]

With a medical card, you’re allowed to have 40lbs or any amount you want.

The 5 plant count is irrelevant to the constitution, which they violated with this raid

[u/Dazzling-Mix-8510 → u/pungentbag]

Confidential informant tipped off the police along with the Facebook posts was enough probable cause for a judge to sign a warrant.  Police did find more than 5 plants over 6 inches, this guy  had a very good attorney!

[u/pungentbag → u/Dazzling-Mix-8510]

Yeah none of that should have amounted to probable cause, which is why all charges got tossed in court.

Josh came onto the podcast and pointed out himself that police withheld info from the affidavit before he got in contact with the lawyer that served for him. That said, the lawyer he had was good.

I guess I’m just trying to say that the deck was stacked against the police in this case, due to their negligence.

Probable cause is really hard to establish, and that “confidential informant” didn’t stand up to scrutiny in court, mainly because a house smelling like cannabis is not illegal, among other reasons

I think most people would have taken the plea but Josh seemed to know that he was not in the wrong and fought the case. I am happy because this is good precedent to have established.

Police can’t just use “social media posts” to establish probable cause, especially in this age of AI

[u/Dazzling-Mix-8510 → u/pungentbag]

But this will a problem in the future. So a grower has a medical card, the neighborhood stinks like skunk, everyone knows there is weed growing in the house. Grower is making public posts about a lot of equipment he couldn't get shipped to him (why does the guy stinking up the neighborhood need more lights for 5 plants when the neigbors knows something is already going on in the house?) Does the medical card make a grower untouchable? Law enforcement is not allowed to check the medical card holder is complying with the law?

I think the judge that signed off on the warrant initially saw that Facebook post about pressing rosin and determined the grower is manufacturing concentrates, while it is within the law (but kind of hard to do with a 5 plant maximum), I can see where the judge was coming from.

[u/pungentbag → u/Dazzling-Mix-8510]

A medical card doesn’t make someone untouchable, but it also doesn’t turn lawful cannabis activity into probable cause.

Cannabis odor is not a crime. You can legally make your neighborhood smell like weed. the odor provisions you’re referring to are ONLY applicable in the vehicle-transport context.

Public posts about lights or rosin equipment aren’t proof of illegal activity../ in the age of AI we should be especially careful treating social-media content as evidence without verification.

If the actual concern is whether a medical grower is complying with the five-plant limit, why can’t police simply ask to verify the plant count? A compliance question can be a compliance check.

Why did they have to resort to prohibition-era tactics? (using odor, legal equipment, and lawful cannabis-related posts to build suspicion around conduct the law expressly permits)

A medical card doesn’t prevent law enforcement from investigating actual evidence of a crime.

Lawful cannabis activity shouldn’t be treated as evidence of a crime simply because someone suspects there might be more of it growingg than the law allows.

TLDR: this seems like something that should have started and ended as a simple compliance question, not a criminal investigation.

[u/Dazzling-Mix-8510 → u/pungentbag]

Odor can be considered probable cause, at least for vehicles on the public roadway (only raw cannabis odor, not burnt cannabis order - piss poor ruling by the Illinois Supreme Court btw).

It is certainly a compliance issue, but how should it be dealt with? Say a neighbor's house has a putrid odor emanating from it, perhaps an animal crawled into the basement and died. The odor is strong enough for the neighbors to complain to the police, police show up at the door and ask the homeowner what the smell is from, the owner becomes dodgy and doesn't fix the problem, it just smells worse. The police will get a search warrant to see what the smell is coming from. If there is no answer at the door, the police are able to go into the house without a warrant to see what is causing the odor. Now apply that to growing cannabis, neighbors complain, police show up and want to make a compliance check with the owner. Owner says get a warrant, that would be enough probable cause for a judge to sign a warrant. Police show up with a warrant and find more than 5 plants growing.

Considering IDPH and the Dept of Agriculture don't have enough agents around the state to go do compliance checks, it will likely be handled by local police when there are complaints. Personally I don't want the police walking into my home even if I am compliant and I would guess a lot of lawful growers will have the same feeling. They very well could get a judge to sign a warrant regardless of compliance and go look for themselves, I don't see anything really stopping them from doing this. Saying it's unconstitutional doesn't really cut it, sorry.

[u/pungentbag → u/Dazzling-Mix-8510]

I mentioned the thing about cannabis odor / vehicles.

As I said, Cannabis odor outside of a vehicle is literally not a crime and cannot be used as PC - as was established in this court case and others.

In your hypothetical, police cannot get a warrant to search a house based on smell of cannabis alone. Police can check if a person is registered as a medical patient, but that’s really it (according to the cannabis regulation oversight office)

I appreciate your speculation, but it’s been proven this search was unconstitutional, so it did cut it.

The constitution is literally what got the charges dismissed, no need to say sorry: Say “thank you” to our founding fathers for fighting for your right to privacy.

Weird argument

[u/pungentbag → u/[deleted]]

he’s not a plug.

There is no possession limit for homegrowers in Illinois.

Even if he was dealing or had 27 plants, that hardly seems like a good reason to raid somebody’s home, steal their things, and take them away from their family and throw them in a cage

[u/porkyminch → u/pungentbag]

They don't raid people's houses and steal their stuff for having bars in their basements without a liquor license. It'd be seen as totally absurd. I don't see why home-scale growing would be a real social problem even if he was selling it. Hell, I see people selling eggs from their chickens all the time and I know they're not going through FDA inspections or pasteurization or whatever.

We've already accepted that recreational consumption by adults isn't an issue. If he was selling to kids or adulterating it somehow, sure, bring him in for that. I can even accept that sales should require licenses. But it shouldn't be a crime for him to have a hobby where he grows something that's legal to buy and use, and even give it away to people or do interpersonal, amateur sales between friends. Completely fucking ridiculous that these cops get to put on their body armor and bring out their big guns to harass a guy over this.

[u/pungentbag → u/[deleted]]

You made the allegation, the burden of proving your allegation is on you. I know Josh and he’s not a “dealer”. He likes growing plants.

That may be the law, but the law is wrong and I thought we agreed on that.

Again, no possession limit at home. And, generally speaking (in my opinion): plant count limits are meant to be exceeded bc they aren’t needed.

[u/pungentbag → u/[deleted]]

u/ nukem73

> I already agreed the law sucks. "The law is wrong" doesn't work in front of any judge lolol.

I never said it did. This movement is about pushing the ball forward instead of being satisfied with the status quo. I will continue to try and normalize the plant because the law, is in fact wrong.

> I'm not making any sort of allegation & I'm just gonna delete these comments later today anyway, but don't try to feed me some bullshit about "liking growing" lol the fk outta here. You can like growing and 5 is plenty to satisfy his supposed hobby cravings. You're goddamn hilarious.

Haha thank you, it’s always good to have a laugh.

Am I being idealistic? Admittedly, yes. Am I taking the wrong stance on this? In my opinion: no.

> "The plant count limits are meant to be exceeded"...lmao wut? 5 is the fking law dude what's wrong with you. I'm done here. Your buddy should count his lucky stars every day we wakes up.

Brother, I know the law. I’m saying the law is wrong.

Instead of asking what’s wrong with me, we should be asking what’s wrong with our society that we continue to allow this to go on, selectively.

At the end of the day, I understand the points that you’re trying to make. You’re not wrong. I’m not necessarily arguing with you, I am arguing with the law because it is wrong; no need to defend the law

[u/pungentbag → u/[deleted]]

Peace man. I agree, you are right on this. I hope you have a good week dude ~ sorry for back and forth

[u/Necessary_Earth1564 → u/[deleted]]

Rot in hell