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By BEN NEARY
Associated Press writer

Friday, August 22, 2008 7:50 AM MDT

CHEYENNE -- Federal authorities have charged an Oregon woman with distributing the hallucinogenic drug LSD, including some that authorities say went to the Rainbow Family gathering in western Wyoming last month.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Wyoming has filed a criminal complaint charging Vanessa Marie Griffee, 31, of Eugene, Ore., with felony distribution of LSD and conspiracy to distribute the drug.

Griffee made an initial appearance before a federal magistrate in Oregon earlier this month. She's scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Cheyenne on Sept. 9. If a federal magistrate determines she should stand trial, she would enter a formal plea to the charges after arraignment.

Eugene lawyer J.W. Frank, who represented Griffee at her initial appearance, declined comment Wednesday on the government's case against her. Cheyenne lawyer Terry Harris, who represents Griffee in U.S. District Court in Wyoming, also declined comment on the case.

A confidential source told Colorado investigators last month that a North Carolina man at the Rainbow Family gathering in Wyoming claimed to be distributing LSD there, according to a sworn statement filed by U.S. Drug Enforcement Agent Timothy Walsh. The statement was filed in court with the charges against Griffee.

Law enforcement officers searched the North Carolina man's home last month, according to Walsh's statement. He said that the man voluntarily told investigators that Griffee had been shipping him LSD repeatedly for months.

Walsh said the man told investigators that Griffee sent the LSD to him at "post offices that were located near music festivals and hippie gatherings."

The man told investigators that he had received a shipment of LSD sheets from Griffee before he traveled to the Rainbow Family gathering in Wyoming, Walsh said. The man said that while he was at the gathering, he traded a sheet of paper containing 100 doses of LSD to another man there for a red beryl gemstone.

The man also told investigators that he had shipped LSD he received from Griffee to a Cheyenne post office box, Walsh stated.

No criminal charges had been filed against the man in Wyoming federal court as of Thursday.

The annual Rainbow Family gathering draws thousands of people from around the country to a different spot on public lands each year. An estimated 7,000 people attended this year's event in Sublette County near the community of Big Sandy.

Several Rainbow Family members were arrested in July following a confrontation that federal officials say started when officers tried to arrest one Rainbow Family member for an alleged drug offense. Forest Service officials accused Rainbow participants of throwing rocks and sticks at officers during the incident.

Rainbow Family members have said that federal officers antagonize people at the gatherings. Many have stated that federal officers shot members unnecessarily with nonlethal pepperball guns during the July incident in Wyoming. The Wyoming ACLU is investigating their claims.


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Comments to this story.

rainbow lsd wrote on Aug 22, 2008 8:19 AM:

" weren't there pagans and jews and catholics there too? "

Dewd wrote on Aug 22, 2008 8:52 AM:

" ...and a few hundred crates of hard liquor and a few thousand gallons of beer in downtown PInedale.

What , exactly , are the Federal agents and the unfettered spin of this news story trying to convey here ?

Hypocrisy: It's the American Way. "

Frybread wrote on Aug 22, 2008 9:42 AM:

" This lady will probably get 10-20 years in prison yet the guys at Enron, who literally destroyed lives, got less time. "

Syble wrote on Aug 22, 2008 10:00 AM:

" Dewd, LSD is a dangerous psychotropic drug and is also illegal. Your comparison to alcohol is apples and dump trucks. Are you high now? "

oldschoolWyoming wrote on Aug 22, 2008 10:12 AM:

" Drugs at the Rainbow gathering?? WOW! Do you really think? "

Project MKULTRA wrote on Aug 22, 2008 10:53 AM:

" Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Meanwhile...the people that ran "Project MKULTRA" are still free.

Unfamiliar with that one? Do some research.

In other (spin) news, Wyoming is still the number one state with problems with METH.

Aside from the personal issues associated with a person's personal METH addiction... People that don't use METH are highly affected by the crime, toxic residue, and loss of family connected to this insipid demon of MASS DESTRUCTION.

There are only a few companies in the world that make the main ingreedient in METH. Legally. Shut these companies down.

Wake up. It isn't the oooo-so-scary "rainbows" you should be worried about. There are bigger issues at hand. Namely, how do we rid Wyoming and the rest of the nation from the menace known as METH? "

Holland wrote on Aug 22, 2008 1:07 PM:

" More and more of the truth keeps coming out about these lovely dirt balls. I am sure that even worse occurred that we will never learn of. All in all the folks that were concerned about the rainbows and their special treatment above all others by the authorities are being proven right and the rainbow supporters are all being proven wrong. "

re Project MKULTRA wrote on Aug 22, 2008 1:09 PM:

" Sorry for wandering off on a tangent and a rant earlier but I just want to clarify...

I'm just saddened by all the loss of people I once knew that were harmed by METH.

It's just silly that there are just a few companies in the entire world that make the main ingreedient used in the making of that evil drug.

LSD isn't a good drug either, but there is a lot less of it out there, due to more vigilant control of the key components.

I also find it tragic that METH has affected so many people in so many ways. I don't know what the Government can do about it, other than to keep chipping away at the homemade labs, putting away the dealers, getting the addicts the help they need.

I left Wyoming years ago when METH first began to rear it's ugly head. Frankly, it just breaks my heart to read about and to actually see when I come to visit, the damage METH has done to so many people. So when I see a story about "rainbows" and all the hype about it, it just strikes me as absurd nonsense when METH has taken so much from so many people.

Again, sorry for the rant. "

Felix wrote on Aug 22, 2008 1:25 PM:

" yeah, their a bunch of criminal dopes. no news there is there? "

LJ wrote on Aug 22, 2008 3:27 PM:

" I only wish that they had nailed more of the lice infested infamous Rainbows. The majority of them are new druggies and the rest of them are burned out druggies. Oh...my heart is breaking...NOT!!! "

steve wrote on Aug 22, 2008 4:06 PM:

" This whole bull sh..t thing is probably a huge lie fabricated by the forest service pigs. The jerk from North Carolina is probably a paid liar and who knows about the chick from Oregon. You can never believe anyone in the forest service, since most of them are liars, and they completely blew all their credibility this last summer. LSD sure. Look at all the squealing little pigs jumping on the bandwagon, eager to believe any shi..t the forest service serves up. Who is the man from North Carolina, pigs? What is his name? Where exactly does he live? How did you suddenly come to contact him? Fu..ing bull sh..ters. "

Tye wrote on Aug 22, 2008 4:08 PM:

" Dopers selling other dopers more dope. Send them all to prison and let's hope they didn't sell any of thier poison to children or give it to their own children. So this is what hippie free love and earth worship is all about? This settles the matter for me. I can tolerate some pot or mushrooms, not LSD, meth or heroin. "

Duene wrote on Aug 22, 2008 10:16 PM:

" Oh gosh!! Drugs in a camp of 7,000 people? Let's look at the whole population of our contry and find any place where there are not drugs and drug dealers in a group or populations of that size. No, I am not a fan of the Rainbows. Nor am I a fan of the Forest Service employees. I would like to hear something else in the news. Leave the Rainbows alone! "

Rights wrote on Aug 23, 2008 4:27 AM:

" People enjoying their bodies! BLASPHEMY! BURN THEM AT ONCE! "

Swen Swenson wrote on Aug 23, 2008 6:14 AM:

" Good thing they caught that guy before he made it to the Democrat's National Convention! "

Jeff M wrote on Aug 23, 2008 3:10 PM:

" LSD is awsome and I did as a kid for years with no side affects and no after effects. Tim Walsh is a real work . The cops use people by threatening to take their kids or putting them away for ever if they don't snitch but even though they are way more guilty they get absolutely no time while the person they snitch on gets life. Come on if they get caught they should do the time. No snitching to get off or telling to get out of the crime they did. I like LSD though it sure is fun. "

krysalis wrote on Aug 25, 2008 10:22 AM:

" this is so absurd, we got harassed by police the whole way up and back, to big sandy, by police officers over using there power! they weren't out saving people like they should. me and my husband took our four kids and it was my first time going, everyone was so nice and giving, and yes some of those same people were probably on drugs like LSD why target a peaceful group of people? because those close minded, ignorent people such as the harrasing police force of (i won't name any names), who stated at my party of people who were stranded with four kids, "when we asked the officer why he was harrassing us?" he stated "you haven't seen harrassment yet!" and were the bad people? I've done LSD and i have no side effects. think before you attack me by speaking my mind and not being afraid to express myself. i'm not programmed like the rest of you cattle, for i have been outside babylon and i would gladly gather there again. "

kysalis wrote on Aug 25, 2008 10:30 AM:

" LJ you are pitiful, your views are so blinded and controlled you see what they allow and want you to see.Go home son hang your costume up, your a insult to the rest of us!

any more of you sheep wanna insult a rainbow, who's not a "lice infested hippie"! here's my myspace url! "

Lucy wrote on Aug 25, 2008 1:59 PM:

" kysalis; Name calling is not a substitute for a logical argument. Do you have a fact based position that you wish to offer and then support using reason? If not then just drop some more acid and float in the clouds while the thinkers amoung us resolve life for you. "

anon wrote on Aug 25, 2008 3:15 PM:

" krysalis: You'd make a better argument if your ignorance wasn't showing. Maybe at next year's Rainbow gathering, they could hold a spelling bee. "

Somiel wrote on Aug 25, 2008 3:30 PM:

" krysalis, Thank you for proving all of the stereotypes about hippies and drug use. I can now say with complete confidence that all of you should be sent to North Korean re-education camps and sent there with big bars of soap and stiff scrub brushes! "

DD wrote on Aug 25, 2008 6:49 PM:

" Rainbows and LSD...who would have thunk it. Like golly gee whiz Martha they seemed like such nice little econazi, kill the Forest with their love, little loser dirt bags. Face it they need to banned from public lands. If they are so popular, than they can pool their money and buy a parcel to trash, in let's say Nancy Pelosi's district. Maybe they could help her confiscate legal guns from owners. "

Lyle wrote on Aug 26, 2008 2:37 PM:

" krysalis, It looks like that LSD affects one's spelling, doesn't it? "

WYOGUY wrote on Aug 26, 2008 4:45 PM:

" Should have raided the whole lash-up and shaken them all down on probably cause. "

enough already wrote on Aug 27, 2008 11:21 AM:

" I can't believe we are still talking about the rainbows. There are important things going on in the world that we should be worrying about. Our economy is in the worst shape since the great depression and we are obsessing over some hippies who camped in the forest over 2 months ago. Yes, I'm sure there were drugs amongst 7000 people. I guarantee you cannot gather 7000 people together anywhere in America without there being some drugs. It's not the end of the world. Let's move on...I'm about tired of talking about hippies who went camping...who cares? "

not enough already wrote on Aug 27, 2008 4:28 PM:

" enough already, The growing under-culture of depravity which is exemplified by the rainbow loonies is important and it is worth being concerned about. Given time we'll be a nation ripe for take over comprised of drugged up know-nothings if groups like this have their way. Like cancer, these folks need to be found and cut out. "

George M. wrote on Aug 27, 2008 9:45 PM:

" Dear Not Enough Already,

Does that also include other alternative lifestyles such as the thousands who gather at Spearfish, SD every summer? Or perhaps those folk who reject staying home and caring for the lawn and going to church on weekends like good God-fearing people and waste their time and money buzzing around in boats and 4-wheelers and consuming large amounts of ethyl alcohol, a known mood altering drug.

Who decides what is depraved and what is righteous? You? Who decides who is to be "cut out?" You again?

Be careful that someone doesn't decide that your life style and beliefs don't fit the acceptable norm and need to be eliminated for the protection of the greater good. "

enough already wrote on Aug 28, 2008 7:23 AM:

" I see it a little differently. I see militant, hateful, intolerant people as a much bigger threat to the American way of life. Next people might decide that they don't like your way of life and want to cut you out. This is supposed to be a free country. These rainbows did nothing to hurt me in any way, thus there is no reason for me to take a hateful position like many of my fellow Wyomingites have. I have lived in Wyoming for 35 years and I used to think that I was here because of the good people of Wyoming; I have learned over decades of experience that the people of Wyoming are good only to those who are like them (redneck hicks), and are intolerant to anyone who is different than they are. I am ashamed of the people's hateful reaction to these peaceful people who came to visit our state. The redneck hicks of this state do more damage to our state every weekend in the process of normal recreation than the rainbows did; at least the rainbows clean up after themselves when their gathering is done; go to the lake after the holiday weekend and see what is left behind by our own citizens. "

George M. wrote on Aug 29, 2008 6:04 PM:

" Oops, Not Spearfish, Sturgis, SD. Sorry.

For those who were shocked or offended by the fact that a few people at a hippie gathering were using LSD here is another news flash: water is wet. Also, you will find a few people in trailer parks using meth and/or marijuana. "

Horse wrote on Sep 3, 2008 9:12 AM:

" Blah, blah, blah! LSD is here to stay, as is marijuana, heroin, and the gamut of perscription drugs. Does anyone remember 1969 and the fact that we were all sure that in a little while our sacred herb (ganja) would be legal. Now we all realize that will probably never happen; yet the prisons are full of non-violent marijuana offenders. Does anyone out there think that they will come out of prison as "reformed" drug addicts?
Legalize everything and take the profit out of the "illicit" drug dealers. Trying to stop folks from using drugs is like trying to stop the profession of prostitution. It ain't gonna work. Hippies still rule! "

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