I Was at N.A. Poe’s Pot Party Saturday Night Right Before It Got Raided

There were jars and jars of finer marijuana for sale at Saturday Night’s NA Poe pot party, starting at $40 per eighth-ounce.

On Saturday evening, hundreds of people showed up at a warehouse space in Northeast Philadelphia for one of marijuana activist N.A. Poe‘s legendary pot parties known as Philly Smoke Sessions, intent on buying medical-grade marijuana, pot-infused brownies, and chocolates that will get you really, really high. Unfortunately for Poe and some of the attendees, the cops showed up as well, about 30 minutes after I left.

The party was on the second floor of 4562 Worth Street. Details on the exact number of arrests are sketchy at this point — and the Philadelphia Police Department has yet to respond to my request for more information — but bystander reports put the arrests at anywhere from ten to dozens. According to one person working the party, Poe, his girlfriend/co-organizer, and the vendors were all arrested.

A guy smoking a really big joint at NA Poe’s pot party on Saturday night.

“I was detained/released by swat/narcotics,” wrote attendee and marijuana activist Chris Goldstein on Facebook shortly after 8 p.m. “It is still ongoing… Poe arrested along w appx 12 others… I was in metal cuffs w swat narcotics. They searched me twice, hands down my boxers. Was told by narc capt ‘we are are doing this because marijuana is still illegal’.”

I was invited by Poe to check out the party, and I was planning on writing about it at some point. Just not like this.

Prior to the bust, he told me that he sold 300 tickets for the event at $50 each and that vendor tables were going for $400 each.

I brought a friend along who spent about $600 on a few varieties of marijuana from a collective in New England, gummy bears, cookies, and four chocolate Punch Bars, that are said to pack quite the, er, punch. There was a lot of marijuana and marijuana products in the room, suffice to say.

The chocolate-weed Punch Bars for sale at the N.A. Poe party on Saturday.

I also attended one of Poe’s Philly Smoke Sessions last year in an outdoor space in West Philadelphia. I was a little confused as to how this could all go on. After all, you won’t go to jail anymore for small amounts of personal possession, but this is a commercial enterprise, and there’s major weight being moved.

THC iced tea and lemonade for sale at N.A. Poe’s pot party in Northeast Philly on Saturday.

Just before I left Saturday’s party, and just before the cops showed up, I saw Poe with a rather large joint — is it even called a joint when it’s that big? — and we posed for a photo as I pretended to puff on the thing.

“I’m sorry, but I didn’t even inhale anything,” I told him, sheepishly. “Pot makes me crazy.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he replied. “I blow it out all the time at these things. I have way too much to worry about.”

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