Popular Outdoor Writer Arrested For Weed… In Weed

0

Photo: Northern California Hiking Trails Blog
Deputies claim popular writer Tom Stienstra, 55, had a “sophisticated cultivation operation” in his barn in Weed, California

​Well-known outdoor author Tom Stienstra has been arrested on suspicion of possessing marijuana for sale, according to the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office.

Stienstra, 55, was busted March 25 after deputies served a search warrant at his home in Weed, California, and found what they claimed was a “sophisticated cultivation operation” in his barn, sheriff’s department spokesperson Susan Gravenkamp said in an email to the Redding Record Searchlight.
Deputies claimed they found 31 immature marijuana plants, 29 mature plants and 11 pounds of dried marijuana, Gravenkamp said.
Much of the processed marijuana was packaged, according to Gravenkamp. Deputies also claimed they found scales, packaging material and other “paraphernalia” at Stienstra’s barn and inside his home, she said.
Stienstra, an outdoor writer for the San Francisco Chronicle and syndicated newspaper columnist, is also an author of books on hiking, camping and the outdoors. He has a weekly TV show in KBCW/KMAX in Sacramento, and a weekly radio program on San Francisco’s KCBS.

The author and three others were arrested and booked into Siskiyou County Jail in Yreka. Stienstra was released last Friday on $75,000 bail; he continues to write for the Chronicle.
Stienstra, his wife Stephanie Ann Cruickshank, 54, of Weed, and Cruickshank’s 18-year-old son, who was not arrested, each had medical marijuana authorizations, according to Gravenkamp.
Along with Stienstra and Cruickshank, also arrested during the search were Henry Warren Lincoln, 32, of Medford, Ore., and Nathan Jacob Koopman, 30, of Gazelle, Calif.
Cruickshank, Lincoln and Koopman were released from jail while the district attorney’s office takes a look at the allegations against them, Gravenkamp said.
Share.