Doug Clark: Prosecutors take potshot against poor 66-year-old

Even people who don’t smoke pot should be fuming about the over-the-top prosecution of Christine Rose Baggett.

Spokane County prosecutors are trying to peg the ailing 66-year-old Spokane great-grandmother as a dangerous drug dealer because she gave a pinch of pot back to the dude who sold her an ounce of weed for medicinal purposes.

Wow. There must not be any meth chefs to go after.

The upshot is that the guy who sold Ganja Granny the ounce for $180 gets a misdemeanor while she is staring at a big fat felony delivery charge.

I guess it shouldn’t be a mystery.

The woman can’t shoot from the perimeter.

Her ball handling is a joke. She shuffles around with a cane, has two kinds of arthritis, poor eyesight and a broken ankle that won’t heal.

Maybe if Baggett had mad basketball skills she, too, would have gotten a sweet deal like Spokane County prosecutors gave Josh Heytvelt.

Remember Heytvelt?

He’s the Gonzaga hoops star who was caught in Cheney last February with a baggie of magic mushrooms and some chocolate shroom-laced muffins.

Heytvelt was charged with felony possession, not delivery.

That key difference allowed the athlete to qualify for a diversion program, which, if he completes all the court edicts, will get the nasty mess expunged from his record.

The same folks who are treating Ganja Granny like a Colombian drug lord could have easily dropped the “felonious possession with intent to deliver” hammer on Heytvelt.

You think all that fungi was for one guy?

What have you been smoking?

The lad had enough trippin’ toadstools to send his teammates, the coaching staff and the entire Kennel Club on an extended hallucinogenic “bong voyage.”

(Yeah, I know bong voyage is more of a pot reference. But I just like the way it sounds.)

But why wreck the future of a forward with great power on the boards?

I’m not suggesting that Ganja Granny should go scot-free. The cops caught her dead to rights last August when she bought the ounce of weed from the aforementioned man.

Baggett, according to our Tuesday Spokesman-Review story, let the guy keep some for his troubles.

The woman contends marijuana relieves her miseries better than all the powerful pharmaceuticals that have been prescribed for her.

“I just feel terrible when I take prescription medications,” she said in the story. “I don’t think I’m out to hurt anybody or have a big grow operation. I’m just out to ease my pain. That’s what the whole deal is.”

Who knows? I don’t really care if this senior has been a chronic user of the chronic since Woodstock.

Based on the facts as reported, this looks like a bigger overcharge than hiring a plumber on Christmas Day.

Baggett’s attorney, Frank Cikutovich, appeared on the Mark Fuhrman talk radio show Wednesday. His position regarding his client is pretty straightforward: “She possessed a misdemeanor amount and should be charged accordingly.”

That would be the sensible solution, I suppose. But I would also charge this woman with A.L.A.G.

“Acting Like a Grandma.”

Grandmas are always trying to give you stuff, and my grandmother, rest her soul, was no exception. Every time I went over to her house the following would occur:

“”Here, sweetie, let me wrap some of this cobbler for you to take home.”

“”I can’t possibly eat all these oatmeal raisin cookies, Dear. Take some of them with you.”

“”Surprise! Guess who gets the leftover cream puffs?”

From these examples I think you can see why I’m SO FREAKING FAT!

Thank God my granny wasn’t a pothead. I’d be living in a van down by the river.

But this grandmotherly generosity could be what got Baggett into all the trouble.

“Here, Honey. This bud’s for you.”

That’s not being a drug dealer. That’s tipping your server.