NORMAN, Okla. (AP) – For years, attempts to open up shops in this left-leaning college town to sell things like rolling papers and smoking accessories have faced a harsh crackdown from local law enforcement. Officers raided stores, confiscated merchandise and shut down the operations.
While other states across the nation are easing penalties for marijuana use or legalizing the drug altogether, Norman police and its Republican district attorney are taking the opposite tack: pursuing criminal charges against the now-shuttered Friendly Market shop owner Robert Cox and several of his clerks for selling glass pipes in a local store.
But the latest target of police and prosecutors is fighting back.
Cox and three of his former clerks, including a popular city councilman, have refused plea deals as a third jury trial began this week on charges that carry prison time. They also have the help of a national individual liberty group that says law enforcement should quit wasting taxpayers’ time and money.
The determination of the district attorney to pursue charges – even after a hung jury and an acquittal in the trials of the first two clerks – has left many residents in this central Oklahoma college town scratching their heads.