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RICHARD LOWELL STRATTON
Register Number: 02070-036
Age:  71
Race: White
Sex: Male
Released On: 06/25/1990


(https://www.bop.gov)




NEW ENGLAND WRITER GUILTY OF DRUG SMUGGLING CHARGES

Published: March 26, 1983

PORTLAND, Me., March 25— A Federal jury today found Richard L. Stratton, a writer, guilty of conspiracy to smuggle marijuana and hashish.

The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for more than four hours before returning with a decision at 3:40 P.M. United States Attorney Richard S. Cohen said Federal District Judge Edward T. Gignoux would sentence Mr. Stratton on April 28. The maximum penalty is 15 years in prison. Mr. Stratton, who remains in jail under of $500,000 bond, will probably appeal the verdict, his lawyer said.

Mr. Cohen credited Federal investigators for his success in obtaining the conviction. The trial began on March 7.

Drug Dealer Testifies

The prosecution's primary witness, Michael J. Sanborn, a convicted New England drug dealer, testified for four days. He contended that Mr. Stratton was his chief in a drug smuggling operation that ended with Federal agents' seizure of $1.5 million worth of marijuana and hashish in Springvale, Me., last March.

Mr. Stratton and Mr. Sanborn were among 15 people indicted in that case. The jury heard more than a week of testimony from the prosecution, but there were only three defense witnesses, including Norman Mailer, who described himself as a friend of Mr. Stratton.

Testifying before a packed courtroom Thursday, Mr. Mailer said he had no knowledge of drug dealings by the defendant. Mr. Stratton, 37 years old, said he became involved in the drug world while gathering material for a book he is writing. Wrote Magazine Articles

Mr. Stratton began writing about the drug trade in the mid-1970's when Rolling Stone magazine assigned him to do a series on Roshdale College, an experimental school in Toronto with an underground drug center, Mr. Mailer told reporters outside the court.

Mr. Mailer met Mr. Stratton 10 years ago in Provincetown, Mass., where Mr. Mailer had a home and Mr. Stratton was working as a parttime carpenter.

Another writer testifying for the defense was Doris Kearns Goodwin, also described as a friend of Mr. Stratton. In closing arguments Thursday, Mr. Cohen, the prosecutor, portrayed Mr. Stratton as an active and willing participant in a drug conspiracy. 'Government Proved Everything'

''The Government has proved every single thing it alleged it would,'' Mr. Cohen told the jury. But Mr. Stratton's lawyer, Ira London, said his client was a writer who had been made a scapegoat by the prosecution's two major witnesses, Mr. Sanborn and Robert L. Lewis, a New York pilot.

Mr. Lewis, the final prosecution witness, testified that he had piloted the plane used in drug operations that he said were directed by Mr. Stratton and Mr. Sanborn.

Earlier in the trial, William Brunton, a former handyman at the farm in Phillips, Me., that Mr. Stratton owned along with Mr. Mailer, testified that the defendant flew boxes of hashish into Canada in the spring or summer of 1981. Sanborn Already Sentenced

When asked why he was testifying, Mr. Sanborn, who is serving a five-year sentence for his role in the same drug case, said he would like to see his sentence shortened as a result of his cooperation, but said he had not received any promises.

In his instructions to the jury late this morning, Judge Gignoux said that if they found Mr. Stratton had participated in a drugsmuggling conspiracy, the fact that he intended to write about the conspiracy was no defense.

Judge Gignoux, who spoke to the jurors for 45 minutes, also said the fact that Mr. Stratton did not testify in his own defense could not be held against him.

Mr. Stratton decided that he would not take the stand after two Canadian drug agents made an appearance in the courtroom last Tuesday. The Canadian authorities have issued a warrant for Mr. Stratton's arrest on drug conspiracy charges.


(http://www.nytimes.com)

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Chester Leo "Chet" Helms (August 2, 1942 – June 25, 2005), often called the father of San Francisco's "1967 Summer of Love," was a music promoter and a cultural figure in San Francisco during its hippie period in the late Sixties.

Helms was the founder and manager of Big Brother and the Holding Company and recruited Janis Joplin as its lead singer. He was a producer and organizer, helping to stage free concerts and other cultural events at Golden Gate Park, the backdrop of San Francisco's Summer of Love in 1967, as well as at other venues, including the Avalon Ballroom.

He was the first producer of psychedelic light-show concerts at the Fillmore and the Avalon Ballroom and was instrumental in helping to develop bands that had the distinctive San Francisco sound.  Helms died June 25, 2005 of complications from hepatitis C.  He was 62.

Childhood

Chester Leo Helms was born in Santa Maria, California, the eldest of three sons. His parents were Chester and Novella Helms. Helms' father, a manager at a local sugarbeet mill, died when he was 9. His mother took the boys to Missouri and then to Texas.

Helms spent the rest of his youth in Missouri and Texas, where he learned to organize events by helping to stage benefits for civil rights groups. He enrolled at the University of Texas and became part of the music scene there, a scene that included a very young and inexperienced Janis Joplin. Soon he dropped out of school and, inspired by the Beat Generation writers, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg to travel across America in search of freedom and inspiration, he set off wearing shoulder-length hair, beard and rimless glasses hitchhiking across the country. He ended up in San Francisco in 1962.

Later he was to return to Austin with his best friend at the time, Peter Haigh, to visit his friend Janis Joplin. He thought she could make it as a singer in San Francisco. After a week of partying, they convinced Janis to drop out of school and hitchhike back to San Francisco with them. Later he would bring her to the attention of Big Brother and the Holding Company

Family Dog Productions

After arriving in San Francisco in 1962, he scrounged a living various ways, including selling marijuana, an occupation that caused him to go to a boardinghouse at 1090 Page Street. The house was in Haight-Ashbury, then a rundown, low-rent neighborhood. Having met many musicians in his trade, and appreciating the vibrant music scene in San Francisco, he instinctively recognized the need for a forum for musicians to jam. When he saw the large basement at Page Street, he began organizing jam sessions for the local bands and musicians. Helms, a gifted organizer, made those sessions popular and started charging an admission fee of 50 cents.  His career as a rock concert promoter began. Big Brother and the Holding Company formed and Helms functioned as their low-key manager. He teamed up Janis Joplin with Big Brother for jam sessions in the Haight-Ashbury basement.

In February 1966 he formed a loose connection with the Family Dog a commune of hippies living at 2125 Pine street who threw open dances and wild events.  Helms was the ideal person to help this group organize their presentations and he moved into the Family Dog house. Their first formal production was a concert at Longshoremen's Hall.

In February 1966, Helms formally founded Family Dog Productions to begin promoting concerts at The Fillmore Auditorium, alternating weekends with another young promoter, Bill Graham. As the concerts became more popular, inevitable "conflicts" arose between the two promoters, based in part on the notion that public conflict and controversy could generate free publicity. Within a few months Helms secured the permits necessary to host events at the Avalon Ballroom, an old dancehall located at the corner of Sutter and Van Ness. Big Brother and the Holding Company debuted there in June 1966. Later Helms would get them the appearance that made them famous, the Monterey Pop Festival where Albert Grossman spotted Joplin and offered her a contract.

Avalon Ballroom

The Avalon Ballroom, 1268 Sutter Street, San Francisco became the Family Dog's main venue. Here the Family Dog held a series of legendary concerts between April 1966 and November 1968. Their shows were a mix of artists, from rock to blues, soul, Indian, to rock and roll.  To promote their concerts, Family Dog published a series of innovative psychedelic posters, handbills and other ephemera, created by a group of prominent young San Francisco artists including Alton Kelley and Stanley Mouse (Mouse Studios), Rick Griffin, Steve Renick and Victor Moscoso. Often printed using intensely colored fluorescent inks, they typically featured a mixture of found images and specially drawn artwork. The posters of Griffin, Mouse and Kelly, in particular, were known for the intricate and highly stylized hand-lettering in which the concert details were written out, which sometimes took considerable time and effort to decipher. Original Avalon posters are now collector's items.

Helms was also involved in joint productions/promotions at the Fillmore, Longshoreman's Hall, and Haight Street's Straight Theater (not all formal Family Dog Dance-Concerts).

Style as promoter

While Graham was an aggressive businessman and professional promoter, Helms presented a folksier image. He related easily to the San Francisco hippie subculture since, in essence, he was one of them. The San Francisco Chronicle called Helms "a towering figure in the 1960s Bay Area music scene," and indeed he was a huge contributor.

Helms embraced music for music's sake and the Beat-hipster-generation-turned-hippy philosophy. While the war raged in Vietnam and the nation coped with racial problems and assassinations, the anti-war, anti-establishment youth thrived in the throes of a social revolution. Meanwhile, Helms was cranking out bands and musicians espousing the same lifestyle as this new audience, while giving the very distinct impression that he was uninterested in financial gain.

His benign image could be deceptive. According to Jay Ferguson of Spirit, Graham would negotiate shrewdly and would frequently offer a lower fee to a band than Helms would, but when the concert was over, he would pay the band in full; Helms did not always do likewise. Some of the more serious bands (ones not subsidized by trust funds) came to prefer Graham's hard-nosed, businesslike approach. Graham did covertly help Helms financially at various times during the 1970s, keeping San Francisco in the fore as the West Coast Music mecca.

The core San Francisco rock bands, Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Quicksilver Messenger Service (including pre-Dino Valenti), would play for both Graham's concerts at the Fillmore Auditorium, once a Black Muslim temple, and the Family Dog at Helms' Avalon dances.

Helms' shows were always more relaxed and offered a pleasant alternative to Bill Graham Presents dances, at a more reasonable admission, and with more room for the stoned, arm-waving type of solo dancing that personified the era. The nearby Mt. Zion Hospital kept a late-night clinic to accommodate the many drug overdoses from the Fillmore.

Family Dog Concerts

In the context of the Avalon's "anti-business model," and loose ambience, Helms' Family Dog would always carry great shows, with premier musical acts. The list is long, compiled from the memory of having been there and from poster art websites. It is presented here:

Helms presented top blues performers including Country Joe and The Fish; Howlin' Wolf; Bo Diddley; Muddy Waters; Little Walter; Buddy Guy; Junior Wells; the Paul Butterfield Blues Band; Buddy Miles; James Cotton Blues Band; John Mayall; Big Mama Thornton; Albert Collins; Steve Miller (musician); Mike Bloomfield; Elvin Bishop; Blues Project, with Al Kooper; John Hammond; Charlie Musselwhite; Siegal Schwall; rock bands like the Doors; Buffalo Springfield; the Byrds; Bill Haley & His Comets; The Kinks;The Edwin Hawkins Singers; the Animals' Eric Burdon & War; Mothers of Invention); Lovin' Spoonful; The Carlos Santana Blues Band; Sir Douglas Quintet; the Soul Survivors; the Fugs; Blood, Sweat & Tears; The Association; Shorty Featuring Georgie Fame; Iron Butterfly; the Youngbloods, with Jesse Colin Young; Vanilla Fudge; Steppenwolf (band); Poco; Love, with Arthur Lee (musician); sarode-player and Indian music teacher, Ali Akbar Khan; Sandy Bull; Blue Cheer; the Leaves; New Riders of the Purple Sage; Barry McGuire; the Flamin Groovies; the Loading Zone; It's a Beautiful Day; Joy of Cooking; the Grass Roots; the Sons of Adam; Sons of Champlin; Captain Beefheart; the Electric Flag; Son House; Velvet Underground; Pacific Gas and Electric; Moby Grape; the Sopwith Camel; 13th Floor Elevators; The Charlatans (U.S. band); Allmen Joy; Mother Earth; Southern Comfort; The Ace of Cups; Tyrannosaurus Rex; Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band; Flying Burrito Brothers; Congress of Love; Notes From the Underground; Chrome Circus; Initial Shock; Oxford Circle; Daily Flash; Electric Train; Sparrow; the Orchestra; Hourglass; Kaleidoscope; Mt. Rushmore; Other Half; Phoenix; Lothar & the Hand People; Commander Cody; Cleveland Wrecking Company; Rhythm Dukes; AB Skhy Blues Band; Frumious Bandersnatch; Eighth Penny Matter; Jimmerfield Legend; South Side Sound; Super Ball; Solid Muldoon; Box Top; and jazz artists Sun Ra and San Francisco's own John Handy; Charles Lloyd; the Jerry Hahn Brotherhood; and folksters Joan Baez; Dave Van Ronk; Jim Kweskin Jug Band; Taj Mahal; Tim Buckley and Flatt & Scruggs.

Janis Joplin

To concertgoers, Helms' contributions to the music world, like introducing a singer he knew in Texas, Janis Joplin, to the San Francisco music scene, were not always well publicized, but witnessing the final product of Joplin, with her powerful performances was a spectacle. First introduced as a new bandmember of Big Brother, she brought what the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver, and Big Brother did not seem at that point to have - a lead singer to match Jefferson Airplane's Marty Balin and Grace Slick. Joplin later left Big Brother to record solo albums and to rapidly grow in fame, accelerated by her performance at the Monterey Pop Festival.

With Joplin as the lead singer, Helms became the group's manager and introduced them on stage when they made their crucial appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, a performance that marked Joplin's elevation to national prominence.

Creativity was the essence, borrowed from (while re-popularizing) a vast spectrum of musical idioms, including R&B, East Indian, pop, country, bluegrass, and, to an extent, jazz. Music that featured long solos suited the audiences, and was soon used by bands everywhere, in performance and recordings, later becoming a major vehicle for helping launch what would become a new FM radio station music format - the less-commercial "Album-Oriented Rock," in the form of "underground" stations that sprang up coast-to-coast. Exposure on these airwaves further helped the popularity of concert-oriented rock and bands that would play for hours without stopping, as the two-minute hit temporarily was no longer the objective. Songs with long, art-centric solos gained reaffirmation with the increasing commercial success of the radio stations that became part of the new "movement" genre.

Family Dog Speakers/Poets and Heroes of the Hour

Sometimes Helms cast the music promoter role aside and the Family Dog would feature speakers Alan Watts, Dr. Timothy Leary, Stephen Gaskin, poet Allen Ginsberg), and other counter-culter gurus. Helms is linked in San Francisco lore with Graham, the Diggers (theater), Emmett Grogan, Ken Kesey, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael McClure, Neal Cassady, Kenneth Rexroth, Ralph J. Gleason, and others.

Evolution

Bill Graham Presents shows evolved more into high-power, professional lineups of better-known headline bands that made him known as the can-do guy that he was, while Helms, although managing to produce top-flight bands, still showcased bands that tended to be hipper and local. Helms didn't seem to have the need to hire zealous uniformed security guards, so teenagers found it easier to sneak into his dances. Helms ultimately allowed free admission after midnight. The San Francisco Family Dog dances later re-emerged in a new location, the old skating rink and "Bull Pup Enchiladas" at Ocean Beach, at 660 The Great Highway in San Francisco's Richmond district.

In his career Helms used other locations like ventures in Denver, Portland, and joint productions/promotions at the Fillmore, Longshoreman's Hall, and Haight Street's Straight Theater (not all formal Family Dog Dance-Concerts), etc.

Later years

Helms left the concert business in 1970 except for managing a few later events: Tribal Stomp at Berkeley's Greek Theater (1978); Tribal Stomp II at the Monterey County Fairgrounds (1979); a concert series at San Francisco's Maritime Hall in 1995 under the Family Dog name; and a 30th Anniversary celebration of the Summer of Love in Golden Gate Park (1997), a free event attended by 60,000 people.

Helms became an accomplished art dealer, selling American and European paintings and sculpture at the his Atelier Doré art gallery on Bush Street in San Francisco, from 1980 until 2004. True to his nature, he never turned down a request for money and helped countless in that period. Although having a great eye for artwork his philanthropy never guaranteed the rent on time. When he retired in 2004 he was suffering from Hepatitis C. After suffering a mild stroke he died within days, on June 25, 2005.  Helms is memorialized in a "bright niche decorated with photographs and memorabilia" at the Neptune Society Columbarium.

Chet Helms Memorial

On October 30, 2005, San Francisco celebrated Helms' life with a free nine-hour Sunday rock concert in Golden Gate Park, named the "Tribal Stomp" attended by tens of thousands, and featuring a full lineup of bands, including the old core San Francisco rock bands, and others including: The Turtles, Canned Heat, Dan Hicks (singer), the Charlatans, Country Joe McDonald, Barry Melton, Blue Cheer, Jefferson Airplane's Paul Kantner, "It's a Beautiful Day'"s David LaFlamme, Quicksilver Gold (derived from Quicksilver Messenger Service, Lee Michaels, Lydia Pense Cold Blood, Nick Gravenites (Electric Flag), Harvey Mandel, Jorge Santana, Narada Michael Walden, Merle Saunders, Moby Grape Jerry Miller, and Wavy Gravy (from Ken Kesey's "Merry Pranksters" fame).


(https://en.wikipedia.org)

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Quote:

Legal marijuana is coming to Illinois as Gov. Pritzker signs bill he calls an ‘important and overdue change to our state’

By Robert McCoppin
| Chicago Tribune |
Jun 25, 2019 | 11:57 AM

Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday signed into law a bill that will legalize marijuana in Illinois next year, marking a momentous shift in how the state treats drug use.

The bill will allow the licensed growth, sales, possession and consumption of cannabis for adults 21 and older.

The signing ceremony, attended by several lawmakers, officeholders and marijuana supporters, took place at the Sankofa Cultural Arts & Business Center in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood.

Pritzker called the legislation a “sea change” for Illinois, saying that the war on drugs has destroyed families and disproportionately affected minorities.

“Illinoisans have had enough,” he said. “... The time for change has long since passed.”

“This legalization of adult use cannabis brings an important and overdue change to our state, and it’s the right thing to do.”

Illinois becomes the 11th state to legalize recreational cannabis. Pritzker noted that Illinois is the first state to fully legalize commercial sales through the legislature, rather than through referendum.

He emphasized that the law provides for automatic expungement of arrests for marijuana possession under 30 grams, and that he will pardon those with convictions for possession up to 30 grams.

Individuals and prosecutors may go to court to seek expungement of cases involving up to 500 grams.

“Today we are giving hundreds of thousands of people the chance at a better life,” Pritzker said.

The governor noted that no one with a violent crime conviction will be eligible for expungement or pardon.

Asked about the dangers of more people driving while high, Pritzker said people are driving while high even though marijuana is currently illegal but that it’s important to give police money to develop the best technology for catching them, such as roadside testing.

The governor emphasized that 25% of the revenue from marijuana taxes will go to marijuana business ownership in black and brown communities that were disproportionately affected by the war on drugs. In addition, 20% will go to substance abuse treatment and prevention and mental health care, with additional funds going to pay the state’s bills, law enforcement and public education on marijuana health issues.

To address concerns that cannabis retail shops will end up concentrated in minority neighborhoods, state Rep. Kelly Cassidy, a co-sponsor of the bill, said there are minimum distances between shops to avoid a “liquor store on every corner“ phenomenon.

Local governments can ban marijuana businesses or set rules to determine where they are allowed. Municipalities cannot prohibit people from possessing marijuana, though landlords can keep it off their property and employers can prohibit use by their employees.

While the law states that it takes effect immediately, sponsors said legal possession and sales will not take effect until Jan. 1.


(https://www.chicagotribune.com)

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