RAGE OVER SLAIN POT-PUSHERS

THE editor in chief of pro-pot High Times magazine is calling this
week's fatal shooting of two Michigan marijuana activists by
law-enforcement agents an "assassination."

After a five-day standoff with local cops and FBI agents, Rolland
Rohm, 26, and Grover T. Crosslin, 47 - the owners of Rainbow Farm, a
campground and concert venue catering to opponents of marijuana laws -
were shot and killed after authorities say the men aimed guns at them.

But High Times' Steve Hager, whose magazine had tried to raise money
toward the two men's legal defense, says their deaths were the result
of "a campaign of extreme police harassment."

"They were murdered by the police," Hager tells PAGE SIX's Ian
Spiegelman. "They were trying to decriminalize marijuana, and the cops
brought in tanks, helicopters, ninja warriors and assassins. This was
an execution."

According to reports, the standoff began when Cass County cops arrived
at Rainbow Farm responding to calls that buildings on the grounds were
on fire. But police did not try to put out the flames because
neighbors warned that Crosslin intended to ambush them.

Hager contends that, following a May bust for marijuana possession
that resulted in Rohm's 12-year-old son being put into a foster home,
Rohm and Crosslin "decided to burn their property rather than let the
government auction it for a profit. They were going to surrender peacably."

Cops said Crosslin was shot after pointing a gun at them Monday, and
Rohm was killed in a similar incident the next day.

"They didn't want to shoot anyone," says Hager. "The police told them,
'Drop your gun.' They refused and they were killed by professional
snipers. There were only two shots fired and both were head shots."

Hager admits that the pair did shoot at a police helicopter as well as
a news helicopter they mistook for a cop chopper. But he says the two
knew that their battle with authorities, which started when the farm
opened five years ago, was probably going to end with jail terms of 20
year.

"They took [Rohm's] son away and used him as a bargaining tool," he
says. " How would you feel?

"They were nice, intelligent, caring people and the police drove them
crazy. In total desperation, they were going to burn down their
property instead of having the cops steal it, and then they were going
to serve 20 years.

"Their lives were already destroyed - they didn't have to shoot them,
too."