cannabisnews.com: Medical Pot Farm Brings Drug War Too Close to Home Medical Pot Farm Brings Drug War Too Close to Home Posted by CN Staff on September 26, 2002 at 08:46:12 PT By Eric Bailey, Times Staff Writer Source: Los Angeles Times Sebastopol, Calif. -- First came the snarling guard dogs, then the barbed-wire fence and 24-hour security patrols, all of it smack in the middle of a leafy neighborhood on the outskirts of this wine country town.Residents along Martin Lane reached a collective conclusion this summer: Robert Schmidt's medicinal pot farm was a problem. An armed camp, they called it. A magnet for thieves. A danger to neighborhood kids. Their worries seemed to abate when carbine-toting federal drug agents rumbled in Sept. 12, arrested Schmidt and uprooted 3,454 marijuana plants reputedly intended as medicine. But concern lingers on this dead-end gravel lane in the heart of get-along Sonoma County.Schmidt's neighbors remain perplexed that their pleas for help went unheeded for so long. But they're also troubled that Schmidt, 52, could face a long prison sentence--10 years to life--for what they consider a desire to help the sick. The punishment, they say, doesn't fit what should have been simply a residential zoning violation."Here in California," concluded Jayne Garrison, a neighbor, "we're living in a legal twilight zone when it comes to medical marijuana."The latest clash on Martin Lane is only one of many messy conflicts to erupt since 1996 when California voters approved Proposition 215, the landmark initiative that made medical use of marijuana legal under state law but set up a testy conflict with the federal government's unwavering prohibitions on pot.The fight has centered on the more than 50 nonprofit cannabis dispensaries that have sprung up in California since the initiative passed. Though it allows patients or caregivers with a physician's recommendation to grow pot for their own use, dispensaries were fashioned as sources for shut-ins or those too ill to cultivate the plant they had permission to use. Growers like Schmidt supplied such dispensaries.Over the last year, the rift between the state and the U.S. has only widened. In May 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that federal law doesn't allow a medical exception for marijuana use. Although eight other states allow medical use of pot, California has remained the top target. Federal drug officials say growers in the Golden State are simply more visible--thus easier to arrest--and apt to bring raids to the attention of the news media.As more growers have been busted, advocates for the medical use of pot have increasingly voiced outrage, in particular over a Sept. 5 raid that shut down a collective in Santa Cruz; activists countered by defiantly distributing marijuana in front of City Hall last week.The conflict flared again Monday, as police arrested about 30 demonstrators blocking a federal courthouse in Sacramento to protest the conviction of the leader of a Chico dispensary of marijuana for medical use. Federal drug agents also are targeting small operations once considered not worth the bother. On Tuesday, drug enforcement agents uprooted a San Diego activist's 26-plant pot garden."It's a very controversial issue, this so-called medical marijuana," said Richard Meyer, a Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman in San Francisco. "But we get lots of calls from communities thanking us."Residents on Sebastopol's Martin Lane didn't know what to make of Schmidt when he swept into the neighborhood last spring, renting a farmhouse atop six acres at the end of the road. Schmidt, now being held in a Bay Area jail, could not be reached for comment, and his attorney, Alexandra McClure, declined to discuss the case.With his beard and gray ponytail, Schmidt seemed a cross between Willie Nelson and Col. Sanders, neighbors said. He rode horses, fancied western garb and sometimes clomped around in a black duster. Schmidt was friendly, they say, with a dash of bravado. Among advocates for medicinal use of marijuana, Schmidt styled himself the "cannabis cowboy." He told folks on the lane his crop would consist of sunflowers and corn. But he also referred them to a Web site for "Genesis 1:29," the marijuana operation Schmidt established shortly after California became the first of nine states in the U.S. to legalize medical use of marijuana.For its first years, Genesis sat shoehorned in a Petaluma subdivision, 20 miles down the freeway. But in 1999, armed robbers burst in and stole 50 plants at gunpoint.His neighbors griped, and Schmidt moved Genesis 1:29 (named for a Bible verse about God inviting man to use all of Earth's seed-bearing plants as food) to a business park. Eventually he found the farm on Martin Lane.Residents of the 11 ranchettes fronting the lane weren't exactly shocked to learn from his Web site that Schmidt considered himself a purveyor of medical marijuana. Like many folks in Sonoma County, where more than 70% of the electorate backed Proposition 215, no one on Martin Lane is philosophically opposed to medical use of marijuana. They figured Schmidt would plant a few seeds and be done with it. Summer came, and there was no sign of sunflowers or corn. Instead, cannabis grew.As the crop came in, the protection arrived--barbed-wire fences, patrols and guard dogs. Infrared scopes and videotape equipment were deployed, neighbors say."The whole thing had an air of absurdity to it," said next-door neighbor Mary Roth. "Until we got scared."Some of the guards had crossbows. A few neighbors had scary confrontations with the dogs. A silhouette paper cutout of a human figure was pinned on hay bales. Schmidt's crew left it up for target practice. "It was plainly meant to intimidate," said Roth's husband, Ted.Janine Carpenter, who lives directly across the narrow street, said she hadn't slept well most of the summer: Any bump in the night had her up, fearing a threat. She kept her children, ages 5 and 8, from playing out front. The Roths insisted their visiting grandchildren stay inside.Neighbors started calling the sheriff's narcotics division, but were told nothing could be done. "They said they knew about Robert, but their hands were tied," said Fran Begun, 77.The Sonoma County sheriff's narcotics task force did not return calls for comment. But other county officials say their reluctance to intercede springs in large part from a 2001 court case on the medical use of marijuana. Two proponents accused of growing 899 pot plants for a San Francisco dispensary were acquitted after contending they were caregivers for patients.Snipped: Complete Article: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-pot26sep26.storySource: Los Angeles Times (CA)Author: Eric Bailey, Times Staff WriterPublished: September 26, 2002Copyright: 2002 Los Angeles TimesContact: letters latimes.comWebsite: http://www.latimes.com/Related Articles:Marijuana Club Owner Charged in Federal Court http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14110.shtmlMarijuana Club Founder Faces Charges http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14108.shtmlFeds Raid Sebastopol Pot Farm http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14096.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #8 posted by p4me on September 26, 2002 at 13:49:24 PT Prohibition- Get Off It The Bumper Sticker, "Prohibition-Get Off It" will be available by stock number CN14252 tomorrow. Check LB&O.sux for details of our double money guarantee that our BS will stick.1,2 [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by firedog on September 26, 2002 at 10:28:49 PT Just to clarify... I don't condone the bust, and certainly not the punishment that Mr. Schmidt is likely to face, but unfortunately, it was bound to happen when conflict arose with the neighbors. In today's climate there's simply no other way to resolve it.There is a small silver lining to all the busts. People are becoming more and more angry and more and more outspoken. And this will force some kind of resolution, hopefully soon.The voters in SF will surely support having the city grow medicinal marijuana this November. Then we'll see a large city going against the Feds by voter mandate.And:1) Most people in California support Prop. 215.2) The people who benefit from it are very sick and often can't grow marijuana themselves.3) The DEA is brutalizing the providers who are taking amazing personal risk to help others. The DEA has become the SS of the Fourth Reich. They are a nightmare come true - a government bureaucracy with armed thugs.4) The next needed step is for California to legalize the production of medical marijuana, or for the state to start growing itself.The need for #4 is painfully obvious by now. I'd personally like to see something like Nevada's Question 9 come up on next year's ballot in California, but if not, then at least a measure dealing with medical marijuana would be better than nothing. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by Sam Adams on September 26, 2002 at 10:10:50 PT True, FD, but.... I see armed guards on my street EVERY SINGLE DAY. Police cars go by several times a day on my residential street. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by firedog on September 26, 2002 at 10:05:30 PT I can see their point It is true that zoning needs to be addressed. If someone is growing a small number of plants for personal use in a residential area, that's one thing. But when barbed wire and armed guards are needed... that's something else entirely.Those elements have no place in a residential area. I would be upset too if armed guards appeared on my street, regardless of why they were there.They wouldn't be needed if marijuana was legal to grow and sell. Get the criminal element out of the equation and 5000 pot plants growing in the open becomes a beautiful thing. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by Sam Adams on September 26, 2002 at 09:45:12 PT Ooh, I really like this one This article reveals one of the core reasons to the question "why is marijuana STILL illegal?"Read:"Their worries seemed to abate when carbine-toting federal drug agents rumbled in Sept. 12, arrested Schmidt and uprooted 3,454 marijuana plants reputedly intended as medicine. But concern lingers on this dead-end gravel lane in the heart of get-along Sonoma County.Schmidt's neighbors remain perplexed that their pleas for help went unheeded for so long. But they're also troubled that Schmidt, 52, could face a long prison sentence--10 years to life--for what they consider a desire to help the sick. The punishment, they say, doesn't fit what should have been simply a residential zoning violation."So, after the snobby, NIMBY, upscale neighbors repeatedly ratted this guy out, they're now surprised that he's being thrown in jail for the rest of his life. This is the whole drug war in a nutshell. The vast masses of selfish, narcissistic Americans whine when they're offended in even the SLIGHTEST way. They can't stand it when even a brief flash of unpleasantness from looking at a smelly farm, or seeing a barbed wire fence, or hearing noise, interrupts their lifestyle of frenzied consumption. Ratting out the offender seems the best course.Of course, since their entire lives have been focussed on greed, status, self-aggrandizement and materialism, they have been totally oblivious to the U.S.'s transformation into a police state. Now, they're sad that their neighbor is being locked up, but how long do you think that is going be on their radar screen? All will be forgotten, until their kids get busted in high school. Then, another brief bout of indignation, an expensive lawyer or two, and everything is OK again. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by afterburner on September 26, 2002 at 09:40:05 PT: JR - Good to see you back JR. Right on. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on September 26, 2002 at 09:11:56 PT LTE Sirs, You refer to Sonoma as a "wine town", but I don't see the community in fear of the local vineyard. Why? Because wine is available on the open market at a fair price. Cannabis, however, is only available for an artificially inflated price on the black market. Thus, anyone who grows cannabis will have to contend with the threat of intruders - and when these intruders arrive, the growers can not turn to the police for help. This absurd situation has nothing to do with the plant involved, and everything to do with the laws about the plant. If it were not for the 21st amendment, which ended alcohol prohibition, the residents of Sonoma would be equally terrified of their fields of grapes. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by kanabys on September 26, 2002 at 08:58:56 PT all the more reason to legalize it!!! When are they going to get it???? Dumbasses...... :( [ Post Comment ] Post Comment