Winsted -- It's neighbor versus neighbor in one community. Neighbors say a house on 24 High Street in Winsted is in bad taste, but officials say there's little they can do about this house with hemp leaves painted on the side.
The hemp leaf symbol means the same thing to almost everyone, marijuana, but for the man who owns this house it means something else, hemp.
Hemp is basically pot plant minus the pot and hemp is widely acknowledged to have many different uses.
"Hemp fiber is 10 times as strong as cotton," says Chris Seekins, who grows the plant. "You can make plastics out of hemp."
Seekins owns the home and painted these pictures and with them is making a statement that hemp should be legalized.
"I think he's going about it the wrong way decorating this house the way he did," said neighbor Tom Rea.
Neighbors we talked to weren't excited about Seekins message but they all recognize his right to do it.
"It’s just a means of being civilly disobedient that's how I look at it," said neighbor Ron Sturm.
Police in the town agree Seekins can paint his house how he wants.
It comes down to the first amendment and while not everyone may like what he has to say it's his property and he does have the right to say it.
Seekins was arrested last year for growing and cultivating marijuana, almost 100 plants.
Seekins says they were hemp plants and is fighting that in court.
― R.I.P. Concrete Octopus ]-`: (ex machina), Friday, 17 March 2006 18:35 (twenty years ago)
six months pass...
8's advertising slogan: "Whether you're strokin' it, or pokin' it, think hemp."
― M. White (Miguelito), Thursday, 12 October 2006 17:56 (nineteen years ago)