D.C. Police Raid Capitol Hemp in Adams Morgan, Chinatown

[Figure-8]

http://capitolhemp.com/

D.C.'s Capitol Hemp Stores Raided

WASHINGTON - The owner of a D.C.'s Capitol Hemp says the police raid of his two stores in Adams Morgan and Chinatown Wednesday night was politically motivated.
Adam Eidinger says his store is being targeted because of his opposition to a proposed luxury hotel development.
Six employees and one customer were arrested and hundreds of thousands of dollars in merchandise was confiscated.
Everyone arrested was eventually released and the charges of possession with intent to distribute, lowered.
Capitol Hemp says sells clothing and food made from hemp, as well as tobacco and accessories.
Eidinger says his business in Adam's Morgan has been open for 4 years. The Chinatown location has been open for two years. He says there have never been any problems or violations.
He says, "I've been told if I speak out against this hotel I might lose my business. I guess yesterday was an attempt top shut me down."
D.C. police haven't said why they raided Capitol Hemp.
Eidinger is one of a growing number of people in Adam's Morgan who are opposed to a proposed 10-story luxury hotel that will be located behind a historic church at Euclid and Champlain Streets.
The developer is set to get $46 million tax abatement.
Eidinger says it's unfair.
He says the community could use a library instead. He and about 10 others staged a protest outside a planning and zoning meeting Thursday night.
"People in this neighborhood feel intimated by this hotel," Eidinger says, "They are ramming it down our throats."
Ward 1 Councilmember, Jim Graham supports the hotel.

He says, "It's not that there's money that's actually being used. We're saying if you open a hotel, you won't have to pay taxes."

Graham says he doesn't believe the raid at Capitol Hemp's two locations had anything to do with the development.

He says it's far from being a done deal.
"There's a lengthy public process, and hopefully the dialogue can be uplifted a little bit".
Eidinger says he will continue to speak out.
He isn't sure what it will mean for him or his business, but he says it's important that someone stand up against what he believes is corporate greed.
Eidinger says, "Our business paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes last year to local government. We're not getting tax breaks. Why is Marriott getting a break? We're sick of this."

Capitol Hemp Closing Its Doors In Deal With Prosecutors

Shortly before 7 p.m. last night, the Metropolitan Police Department raided Capitol Hemp locations in Adams Morgan and Chinatown simultaneously. Seven people were arrested, including one customer, on charges of possession of drug paraphernalia. Three of the seven were also charged with drug possession with intent to distribute. As of earlier this afternoon, according to Adam Eidinger, an owner of the stores, five of the seven had been released from jail.

Eidinger, who is known for his outspoken liberal views, is meeting with lawyers this afternoon to establish a plan of action against what he believes was an "unjust" and "political" raid. He wouldn't say for the record what the political reason for the arrests might be. Police seized $3,000 worth of inventory including tobacco paraphernalia and computers in the stores.

Eidinger says the possibility also exists that Capitol Hemp will hold onto its Adams Morgan location, perhaps turning it into a Cold War themed-nightclub, selling drinks in glowing radioactive glassware. In a nod to recent events, he is considering naming the place "Fallout Shelter."

WASHINGTON -- Capitol Hemp is banned in D.C. Buy some shirts and pins saying so.

Adam Eidinger, one of the hemp store's co-owners, tells The Huffington Post that Capitol Hemp's new "Banned in DC" logo -- based on the Bad Brains song of the same name -- will adorn pins and hemp shirts that will be sold in the hemp store's two retail locations until they close at the beginning of August pursuant to a deal with federal prosecutors.

They'll also be available online, past the retail stores' closing. Eidinger says that his agreement with the police only mandates closing down Capitol Hemp's physical locations, not the business in total. Capitol Hemp, Eidinger says, will live on as an online hemp clothing retailer, an internet "superstore for hemp clothing" that will "serve the whole country."

Capitol Hemp, DC’s only source for high quality hemp clothing and accessories, should be celebrating its four-year anniversary since opening its doors on April 20, 2008. Instead, the company, which employs ten people, begins the arduous task of permanently closing down its Adams Morgan (1802 Adams Mill Rd, NW) and Chinatown (519 H St, NW) stores on August 1, 2012.

“The decision to close the doors of Capitol Hemp is not an easy one but it’s the best option of the dreadful ones available,” says Alan Amsterdam, co-owner and managing partner of Capitol Hemp’s controversial boutique, which specializes in artisan glass pipes.

Capitol Hemp showcased glass art that pushed the boundaries of functional glass; glass art created by employing techniques including Electroform (fusing copper and glass), Fuming (blowing oxidized gold/silver into the glass), Graal Work (blown glass that is etched or sandblasted with a decoration), Dichro (multiple layers of metal oxides in the glass) and uranium glass that glows brilliant green under UV light.

Capitol Hemp raised expectations among the DC Metropolitan Area’s functional glass enthusiasts by offering unique pieces crafted by highly sought-after American glass artists. The store sells functional art objects, including work by Hybrid Glass, AKM, Salt, Marble Slinger, Snic, Iladelph, Toro, Mike Higgins, Zach Puchowitz, Mike Fro, Lace Face, Kind, Darby, Syn, Sovereignty, Adam Sultan, Eric Ross, Hops, Fat Mike and hundreds of others. “Capitol Hemp’s comprehensive selection of art captured the creative explosion of functional glass blowing that will continue all over America, but not in Washington, DC after August 1,” says Amsterdam.

For now, the stores remain DC’s top sellers of eco-friendly, non-drug, industrial hemp products including the best selection of hemp clothing, food, cosmetics, paper, bags, yarn, and even fiberboard for building projects. At both locations, the stores’ construction utilized more than 2,000 lbs of hemp fiberboard, and despite the wear and tear by tens of thousands of customers, the hemp fiberboard’s durability is on full display today. The stores also offered books on the history of hemp in the United States, including historical accounts of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who were both farmers and advocates of the versatile crop.
Capitol Hemp was active in numerous hemp movement initiatives and supported efforts to reform America’s archaic hemp laws. These laws prohibit non-drug, industrial hemp farming in the United States, even though it is legal to import hemp fiber and seed products. In 2010 Capitol Hemp donated $25,000 to Proposition 19, a California voter initiative that sought to legalize all forms of cannabis, including industrial hemp farming. The initiative failed by three percentage points due in part to infighting in the reform community.
Capitol Hemp generated more than $300,000 in local tax revenue, gave health care to its employees, sponsored the DC Roller Girls and donated money to local police and fire union charities. “The story of Capitol Hemp’s demise is the story of the war on drugs being enforced by DC government as a war on free speech,” says Eidinger. “Why is DC shooting itself in the foot?”

Prior to Capitol Hemp opening its doors, Eidinger was an outspoken figure on the American hemp issue. In 2009 he planted hemp seeds on the lawn of the DEA in Arlington with farmers and other leaders of the hemp industry who were frustrated by federal policy that denies such a useful crop to American farmers. A video of the protest and subsequent arrests garnered widespread attention and can be seen at

BAD BRAINS - BANNED IN DC - CBGB 1982 (OFFICIAL VERSION)

BAD BRAINS - BANNED IN DC - CBGB 1982 (OFFICIAL VERSION)
Video: click to display

“I’m deeply saddened by the tough decision we made to close Capitol Hemp,” says co-founder Adam Eidinger. “This is a set-back for hemp enthusiasts everywhere and a sign that the nation’s drug laws are victimizing law-abiding businesses without good reason. I never expected we would be able to open Capitol Hemp under the reign of George Bush without problems, but under Democratic control we have been harassed, raided, and threatened with bankruptcy.”

Do you find it ironic that you are being closed down at approximately the same time Washington is about to begin cultivating and dispensing medical marijuana?
Yes. We are actually applicants for licenses as cultivators and dispensers.
The chosen cultivation center applicants have been named. Are you still contenders for a dispensary license?
Yes, but we're much more inclined to do a ballot initiative in 2013. We need to have patients' rights. Let's force an election on this. This city should be giving rights to every citizen, without a doctor's recommendation.

BOB MARLEY THREE LITTLE BIRDS

BOB MARLEY THREE LITTLE BIRDS
Video: click to display

[L33tz]

Jesus as a capitalist - YouTube

Jesus as a capitalist - YouTube
Video: click to display

[Sober]

fucking obama is such a lier,why the fuck are they wasting there time.

[Parallax]

DC police are a joke. This is a city that has been overrun with violent niggers, and this is what they waste their time on?

[Figure-8]

Who are they protecting and serving? Who's interests?

[Tachosomoza]

Originally Posted by Parallax

DC police are a joke. This is a city that has been overrun with violent niggers, and this is what they waste their time on?

The cops and violent folks are cut from the same cloth. Grew up in the same projects, some of them. This is the place where the mayor was an embezzling crack fiend, remember?

[roasted]

tl:dr, but I might read it later....obviously a weed shack in Adams Morgan is going to get raided if they start fucking with the police...no one cares about chinatown but it was added to satisfy fuck-brains like the ACLU.

Fag8- If you want to learn something useful about DC read about Marion Barry... he is the epitome of a nigger and he should be euthenized for the sake of society

[Figure-8]

Shit just got srs.

[roasted]

hey faggot, why do you feel the need to make 2 different threads about the same topic?

[Figure-8]

I didn't, post without reason.

[roasted]

every post of yours is without reason because you are a conspiracy loving fag-8 without a mind of his own...kill yourself and spare society this bullshit

[Figure-8]

Since you're so upset, why bitch 90% of the time and contribute, if you consider it that, 1% (the rest hot air). Why don't you have anything to brain about the topic at hand, which is not a conspiracy?

? Spare ...us? Or AT LEAST, tell us part of what you WANT us to RESEARCH about that.

Unless u just jelly an makin stuff up.

[Obbe]

What a dysphoic society.

Originally Posted by roasted

tl:dr, but I might read it later....obviously a weed shack in Adams Morgan is going to get raided if they start fucking with the police...no one cares about chinatown but it was added to satisfy fuck-brains like the ACLU.

Fag8- If you want to learn something useful about DC read about Marion Barry... he is the epitome of a nigger and he should be euthenized for the sake of society

Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man. - YouTube

Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man. - YouTube
Video: click to display

[Parallax]

Originally Posted by Tachosomoza

The cops and violent folks are cut from the same cloth. Grew up in the same projects, some of them. This is the place where the mayor was an embezzling crack fiend, remember?

True... I guess it would be a bit silly for us to expect niggers to police themselves.

[aquabania]

What law did they break?