Why?
So, then, it's worth asking the question why the Nebraska State Troopers are going to the trouble of putting up fake signs advertising nonexistent interstate highway traffic checkpoints so they can con people into pulling themselves over. The answer to that question is right here in this sign I photographed in western Colorado the day before. That's the sign for the Tumbleweed Dispensary, a business selling recreational marijuana in De Beque, Colorado. As has been discussed often all over the internet, the sale and use of recreational marijuana has been legal in Colorado since 2014.
Recreational marijuana is not legal in Nebraska, though, and Nebraska's just the kind of Puritan state that wants to stamp out anything a person might do to make existing in Nebraska more tolerable. So they have waged a well-advertised war of questionable Constitutionality against cars with out-of-state license plates coming into Nebraska from Colorado. They've devoted tons of Nebraska state trooper resources to stemming the cannabial tide and stopping anybody they can come up with any reason to stop. If you're a car with an Illinois plate passing east through Nebraska after having been in Colorado, you do not want to speed. They will get you.
Now, You'll notice I took this picture from the highway after not stopping at the Tumbleweed Dispensary. I've never been in a marijuana dispensary in Colorado, and I certainly wouldn't have gone on this trip, because recreational marijuana was a month from becoming legal in Illinois. If I really wanted some pot, I'd have waited a month and gotten some at home. But the State Troopers had their scheme, and they were going to go through with it. I don't know how much a Nebraska State Trooper makes an hour, but the State of Nebraska wasted about 40 minutes of that mucking around with us, and they got absolutely nothing for it.
Why?
So, then, it's worth asking the question why the Nebraska State Troopers are going to the trouble of putting up fake signs advertising nonexistent interstate highway traffic checkpoints so they can con people into pulling themselves over. The answer to that question is right here in this sign I photographed in western Colorado the day before. That's the sign for the Tumbleweed Dispensary, a business selling recreational marijuana in De Beque, Colorado. As has been discussed often all over the internet, the sale and use of recreational marijuana has been legal in Colorado since 2014.
Recreational marijuana is not legal in Nebraska, though, and Nebraska's just the kind of Puritan state that wants to stamp out anything a person might do to make existing in Nebraska more tolerable. So they have waged a well-advertised war of questionable Constitutionality against cars with out-of-state license plates coming into Nebraska from Colorado. They've devoted tons of Nebraska state trooper resources to stemming the cannabial tide and stopping anybody they can come up with any reason to stop. If you're a car with an Illinois plate passing east through Nebraska after having been in Colorado, you do not want to speed. They will get you.
Now, You'll notice I took this picture from the highway after not stopping at the Tumbleweed Dispensary. I've never been in a marijuana dispensary in Colorado, and I certainly wouldn't have gone on this trip, because recreational marijuana was a month from becoming legal in Illinois. If I really wanted some pot, I'd have waited a month and gotten some at home. But the State Troopers had their scheme, and they were going to go through with it. I don't know how much a Nebraska State Trooper makes an hour, but the State of Nebraska wasted about 40 minutes of that mucking around with us, and they got absolutely nothing for it.