Until recently, friends say, Dana Ryssdal enjoyed a larger-than-life bachelor’s existence in Portland. He sat in suites at Trail Blazers games. He partied and golfed in Las Vegas. He also spent time with family, traveling to Colorado and Washington to visit family. But on Jan. 27, police found Ryssdal, 35, in a Houston townhouse, shot to death. Also found in the home, according to search warrant records obtained by WW: 129 pounds of what appeared to be cannabis, 10 pounds of hash oil, and $36,000 in cash.
Five days later, police found Ryssdal’s friend, James Martin III, dead in the trunk of a car that had been towed from where police found Ryssdal. Martin had also been shot to death. The Houston Police Department tells WW it hasn’t yet identified any suspects and declined to comment on the pending investigation.
But back in Oregon, the double homicide has rocked the cannabis industry. “It was so shocking to hear that Dana was killed,” says Nathan Howard, co-founder of East Fork Cultivars.
Some industry sources think that unless the federal government legalizes cannabis, the legal and illegal markets in Oregon will be inextricably linked and laced with danger. The federal prohibition means weed remains a cash-only business and that surpluses in prime-growing states cannot be shipped to other states as is the case with other crops.
Read more at wweek.com