For the growing number of Vermonters sympathetic to the cause of snuffing out pot prohibition in our lifetimes, there are oodles of convincing facts and figures to support their case. But is Roger Pion’s act of monster-truck vengeance exacted upon the Orleans County Sheriff’s Office one of them?

This week, BTV Green — the pro-pot activist group that convinced the Burlington City Council to put a nonbinding referendum on cannabis legalization on the Nov. 6 ballot — unveiled its new stickers and poster art (right). One depicts the now-iconic image of the Newport farmer driving his 10-ton tractor over eight police vehicles, reportedly in retribution for police harassment as well as an arrest for marijuana possession.

Is the image a clever collectible bound to end up on the walls of countless Burlington dorm rooms and frat houses? Without a doubt. But is it the most effective message for convincing undecided voters that pot smokers are chill, nonviolent, responsible citizens? Initial damage estimates from Pion’s handiwork exceeded $250,000 — not including police embarrassment over having to apprehend him on foot.

“We weren’t sure that anyone would be turned off by that [image],” argues BTV Green founder Albert Petrarca.

Staff Writer Ken Picard is a senior staff writer at Seven Days. A Long Island, N.Y., native who moved to Vermont from Missoula, Mont., he was hired in 2002 as Seven Days’ first staff writer, to help create a news department. Ken has since won numerous regional and national awards for his features, profiles and investigative stories and had his work picked up by international news outlets. He was the first journalist to shine a light on the thousands of undocumented workers in Vermont’s dairy...

29 replies on “Dope or Dopey? Burlington’s “Legalize It” Advocates Choose Cruiser-Crushing Farmer To Push Message”

  1. “regardless of whether you think he’s more John Brown than Martin Luther King, Jr.”
    Ummmm he’s is claiming mental health issues, in court stating God told him to do it. Were John Brown and MLK batshit crazy too?

  8. Fuck your BULLSHIT independence. Roger Pion has NEVER been convicted of a felony. Yet the PIGS gave Roger a concussion in the course of arresting him on a warrant over marijuana possessing a joint’s worth of weed. Roger’s brain was crushed and swolen by PIG Aaron Leferbrve of the Newport Pig Department who have a reputation of INJUSTICE and BRUTALITY and HARASSMENT. This is not about a “marijuana arrest”. It is about PIG BRUTALITY. Fuck your BULLSHIT independence while you spread the corporate news while not bothering to GATHER THE FACTS, you fucking retarded douche bag clown.

  13. Sir,
    1. A mind-altering drug is not “harmless.” I smoked pot as a youth and it was not “harmless.”
    2. A man who goes on a rampage and commits violence and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of property damage (Pion) is not a “hero.”
    3. DV Kelley’s postings are the postings of an enraged paranoid lunatic.

  15. Crushing tax payer property sets a good example for the kids and sends a positive message to adults about political participation. Despite Petrarca’s guttural rhetoric, history will define cannabis legalization as a protective measure for effective law enforcement in the United States.

  16. Harmless….. it makes you dumber (lowering an IQ on average 8 points), and it increases your risk of prostate cancer. And that is besides the other drugs that inevitably are taken

  17. increases your risk of waht now? funny, since it’s being found to cure cancer in studies around the globe. Also looks promising for helping slow the onset of Alzheimer’s by acting as a neuroprotectant, which would be the opposit of lowering IQ. a fast google would give you plenty of sources for both those claims. So why don’t you back your drug war bullshit up and go peddle it elsewhere?

  18. yes. yes it does. Those who prosecute a war against american citizens, should get to feel at least some faint shadow of the pain and terror they inflict on those they’ve sworn to protect and serve.

  19. Cure cancer? Treat cancer maybe…the symptoms that is.
    Pot and Prostate cancer
    http://www.counselheal.com/art…
    You will note that study was published in a peer reviewed journal.
    Marijuana use lowers IQ
    http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-50…
    You will note that study too was published in a peer reviewed journal.
    There’s the studies backing up my “bullshit” with studies done by researchers (with PhD’s) and published in peer reviewed scientific journals. Care to back up your claim that it cures cancer with anything more then a “google search”

  22. Umm, you do realize that the article specifically states smoking pot doesn’t help, one single compound of hundreds is needed in quantities and concentrations that require injection. Smoking pot is bad, although there are certain compounds produced by the plant that are useful.

  23. “According to an affidavit from State Police Lieutenant Kirk Cooper,
    police heard on September 12 that the 34-year-old Newport resident was
    being “advised by the gods to start shooting people.””
    Barton Chronicle

  24. tell that to the people who’ve been cured using Rick Simpsons oil. i suppose they’re all lying.

  26. It’s truly scary to read what the potheads on here think. Pot CURES cancer, because they did a Google search??? Really??? That might be evidence that pot actually does make you dumber.

  27. If you are trying to prove that weed is harmless and legalizing it is a good idea, the worst possible mascot would be a stoned out rage-head smashing up $250,000 of public property. I like the way the same slackers who demand their freedom to toke expect free medical care, free food stamps, subsidized housing, etc. If the government really got out of their lives they wouldn’t last a week.

  28. You are right. It’s been known for years that Cannabinoids, not THC, are the component with medical value. But tokers don’t want to hear that. It’s so obvious that this is really about getting high. When was the last time you saw someone walking down the street with an aspirin or hemorrhoid cream graphic on his T-shirt?

  29. They are not lying, but the placebo effect and other variables make this kind of self-reporting anecdote useless for scientific purposes. There was a time when people took “life giving radium” as a vitamin, and reported immediate improvement in vigor. Really. Until they died of leukemia, that is.

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