cannabisnews.com: Medical Marijuana Trial Moves Forward Medical Marijuana Trial Moves Forward Posted by CN Staff on October 04, 2002 at 11:16:14 PT By Scott Vanhorne, Staff Writer Source: Daily Press A jury should determine whether the county and a sheriff’s detective must reimburse a pair of medical marijuana advocates whose plants and growing equipment were destroyed after a raid on their home, a court commissioner ruled this week.Gary Barrett, 34, and Anna Barrett, 31, filed their lawsuit against San Bernardino County and Detective Mike Wirz on Oct. 10, 2001, about two years after they were arrested for cultivation of marijuana in Victorville. Superior Court Judge Stephen Ashworth ordered the Sheriff’s Department to return the couple’s growing equipment and other seized property except the marijuana in April 2001, but by then, most of the items had been destroyed in accordance with another judge’s order, according to the lawsuit.The couple, who both have a doctor’s recommendation to use marijuana as required by Proposition 215, want about $300,000 in damages for their lost pot, growing equipment and personal property, their attorney Daniel B. Halpern of San Jose said.“Someone is responsible here, whether it’s Detective Wirz or the county,” Anna Barrett said Thursday. “It was so hard, at that time, to find medical marijuana of that grade.”Attorney Teresa McGowan, who is representing the county and the detective, motioned to have the lawsuit dismissed during a hearing Wednesday, claiming, among other things, that the marijuana and equipment was lawfully seized with a search warrant and destroyed by court order, according to a motion for summary judgment.“Detective Wirz cannot be tortuously liable for the destruction of marijuana that he was ordered by law to destroy,” McGowan wrote in her motion. “Since Detective Wirz is immune from liability, the county of San Bernardino cannot be held responsible either.”But Commissioner Kirtland Mahlum on Wednesday ruled the case deserved a jury trial and set a tentative trial date in November, Halpern said.The case is likely to set a legal precedent in the county unless McGowan appeals Mahlum’s ruling and succeeds in having the lawsuit dismissed, the attorney said.Halpern said other courts and law enforcement agencies in the state have already returned pot confiscated from legitimate medical marijuana patients.“We’ve got to get some pressure put on them, and maybe they’ll start doing the same thing,” Halpern said.McGowan and Deputy County Council Dennis Tilton, who also represents the Sheriff’s Department, did not return phone calls seeking comment Thursday. Wirz, who was transferred from narcotics to the Fontana sheriff’s station, was not available for comment.The Barretts’ legal troubles began in June 1999 when sheriff’s deputies raided their home and confiscated 57 marijuana plants, growing lights, scales and other property, according to the lawsuit.About a month later, Gary Barrett filed a motion seeking the return of the pot and property because the District Attorney’s office had not filed any criminal charges against him or his wife, but a judge dismissed the motion without prejudice, which left the door open for the couple to try again, Halpern said.The Barretts pleaded guilty to cultivation of marijuana in July 2000 in a plea agreement that put them on probation for three years and allowed them both to possess 35 flowering marijuana plants for medicinal use.Gary Barrett went to Sheriff’s Headquarters in San Bernardino after Ashworth ordered the growing equipment and other property returned.Wirz gave him a sealed box containing marijuana cultivation books, packaging material and a handgun seized during the raid and asked him not to open it until he left, according to the lawsuit.“Gary feared that Detective Wirz had intended to snare Gary into possibly violating his probation by possession of a handgun,” the lawsuit states. “Gary explained his concerns to the Sheriff’s Department and surrendered the firearm for destruction to Sheriff’s Deputy Valencia on June 13, 2001.”Gary Barrett said he used marijuana to help kick a heroin habit and also uses it to battle pain from Crohn’s disease, a painful digestive tract disorder. His wife uses pot to treat chronic pain she has suffered since a fall from a five-story ledge in 1995.California voters passed Proposition 215, also known as the Compassionate Use Act, in 1996, allowing people to use marijuana for medicinal purposes with a doctor’s recommendation.Voters in other states including Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Alaska and Oregon have passed similar measures.Federal authorities assert that all of the initiatives are invalid because marijuana is a so-called Schedule I drug and has no medicinal value.Newshawk: Gary B.Source: Daily Press (CA)Author: Scott Vanhorne, Staff WriterPublished: October 4, 2002Copyright: 2002 Daily PressContact: smw link.freedom.comWebsite: http://www.vvdailypress.com/Trichome.orghttp://trichome.org/index.htmCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #7 posted by Had Enough on October 04, 2002 at 14:12:42 PT 107839 hits in one day Over 100,000 hits cool. It has been said it will take an act of congress to change the law. Guess what? It appears to me that is what people are trying to do, and it will be done. Let it roll baby roll. Thank you all. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by The GCW on October 04, 2002 at 14:03:27 PT Another interesting trial development. Jury Awards Former Smoker $28 Bil. By GARY GENTILE AP Business Writer AP/ [23K] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://wire.ap.org/?SLUG=TOBACCO%2dSUIT LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Superior Court jury on Friday awarded $28 billion in punitive damages to a former smoker who sued Philip Morris Inc. for fraud and negligence. Cont...(Some people have stated that America will always need something to prohibit, so perhaps We can replace nicotine prohibition with cannabis prohibition.) [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by DdC on October 04, 2002 at 13:02:53 PT Who's Responsible for the War on Cannabis? He's five feet two and he's six feet four He fights with missiles and with spears He's all of 31 and he's only 17 He's been a D.E.A.th soldier for 30 yearsHe's a Catholic, a Hindu, an athiest, a Jain, a Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew and he knows he shouldn't cage or kill and he knows he always will cage you for me my friend and me for youAnd he's fighting for Canada, he's fighting for France, he's fighting for the USA, and he's fighting for the Russians and he's fighting for Japan, and he thinks we'll put an end to the D.E.A.th war this wayAnd he's fighting for Democracy and fighting for the Feds He says it's for the peace of all He's the one who must decide who's to live and who's to die and he never sees the writing on the wallsBut without him how would Hitler have condemned him at Dachau Without him Bush would have stood alone He's the one who gives his body as a weapon to the WoD and without him all this D.E.A.th can't go onHe's the universal D.E.A.th soldier and he really is to blame His orders come from far away no more They come from him, and you, and me and brothers can't you see this is not the way we put an end to WoD.UNIVERSAL SOLDIER Buffy Sainte-MarieNOTES: I wrote "Universal Soldier" in the basement of The Purple Onion coffee house in Toronto in the early sixties. It's about individual responsibility for war and how the old feudal thinking kills us all. Donovan had a hit with it in 1965. bsm...DdC adopted it in 2002...MY COUNTRY 'TIS OF THY PEOPLE YOU'RE DYING http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionfrm13.showMessage?topicID=26.topicNOW THAT THE BUFFALO'S GONE http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionfrm13.showMessage?topicID=28.topic [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by DdC on October 04, 2002 at 12:36:14 PT Bushit's Chemical Food, Fiber and Medicine!!! Label Frankenfoods http://boards.marihemp.com/boards/politics/media/37/37445.gif Frankenfoods again? http://boards.marihemp.com/boards/politics/media/37/37434.gifFARMaceuticals http://www.mikuriya.com http://www.cannabinoid.com/boards/politics/media/37/37435.gifHatcat Stop WoD http://www.cannabinoid.com/boards/politics/media/37/37436.gifGot Meat? http://www.cannabinoid.com/wwwboard/politics/binaries/29/29785.gifMeat Pimps http://www.cannabinoid.com/wwwboard/politics/binaries/29/29786.gifHemp Products in Competition with the Above poisons legislated out of the free market by Bush Fascist Enterprizes. http://www.cannabinoid.com/wwwboard/politics/binaries/29/29799.gif The Chemical Manipulation of Human Consciousness [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by FoM on October 04, 2002 at 12:30:52 PT p4me Thanks we did it! I check the stats in the morning and I did see it too. If it wasn't for all of you working to help develop this web site none of this would be possible. The information that is on this site should be enough to end the drug war. I wish the antis would post our information like we kindly post theirs. Maybe they will some day but I'm not holding my breath. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by p4me on October 04, 2002 at 12:24:13 PT Congratulations, FoM, a new record stat for Cnews I saw at Cnews.stat that the previous record set on Monday was beaten by 12,000 hits. Thursday, Cnews passed the 100,000 mark for the first time with 107,839 hits.Wouldn't you know yesterday I did not take a stab at killing the Schedule 1 Lie.Bill Moyers' PBS program, Now, will be about Genetically Modified Foods this weekend. GMFs is just proof that the government could care less about the health of the average Joe, not that you had to look at the side-effects of medicine that rightly competes with the nerve soothing qualities of MJ to figure that out. I did not know there were any GMFs on the store shelves until a couple of years ago when I hear my first story on the subject say there were 30,000 GMFs on store shelves already. And they have the nerve to say they care about Americans health and America.Someone needs to tell the Dummy in Residence he is supposed to R-U-N the country, not R-U-I-N it. There's a BS for you, and guaranteed original.DAD-D,1,2 [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by p4me on October 04, 2002 at 11:41:06 PT Free Cannabis For Everyone,lalalalala "Federal authorities assert that all of the initiatives are invalid because marijuana is a so-called Schedule I drug and has no medicinal value."When contacted on the subject, Asa Hutchinson, speaking on the behalf of the DEA and the fascist in power, said it would take an act of Congress to change the ill-intentioned (as in sickness and death)misclassification of marijuana. Whereupon he pronounced a new schedule classification of 0, and said "penalties are the same as schedule 1 but schedule 0 has no guidelines to break, I mean follow."DAD-D,1,2 [ Post Comment ] Post Comment