Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 30, 1991 TAG: 9103300369
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON and LAURENCE HAMMACK/ STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Charles Edward Gowen, 38, who owns a company that specializes in balloon arrangements and gifts, was charged Thursday night with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute after police raided his home in the 1500 block of Franklin Road Southwest.
Authorities said they seized two pounds of pot from the home.
In a letter to the editor published last year in the Roanoke Times & World-News, Gowen wrote that the marijuana laws were old and unjust, and that the drug was far safer than alcohol.
"While the sellers of booze get rewarded with paychecks, the sellers of pot get prison," he wrote.
In brief telephone interview Friday night, Gowen reiterated his views on marijuana. "I feel like I'm the victim of unfair laws."
Gowen said he has printed up bumper stickers that say: "Americans For Pot. People For Change."
He said the vice officers who arrested him asked if they could have some of the bumper stickers, but he refused because he did not want them to be able to put them on their undercover cars as a way to lure potential drug suspects.
A search warrant filed in Roanoke Circuit Court stated that marijuana had been sold in Gowen's home within 72 hours of when the warrant was served, about 9:30 p.m. Thursday.
Gowen said in the interview that he got into selling pot only recently when his legitimate business, Balloons Over Roanoke, started going downhill after the Persian Gulf War broke out.
by CNB