Pubdate: Fri, 04 Mar 2005
Source: Capital Times, The  (WI)
Copyright: 2005 The Capital Times
Contact:  http://www.captimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/73
Author: Steven Elbow
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

POT BROWNIE WORK BREAK?

Tire Store Manager 'Felt Dizzy'

A Tires Plus manager was apparently hungry when an employee handed him
a brownie. But after wolfing it down, he felt a little funny.

Turned out, he was stoned.

A Cross Plains man who allegedly baked the brownie, Matthew B.
Gessler, 35, was charged Thursday with two felonies: delivering
marijuana and placing foreign objects in edibles.

According to a criminal complaint:

Gessler allegedly brought the brownies to the east side Madison store
on Dec. 22. At about 8 a.m. one of Gessler's co-workers handed the
Tires Plus manager half of a brownie after consuming the other half.
The manager immediately ate about three-quarters of the brownie
portion, then heard someone say, "He gulped it right down."

A little later, the manager told police, "I called a customer, and
then I was reaching up to the printer for the receipt, and I felt
dizzy, and then I realized I was just staring at the paper and was
zoning out."

After hearing that Gessler had made the brownies, he asked him if he
put any "weed" in them, and Gessler replied, "I'm not rich. I can't
afford to put things like that" into brownies.

After deciding that he was probably drugged, the man went to a medical
clinic. A Madison police officer tested the remnants of the brownie
for drugs, and the test came up positive for THC, the active
ingredient in marijuana.

Gessler then reportedly approached the co-worker who had handed the
manager the brownie and told him the brownies weren't intended for the
manager because they contained marijuana.

Gessler later allegedly left a phone message on the answering machine
of the co-worker, allegedly trying to get him to implicate someone
from the Checker Pro Shop, who had left a cookie tray at Tires Plus
the previous day. The man handed the tape of the message to police.

When interviewed by police, Gessler denied bringing the brownies to
work, saying instead that he believed his co-worker brought them.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin