Bust Insurance

Entrepreneurs on the fringe of the drug culture are also at work elsewhere.

In the San Francisco area, a young Canadian, Michael Sudds, is starting an organization called Free Weed, dedicated to the legalization of marijuana. It also offers a more immediate benefit: free legal defense for members who get caught in the Cannabis trap.

Although planned as a moneymaking operation, it is doubtful that Free Weed will ever grow into a million-dollar plant.

Membership requires filing an application and payment of $50 for the first six months. Thereafter, renewals cost $50 per year. In return, Free Weeders will be entitled to $1,500 worth of legal defense when busted for possession of marijuana and $5,000 in legal expenses if they are apprehended selling it. So far, Sudds has received several hundred requests for membership applications.

The idea grew out of a similar operation that Sudds helped found in Victoria, B.C., last winter. The Canadian corporation is called C.F. & S. Contracting Co. Ltd., after the first letter in the three founders' last names. To date, C.F. & S. has prospered. Only three of its 500 clients have been busted, and their legal fees came to about $2,000. Unfortunately, the "C" in the organization's title, who is credited with developing the idea, is not profiting much from the experiment. He is currently serving time in a Canadian prison for possession of marijuana.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.