Petrelis Files

SF Chron FaG Reporter
Busted for Weed, in Weed, CA

(Tom Stienstra would be quite the popular bear at the Lone Star Saloon, if he should decide to hibernate there. Photo credit: Michael Macor.)

Like, hey dude, heard the latest wacky-tobacky story from the Left Coast? The fish-and-game and outdoors reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, the handsome and hunky and hirsute and heterosexual Tom Stienstra, and his wife were recently arrested in an aptly named town:

WEED, SISKIYOU COUNTY -- Chronicle outdoors writer Tom Stienstra and his wife were arrested at their Northern California home on suspicion of possession of marijuana for sale, and later released with no charges filed pending an investigation, officials said.

Siskiyou County sheriff's spokeswoman Susan Gravenkamp said deputies found "a sophisticated marijuana cultivation operation in the barn" at Stienstra's home in Weed, a small town 30 miles south of Yreka, when they searched it March 25. [...]

They also found medical-marijuana recommendation papers for Stienstra; his wife, Stephani Cruickshank; and Cruickshank's son, who also lives at the home, Gravenkamp said. [...]

Only in California, kiddies, only in California. Such incidents as this should become as obsolete as speakeasies and bathtub gin, once we pass the ballot initiative legalizing, regulating and taxing marijuana.