As one of the readers of the Orange County Register story on this pot bust already commented, with a name like his, he has to be innocent.
Justice America Kaczmarek, 35, is currently being held without bail, according to the newspaper, for growing pot in his Fountain Valley House. The coppers busted him after discovering 170 plants and more than one whopping pound of dried marijuana–yummy, delicious marijuana–at his place on Santa Lucia Street. The police told the Reg that the grow operation involved “sophisticated cooling, ventilation, lighting and irrigation systems.” That statement seems to be intended to suggest that Kaczmarek was some kind of Heisenberg-type genius like Mr. White and not some poor dude who just wanted to try his hand at growing pot indoors.
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Although it's not clear from the article, we're guessing that Kaczmarek, perhaps because of his patriotic name, figured that he was just pursuing the good old American dream with his indoor pot farm and since he wasn't hurting anybody, wasn't going to get in any trouble with Johnny Law. Fountain Valley has been seeking to ban pot collectives, but hasn't actually done that yet, although it did pass an ordinance last year banning marijuana dispensaries that conflict with both federal and state law, whatever the hell that's supposed to mean. Like not growing pot in a school classroom maybe?
In any case, Kaczmarek doesn't appear to be any kind of criminal mastermind, since his only previous brushes with the law were a 2001 arrest for possessing less than an ounce of pot while driving without a license and a 2005 ticket for evading a toll booth and failing to provide proof of financial responsibility.
The streets of Fountain Valley are now officially safe from Justice America.
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Award-winning investigative journalist Nick Schou is Editor of OC Weekly. He is the author of Kill the Messenger: How the CIA’s Crack Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb (Nation Books 2006), which provided the basis for the 2014 Focus Features release starring Jeremy Renner and the L.A. Times-bestseller Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love’s Quest to bring Peace, Love and Acid to the World, (Thomas Dunne 2009). He is also the author of The Weed Runners (2013) and Spooked: How the CIA Manipulates the Media and Hoodwinks Hollywood (2016).