St. Helena woman gets a pot brownie in the mail

By DAVID STONEBERG
For the Register

Leah Smith got a package she wasn’t expecting last week. As she gathered the 40 or so pieces of mail addressed to Spring Mountain Vineyard from the large roadside mailbox on Monday, she found a small package containing a marijuana brownie.

 The brownie was wrapped in clear plastic but was not in an envelope. Its label said it was produced by “Butter Brothers” and it contained “two doses of medicine.” Its contents included eggs, chocolate, sugar, flour, walnuts, butter, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cannabis butter.

Smith, who is the customer relations director for the St. Helena winery, said she looked up “Butter Brothers” on the Internet and determined they are based in San Francisco.

 “It could have come over the weekend,” Smith said. “The problem is that it could have ended up in the hands of a child. If I were a parent, I would want to know if the brownies were being delivered in the mailboxes.”

It appeared that the mailbox at Spring Mountain Vineyard was the only target of a marijuana brownie, since a check of 10 other mailboxes nearby turned up no other packaged brownies.

Smith said she contacted the Napa County Sheriff’s Department. On Monday, Capt. John Robertson said he had not heard of any other marijuana brownies being delivered in the area.

“It is illegal to manufacture or produce” marijuana brownies, he said. “I know of deputies that will cite a person for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, which is an infraction,” he said.

 St. Helena Postmaster Steve Dick said he also had not heard of any reports of marijuana brownies being put in mailboxes, but added that once the mail is delivered it is considered private property.

 Smith, who has worked for Spring Mountain Vineyard for the past four years, said, “We need to keep marijuana brownies off the street.” 

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