Man in Anti Pot Ad Charged With Pot Growhouse

Don’t you love it when the Emperor gets caught wearing no clothes? When the voices of righteousness are caught with their pants down?

A labor organization's voice for a drug-free work force found himself behind bars this week charged with cultivating a massive marijuana grow.

In Virginia, Wendell Aaron Searls, 56, was accused Wednesday, Sept. 9, of cultivating marijuana and possessing the drug with intent to deliver, both felonies. He was jailed about 10 p.m. on a $52,000 bond. Police described the 8th Avenue discovery as "a highly sophisticated, efficient, well thought out marijuana production facility."

Criminal complaints state Searls admitted to having the marijuana grow in his attic, which Huntington Police Sgt. Darrell Booth called a "marijuana factory." It included more than 100 plants and sophisticated tools needed to grow the crop indoors.

Searls appears in commercials as a hard-hat-wearing worker for the Affiliated Construction Trades Foundation. The commercial lists him as a member of Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 521. It has appeared on television and YouTube to promote the organization's drug-free message.

"Nobody wants to work next to anybody whose judgment is impaired by drugs or alcohol," Searls says in the commercial. "We don't just talk a drug-free work force. We do something about it. The union work force is a drug-free work force."

Steve White, director of the ACT, said his organization was shocked and disappointed. Those associated with the commercial were unaware of Searls' suspected behavior. He called the allegations unfortunate and embarrassing.

"Were we fooled? Apparently so," White said. "This instance, while it might be tragic and ironic, it is exactly what we are trying to prevent -- people who use illegal drugs being in the workplace."

The commercial belongs to a rotation of television advertisements opposing drugs. It was not airing this week, and White vowed it would be taken out of the rotation. Too bad. We should play it more, not less.

We don't exactly feel sorry or sympathetic for this hypocrite of anti drug hype.

He is like that anti gay Senator caught in a men’s room playing with his stall, or something else like it. Screw him. Like the minister condemning prostitution after turning a trick with a hooker, this guy's hydroponic operation fries his own butt and humiliates his own group. How typical of the holy and the righteous. Hoisted again on their own petard.

This could be one of the few times I am glad there is an anti marijuana growhouse law on the books. His next ad will come from the prisons, telling us how as a convicted criminal he has learned a lesson and turned over a new leaf. Let's hope it is not a hydroponic one.