Wisconsin man gets pounded after posting weed snaps

Still, if you come into contact with large amounts of illegal drugs in your state, it is important to keep your illegal activities off the internet. A Wisconsin man learned that lesson the hard way when he faced seven drug abuse charges in a La Crosse County county court Tuesday after police began monitoring his social media, the Capital Times reports.

The trouble started when an informant reported to police that he had allegedly seen a photo of 200 cannabis plants in Austen Schalow’s basement. This person also told officers that Shalov told them that he paid for sex with a woman with either cannabis or money.

Despite the fact that the Wisconsin capital, Madison, decriminalized adult possession of up to 28 grams of cannabis last November, state law makes growing a single marijuana plant a criminal offense. Outside of Madison – where, of course, La Crosse County is – possession of any amount of cannabis is an offense that can earn the individual up to six months in prison.

That could change in the future if all political hurdles are overcome. Governor Tony Evers is at least in favor of legalizing cannabis – he included a plan to legalize adult cannabis in his biennial budget published in February. However, that proposal was somewhat predictably rejected in May by a Republican-led budget committee.

Wisconsinites seem to see the issue differently than their Republican counterparts. In 2019, a Marquette University poll found that 59 percent of respondents believed marijuana should be legal, compared with 36 percent who thought it should remain illegal.

Unfortunately, it turned out that Schalow was about more than just grass.

Police officers began tracking Schalow online in June 2020, allegedly motivated by the fact that he was previously convicted of charges of mental harm to a child and misconduct.

On May 25 this year, police saw a Snapchat clip of Schalow on a trip across the country carrying cannabis products, including what appears to be a pound of marijuana and bags to stop the weed odor from spreading.

A day later, Schalow posted again on Snapchat, this time, however, that he and a companion were on their way back to Wisconsin.

Officials took the opportunity to search Schalow’s house, where they found cannabis, xanax, cocaine, and hydrocodone pills, as well as paraphernalia that could be used to sell items such as vacuum seals and bags – official reports put the total value of the items to over $ 100,000.

Police then went out of state to Colorado to catch him and used his phone data to track down the guy. They stopped him in a car and found a $ 150,000 product that is illegal in Wisconsin; 30 pounds of marijuana, five pounds of hash oil, and about 3,000 THC vape carts. The bail was set at $ 75,000.

A quick Google search for “Social Media Drug Arrests” shows you that this type of operation is far from uncommon these days. A word to the wise: calm down posting your drugs if you want to avoid ending up on the police radar.