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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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Home-brewer arrested for making opium beer [CA]
#8956071 - 09/19/08 06:31 PM (15 years, 5 months ago) |
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Santa Cruz home-brewer arrested for making suspected opium beer September 19, 2008 - mercurynews.com
SANTA CRUZ - Police raided a Westside house Friday morning where they suspected people were producing opiates and arrested a UC Santa Cruz PhD candidate who said he used dried poppy pods to flavor home-brewed beer a month ago.
"All I did was make a poppy beer," said Chad Renzelman, 28, who was arrested at his Bay Street home Friday. "I spent all morning in jail for brewing beer. I had no idea what I was doing was illegal."
But police reported that Renzelman, who studies chemistry, allegedly had used a chemical process to extract opium from poppy plant pods, then converted the opium to morphine.
Morphine is the active opiate in heroin.
Police reported finding a pressurized canister of homemade beer laced with morphine in Renzelman's garage, as well as lab equipment contaminated with opium alkaloids and other hazardous chemicals.
Renzelman said in a phone interview Friday that he bought the dried poppy pods on eBay and used them more than a month ago to make beer. He and some friends have a "home-brew co-op" and brew beer together on the weekends.
"Then we just have it always for us to drink," he said.
Other recent brews have included a chocolate mint stout and a mango blonde ale. The poppy beer has since been consumed, he said.
"We make a different beer every week. (Poppy beer) just happened to be one of them," he said. "It was as little stronger. It had a kick to it but it wasn't anything horrible."
Police suspected the poppies were used in the beer production, but that it's still illegal, Capt. Steve Clark said.
Police got a search warrant after informants tipped them off to suspected poppy processing at the house, Clark said. Renzelman said he thinks officers found the poppy stems he put in the trash last month.
"I guess they've just been brewing on this for awhile," he said.
Friday afternoon, lab investigators from the state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, chemists from the state Department of Justice and officials from county Environmental Health were called to survey Renzelman's backyard because police suspected he was dumping hazardous poppy waste there.
Renzelman said they were wearing hazmat suits and digging through his compost pile, where he disposes of the spent grain from his beer-making.
Police reported that the hazardous material was cleaned up and there was no danger to surrounding homes.
Renzelman was not growing plants.
However, just having poppy plants in a flower bed is technically a violation, though officers usually just seize the plants without making any arrests.
"It's pretty common for people to grow poppy flowers around the city because they're pretty," Clark said.
Renzelman was arrested on suspicion of possessing and manufacturing a controlled substance.
If convicted, Renzelman faces up to seven years in prison.
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JohnAdams
Born Green Thumb
Registered: 07/13/08
Posts: 427
Loc: Anywhere but here
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.
-------------------- Solar System Necklace and MESCALINE NECKLACE Click here if you want one!
Edited by JohnAdams (03/18/09 04:04 PM)
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Nature Boy
Stranger than most
Registered: 07/09/07
Posts: 8,246
Loc: Samsara
Last seen: 6 days, 10 hours
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Re: Home-brewer arrested for making opium beer [CA] [Re: JohnAdams]
#8956180 - 09/19/08 06:53 PM (15 years, 5 months ago) |
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Quote:
Hackyhaze said:
Quote:
hazardous poppy waste there
...riiight
OMFG!!!!!
N.B.
-------------------- All submitted posts under this user name are works of pure fiction or outright lies. Any information, statement, or assertion contained therein should be considered pure unadulterated bullshit. Note well: Sorry, but I do not answer PM's unless you are a long-time trusted friend. If you have a question, ask it in the appropriate thread.
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CptnGarden
fuck this site
Registered: 05/13/04
Posts: 11,945
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Re: Home-brewer arrested for making opium beer [CA] [Re: Nature Boy]
#8956234 - 09/19/08 07:05 PM (15 years, 5 months ago) |
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yay 4 santa cruz
thats weird that they showed up, someone must have ratted on him.
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Cognitive_Shift
CS actual
Registered: 12/11/07
Posts: 29,591
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Re: Home-brewer arrested for making opium beer [CA] [Re: veggie]
#8956258 - 09/19/08 07:09 PM (15 years, 5 months ago) |
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Quote:
contaminated with opium alkaloids and other hazardous chemicals.
You named opium alkaloids, name these so called "other hazardous chemicals" propaganda still. Do your job journalists! facts and truths!
-------------------- L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés et désirs
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cycoshitzo
Me
Registered: 11/15/07
Posts: 63
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Re: Home-brewer arrested for making opium beer [CA] [Re: veggie]
#8956348 - 09/19/08 07:38 PM (15 years, 5 months ago) |
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Quote:
veggie said:
"I guess they've just been brewing on this for awhile," he said.
ugh, HORRIBLE pun
-------------------- Hope for the best, expect the worst. Your world is how you perceive it.
Edited by cycoshitzo (09/19/08 07:39 PM)
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Cognitive_Shift
CS actual
Registered: 12/11/07
Posts: 29,591
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Re: Home-brewer arrested for making opium beer [CA] [Re: veggie]
#8956368 - 09/19/08 07:46 PM (15 years, 5 months ago) |
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Quote:
If convicted, Renzelman faces up to seven years in prison.
Truly sad
-------------------- L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés et désirs
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mindspin
Heirophant
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Posts: 96
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Re: Home-brewer arrested for making opium beer [CA] [Re: Cognitive_Shift]
#8956604 - 09/19/08 08:56 PM (15 years, 5 months ago) |
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Poor guy just wanted some brew
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teaparty
Don'tHaveaCowMan
Registered: 12/03/07
Posts: 671
Loc: The Steele City
Last seen: 11 years, 2 months
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Re: Home-brewer arrested for making opium beer [CA] [Re: mindspin]
#8957278 - 09/20/08 12:14 AM (15 years, 5 months ago) |
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The dude sounds legit. Hell id drink poppy beer
-------------------- I'm so ahead of my time, my parents haven't met yet.
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Irieforester
Head to toe inH2O
Registered: 03/10/08
Posts: 515
Loc: That state seperating fro...
Last seen: 11 years, 6 months
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Re: Home-brewer arrested for making opium beer [CA] [Re: teaparty] 2
#8957597 - 09/20/08 02:37 AM (15 years, 5 months ago) |
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Quote:
suspected he was dumping hazardous poppy waste there.
Quote:
Renzelman said they were wearing hazmat suits and digging through his compost pile, where he disposes of the spent grain from his beer-making.
Police reported that the hazardous material was cleaned up and there was no danger to surrounding homes.
I don't know if I can put into words what I'm feeling now.
-------------------- I am still and forever learning Apollyphelion said: You can learn A LOT from shitting in the right set and setting!
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JT
Registered: 02/28/07
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Re: Home-brewer arrested for making opium beer [CA] [Re: veggie]
#8957762 - 09/20/08 05:11 AM (15 years, 5 months ago) |
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jesus fucking christ fucking monkey satan what the fuck is wrong with america?
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Nature Boy
Stranger than most
Registered: 07/09/07
Posts: 8,246
Loc: Samsara
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Re: Home-brewer arrested for making opium beer [CA] [Re: JT]
#8957796 - 09/20/08 05:55 AM (15 years, 5 months ago) |
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Quote:
justin_thyme said: jesus fucking christ fucking monkey satan what the fuck is wrong with america?
These days...almost everything. The policy in this country seems to be "Why react, when I can over-react" and that zealousness extends to draconian punishments in the name of public "safety" and national "security."
The world never was, and never can be made to be either safe or secure. This is yet another example of the vicious pursuit and prosecution of anything that even remotely resembles a proscribed behavior. This poor chap is another casualty of the "war on drugs" - the most expensive, tragic and longest lasting losing battle this country will ever fight.
N.B.
-------------------- All submitted posts under this user name are works of pure fiction or outright lies. Any information, statement, or assertion contained therein should be considered pure unadulterated bullshit. Note well: Sorry, but I do not answer PM's unless you are a long-time trusted friend. If you have a question, ask it in the appropriate thread.
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THEBats
FuturePsychopharmacologist
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Posts: 1,268
Loc: Florida
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Re: Home-brewer arrested for making opium beer [CA] [Re: Nature Boy]
#8958291 - 09/20/08 10:07 AM (15 years, 5 months ago) |
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wow so they took opium and made morphine which is the active opiate in heroin??? pure genius.
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Entropymancer
Registered: 07/16/05
Posts: 10,207
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Re: Home-brewer arrested for making opium beer [CA] [Re: veggie]
#8958620 - 09/20/08 12:01 PM (15 years, 5 months ago) |
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Quote:
But police reported that Renzelman, who studies chemistry, allegedly had used a chemical process to extract opium from poppy plant pods, then converted the opium to morphine.
Morphine is the active opiate in heroin.
I'm pretty sure that diacetylmorphine is the most active opiate in heroin, considering that heroin is diacetylmorphine
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pfshroomer
MASTER OF MY DOMAIN
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Posts: 4,952
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Re: Home-brewer arrested for making opium beer [CA] [Re: Entropymancer]
#8958745 - 09/20/08 12:34 PM (15 years, 5 months ago) |
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heroin(diacetylmorphine)is not in opium...if it was then you would have alot of heroin/ebay addicts,lol... there has to be a chemical reaction to make the heroin from morphine,basically it just makes the morphine ALOT stronger.ALOT STRONGER ******* heroin=morphineX100
hints the word 'diacetylMORPHINE'
Anyways,this sucks for that guy...come on cops all he was doing was just messin around with some chemicals...which happen to be scheduled here in the u.s. lol hopefully the judge will be easy on him since hes paying his taxes and going to school...maybe just a fine/home arrest? hopefully
peace pf~
-------------------- "Follow the medicine path with an open mind and a clear heart, and you will surely find inner peace and enlightenment."
Edited by pfshroomer (09/20/08 12:36 PM)
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freeDOOM
Stranger then you
Registered: 07/28/08
Posts: 1,536
Loc: New York, USA
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Re: Home-brewer arrested for making opium beer [CA] [Re: pfshroomer]
#8959170 - 09/20/08 02:21 PM (15 years, 5 months ago) |
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holy fuck
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doitagain
He-Bro
Registered: 02/22/07
Posts: 1,947
Loc: Land of Milk and Honey
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Re: Home-brewer arrested for making opium beer [CA] [Re: Entropymancer]
#8960906 - 09/20/08 10:03 PM (15 years, 5 months ago) |
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Quote:
Entropymancer said:
Quote:
But police reported that Renzelman, who studies chemistry, allegedly had used a chemical process to extract opium from poppy plant pods, then converted the opium to morphine.
Morphine is the active opiate in heroin.
I'm pretty sure that diacetylmorphine is the most active opiate in heroin, considering that heroin is diacetylmorphine
indeed, furthermore slitting an opium poppy with a knife to release the latex is hardly a chemical process.
fucking shoddy journalism.
-------------------- now i hear the police comin after me
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psychomime
o_O
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Posts: 520
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Re: Home-brewer arrested for making opium beer [CA] [Re: doitagain]
#8960997 - 09/20/08 10:48 PM (15 years, 5 months ago) |
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It's funny how any hunchbacked sister-fucking hillbilly yokel can become a journalist in Oceania U.S.A. Double-plus good!
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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Re: Home-brewer arrested for making opium beer [CA] [Re: veggie]
#9134007 - 10/25/08 09:04 PM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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Update ...
Santa Cruz home-brewer gets drug diversion for making poppy beer October 25, 2008 - mercurynews.com
A UC Santa Cruz graduate student accused of manufacturing opium when he made home-brewed poppy beer pleaded no contest to possessing heroin and was sentenced Friday to drug diversion.
So long as Chad Renzelman, 28, stays out of trouble for the next 18 months, the drug conviction will be taken off his record, according to his attorney, Ben Rice of Santa Cruz.
"I'm not going to jeopardize anything by breaking the law again," Renzelman said.
Renzelman, a graduate student in organic chemistry, said he used "a handful" of dried poppy pods purchased on eBay to flavor a batch of home brew in August. He used a chemical process to extract opium from poppy plant pods, then converted the opium to morphine. He said he didn't know what he was doing was illegal.
Renzelman was arrested Sept. 19 at his Santa Cruz home on suspicion of manufacturing and possessing opiates. Police said they found morphine-laced beer in the garage of his house on Bay Street. "I made beer for home consumption," Renzelman said. "It's not like I was trying to peddle heroin on the streets."
Police said all along they suspected the poppies were being used in beer production, but that's still illegal. Officers were tipped off when a city recycling crew saw poppy pods in Renzelman's trash.
He had faced seven years in state prison. "It was an appropriate resolution," Rice said, praising the way the District Attorney's Office handled the case.
"They could have pressed on and it would have been a waste of everyone's resources."
As part of his sentence, Renzelman will have to pay for soil testing near his backyard compost pile -- where he dumped the spent grain from the poppy beer -- to make sure the area wasn't contaminated. He will also have to attend a drug class.
"Everything turned out I guess for the better except for the thousands of dollars it cost me for brewing five gallons of beer," Renzelman said. "You start home brewing to attempt to reduce your beer costs not increase it exponentially."
Renzelman said Friday he plans to get back to brewing beer as soon as police return the equipment they confiscated from his garage. Prior to his arrest, Renzelman and his friends had brewed a different flavor of beer, such as chocolate mint stout, every weekend.
"I made whole bunch of beer and experimented with a lot of different additives," Renzelman said.
During the Sept. 19 raid -- when Renzelman was arrested -- police also took about 40 gallons of homemade beer that wasn't the poppy brew, and Renzelman said he needs to start replenishing that supply. However, poppy beer is off the brew list. His first batch will be a smoked habanero lager.
"It will be nice to start brewing again," Renzelman said. "Hopefully we won't get raided anymore for brewing it."
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Entropymancer
Registered: 07/16/05
Posts: 10,207
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Re: Home-brewer arrested for making opium beer [CA] [Re: veggie]
#9134034 - 10/25/08 09:09 PM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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Whew, drug diversion is a cakewalk in most states. I'm glad they didn't toss him in prison.
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