Unfortunately, the circumstances that led to Gorman's death weren't funny at all -- and they may have had a media connection.
On February 11, Channel 4 ran an investigative piece by correspondent Rick Sallinger that essentially accused Gorman of using a loophole in Colorado's medical-marijuana law to "legally" obtain weed for anyone who wanted it. By the standards of sweeps-month packages, Sallinger's effort was far from shocking. Sure, Gorman denied having made the sort of statements that he's seen offering to an undercover Channel 4 operative. But he also sat down with Sallinger and a handful of people who insisted they were truly using cheeba for medical reasons, and happily showed off an array of healthy ganja plants growing in his house.
Did the botanical display in the Channel 4 report spur Gorman's killers to target him? That's one way to read a comment by Mason Tvert, executive director of the pro-pot organization SAFER, that appeared in a Rocky Mountain News article: "The thing that Ken spent his entire life fighting ended up killing him, and that's marijuana prohibition, and not marijuana." Right now, though, there isn't nearly enough evidence to establish that the criminals chose their victim after watching TV -- and even if there were, Gorman wasn't responsibility-free. He willingly showed off his garden to Sallinger, and didn't keep his proclivities a secret from neighbors or the pro-marijuana crowd in general.
Whatever the case, Channel 4's tiny scoop was hardly worth dying for, and it's a shame Gorman isn't still around to laugh it off. -- Michael Roberts









"Gorman wasn't responsibility-free. He willingly showed off his garden to Sallinger, and didn't keep his proclivities a secret from neighbors or the pro-marijuana crowd in general"
This is one of the dumbest statments i have ever heard.
That is like saying that if someone broke in my house and shot me for my big screen TV, I was partly at fault for showing it off to everyone.
Or if a store owner got shot it was part his fault for having money in the store.
The only reason you say that is because it was marijuana. if it was tomato plants would it have been partly his fault?
The fault lays with those that shot him and the goverment and the laws they they passed, that makes a weed in can grow in my backyard worth more than its weight in gold
Posted at: February 26, 2007 11:41 PM