AFFIDAVIT DESCRIBES DRUG USE AT FAIR

HARRISBURG - Undercover Linn County sheriff's deputies described rampant
drug use and brazen drug sales - even by security guards - at Bill Conde's
"Cannabis Carnival" earlier this month, according to an affidavit filed in
support of a warrant to search his property last week.

"People were walking around calling out `shrooms, nuggets,' like peanut
vendors at a ball game," a detective wrote, referring to street terms for
hallucinogenic mushrooms and marijuana bud.

Detectives said they bought drugs 26 times during the three-day event and
were approached by sellers numerous other times. Drugs described in the
affidavit were marijuana, mushrooms and blotter acid.

Conde, an outspoken marijuana activist who has hosted numerous
marijuana-themed events, said Tuesday that he didn't see any of the alleged
drug sales. Furthermore, he said, he tried to prevail on fairgoers not to
buy or sell drugs on his property.

According to the affidavit, Conde told undercover detectives who approached
him before the event that they could smoke marijuana there "as long as you
don't try to peddle it or are blatant about using it."

On stage at the event, however, he allegedly asked the crowd to avoid
"blatant transactions."

While on stage, detectives said, Conde took a rolled joint from his pocket
and showed it to his 4-year-old daughter, asking her if she knew what it
was. She didn't answer, but Conde allegedly said she'd picked up a bud of
it when she was 2 years old and told him, "Daddy, this smells good."

Detectives said he then urged everyone to "light it up."

"Conde lit his joint and the majority of spectators did the same,"
according to the affidavit.

Conde hasn't denied smoking pot or allowing others to smoke it on his
property, saying using or possessing less than an ounce isn't a crime.
Under Oregon law, it is considered a violation and can result in a citation
similar to a traffic ticket.

Conde said detectives were making too much of his daughter's exposure to
marijuana.

"I could compare it to maybe a guy drinking a beer and his daughter knowing
what a beer looks like," he said. "My children have never smoked any pot."

Conde said detectives effectively shut down his redwood lumber business
when they searched his property last week, taking computers and business
records, among other items.

He was charged with a felony count of possessing marijuana after detectives
allegedly found just more than an ounce of marijuana during the search. He
also is facing about $45,000 in fines for alleged violations of county
building, sanitation and mass gathering codes.

Conde continued to call the search politically motivated, saying the
affidavit didn't justify why detectives had the right to search his house
and business. The carnival site, just north of Conde's lumberyard and home,
wasn't searched, he said.

"There's nothing in that affidavit that determines that they could go into
my house or Conde's Redwood Lumber," he said. "Yet that's where they
struck. Their investigation was trying to do something to me, rather than
trying to find out what's going on."

Sheriff Dave Burright said Conde "has been squealing a lot about
computers." But he said the affidavit makes it clear that authorities saw
pertinent records, such as names of carnival vendors, being stored in
computers.

Detectives are using the records to try to identify vendors and security
guards who sold drugs, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit said one security guard "openly talked about mushrooms and
acid he'd been taking" and arranged for detectives to buy marijuana from a
young man wearing a red wrist band - the color used to identify event
employees.

Later, another security guard introduced a pair of undercover detectives to
a guard at the front gate to arrange another drug sale. While his co-worker
relieved him, the guard took the detectives - a man and a woman - to his
car. There, he allegedly took out a set of scales, weighed an eighth of an
ounce of marijuana and sold it for $40.

Conde said he doesn't believe the detectives were dealing with members of
his security force. "They've got some surprises in store for them, in terms
of who was working here and who wasn't," he said.

However, he said, if he finds that any guard was selling drugs, he'll never
hire him again.

"If I find any security guards doing that, shame on them," he said. "They
were specifically instructed not to tolerate that."

Conde said he and his lawyers have filed motions to compel sheriff's
officials to answer questions about the raid, and are seeking a restraining
order to prevent authorities from reviewing his personal computer records,
or using what information has already been accessed.

He said the computer files include information about political action
committees, as well as about people they've registered as voters.

"There's nothing in there they had a right to take," Conde said. "They went
way beyond the scope of the warrant."