cannabisnews.com: Suing The Reaper Suing The Reaper Posted by CN Staff on June 23, 2004 at 21:56:55 PT By Dean Kuipers Source: LA City Beat A South L.A. sickle-cell patient had to sue the LAPD to stop pulling up her legal pot harvest.When agents of the DEA came swarming over the garden wall into Sister Somayah Kambui’s backyard on October 8, 2003, guns drawn, the snappy, outspoken medical marijuana patient wasn’t really surprised. The house she owns in South L.A. had been raided a reported six times since 1996, and usually in September or October – harvest time for marijuana. The agents did not handcuff her, but asked her to step aside so they could pull up 12 healthy plants, one of them the size of a gangly Christmas tree. Kambui, who relies on marijuana to combat debilitating pain from sickle-cell anemia, was in tears. Then her eyes fixed on someone who turned her sorrow to rage: accompanying the federal agents was LAPD Detective Steve McArthur. McArthur had busted Kambui at least four previous autumns, and each time there had either been no charges filed or, most important, she’d been acquitted and her grow operation approved under California’s 1996 Compassionate Use Act, better known as Proposition 215. Unable to get an indictment under state law, McArthur had brought in the feds, whose warrant was based solely on his testimony. After two hours of questioning, the DEA set Kambui free, and one of the agents even gave her a hug. Kambui, however, had had enough of Detective McArthur. She filed a civil suit against McArthur, the LAPD, the City of Los Angeles, and “John Does 1-50” in January, backed by an increasingly effective medical cannabis advocacy group, Bay Area-based Americans for Safe Access. Steph Sherer, ASA’s executive director, says the group spends most of its time battling federal raids, but this case sends an important message to the state. “The Compassionate Use Act has been in effect for seven years, and there’s been no implementation,” says Sherer. “Activists and patients across the state have done the best that they can to set policies that work, but the truth is, these are sick people. We have to show cities and counties there’s actually a financial reason why they have to start listening to this: million-dollar suits against their police departments.” LAPD spokesman Jason Lee declined to comment on the case, noting, “It is our policy of not making any statements on ongoing lawsuits.” “The LAPD, in particular, has frequently raided legitimate medical marijuana patients, seized their medicine, and in the majority of cases doesn’t file charges,” says Joe Elford, ASA attorney representing Kambui. “We hope this will cause the police to change their policy from ‘seize first, ask questions later’ to ‘ask questions first and seize only if those questions suggest that the person is not in fact a legitimate medical marijuana patient.’” “This man, McArthur, has literally thwarted our ability to reach our goal,” says Kambui, interviewed by phone from her home. The purpose of the peer support group she founded, the Crescent Alliance Self Help for Sickle Cell Research, is to empower sickle-cell sufferers through “herbs, nutrition, and lifestyle change,” she says, and get them off heavy narcotics. “I know of no other class, race, creed – designated genetically or otherwise – born to live and to die to be dependent upon narcotics, and to be dependent on the conventional medical world. That’s bullcrap,” she growls. “That sounds like slavery.” The suit seeks to redress unreturned property and civil rights violations, not from the 2003 DEA raid, but from a previous incident in which McArthur arrested Kambui on September 26, 2002. At least one of the 16 causes of action listed in the suit could result in punitive damages. She is also seeking injunctions to prevent the LAPD from having any part in future raids on her legal stash. Kambui has a lot at stake; with two felony convictions from her work in the early 1970s with the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, she risks a 25-to-life sentence under California’s “three strikes” law if she were ever convicted on pot offenses. The story of this lawsuit begins on October 5, 2001, when McArthur led a team of LAPD officers into Kambui’s home and arrested her, warrant in hand, seizing what officers claimed were 260 pounds of wet-weight marijuana, pot cookies, and “hash oil.” Kambui was indicted on 14 counts and spent 62 days in jail before going to trial, during which time her health deteriorated. On the stand, expert witnesses clarified that the real dried weight of Kambui’s marijuana crop was 11-25 pounds (still a sizable amount) and that the so-called “hash oil” was really hempseed oil, pressed from sterilized seeds, with negligible amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, the psychoactive ingredient in pot. On March 18, 2002, she was acquitted on all counts and her cannabis was returned to her. Six months after her 2002 acquittal, however, Kambui was raided again by McArthur on September 26, and this time he had no warrant. Officers found Kambui and her brother praying in the garden, where 25 plants were growing. According to testimony given by her brother, who was arrested, one of the officers called for a warrant right there on the spot and was denied. With no warrant and no subsequent indictment, all charges were later thrown out, and Kambui and her brother were released after four days. The plants were destroyed. It is this raid, the September 26, 2002 search and seizure, that is the subject of the lawsuit. Kambui was diagnosed with sickle-cell anemia at age 19 when she was in the U.S. Air Force. Her father, a Choctaw Indian, introduced her to pot as a way to cope with the excruciating pain caused by the disease, which increases with age. The fatal malady is usually treated with morphine and other opiates, and many sickle-cell patients actually die of a morphine overdose. Kambui’s Veterans Administration physician, Dr. Alan Lichtenstein, and Dr. William Eidelman of Santa Monica, whose license was temporarily suspended in 2001 for distributing medical marijuana, both testified at her trial that marijuana was uniquely suited to manage pain in Kambui’s case, because she was allergic to Demerol and it allowed her to drastically cut her morphine intake. Kambui credits the weed with keeping her alive. She doesn’t smoke it, but almost always cooks the buds into teas, tinctures, and foods. Her folk remedy and her research have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. “This kind of shows you how ass-backwards all this is,” says Elford. “In the name of the drug war, they’re trying to require someone to take much more serious narcotics than relatively harmless marijuana. And in this case, not just much more serious narcotics in terms of toxicity and addictiveness, but in this case, narcotics that are actually extremely harmful to the person prescribed them.” In 1993, Kambui founded the Crescent Alliance, which informs patients how to use cannabis to manage pain, including frank discussions about how to grow weed, press hemp oil (which she claims has anti-inflammatory properties), and use massage, baths, and other techniques to battle pain and inflammation. Sherer believes it is this aspect of her work, in which patients with sickle-cell, AIDS, cancer, and other ailments come to her house, that is the real reason for the repeated busts. When asked how many patients she sees at her house, Kambui replies: “That’s confidential. But I work with a substantial amount, obviously a threat to the LAPD – enough to where they think I’m gonna have some kind of economic development program going on here, and gee, I might end up being independent or something.” That independence, says Steph Sherer, lies at the heart of this case; Proposition 215 was supposed to give patients another option for treatment of serious illness. “That’s a huge part of this issue,” she says, “money and politics deciding about your life. I guarantee if you ask any person in the United States: ‘Would you break a law to live?’ Hell, yeah, you would.” More information on Kambui’s case can be found at: http://www.geocities.com/sistersomayah Source: Los Angeles City Beat (CA)Author: Dean Kuipers Published: Issue Number 55 - June 24, 2004Copyright: 2004 Southland PublishingContact: deank lacitybeat.comWebsite: http://www.lacitybeat.com/Americans For Safe Accesshttp://www.safeaccessnow.org/CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #26 posted by FoM on June 25, 2004 at 18:39:23 PT Max Flowers You're very welcome. [ Post Comment ] Comment #25 posted by Max Flowers on June 25, 2004 at 18:22:46 PT Anyway... Thanks for letting me vent that. Must have needed to get it out!Anyway back to the topic, I hope Sister Somayah prevails and they leave her alone to be in peace. [ Post Comment ] Comment #24 posted by FoM on June 25, 2004 at 09:11:33 PT Max Flowers Pat Robertson is one of the main reasons I stopped going to Church. I'm with you. He takes money from a beer company too. That is the double standard I find disgraceful for those who are deemed spiritual leaders. [ Post Comment ] Comment #23 posted by Max Flowers on June 25, 2004 at 09:08:53 PT To explain my view a little further I get angry when I see Pat Robertson on TV with his own "news show", advocating killing Palestinians and supporting Israel with weapons, and fomenting all kinds of political trouble, all in the name of Christianity... meanwhile, if I wanted to start a tiny cannabis-based church with 10 members (no TV channel or anything!), of course I would get all kinds of grief and they would start thinking of ways to throw me in jail.Robertson to me is an ugly, war-loving, conniving political animal who dresses up all his agenda in "the love of Christ" which is a bunch of BS, as he is a multi-millionaire in charge of a huge corporation and cable network, doing the propaganda bidding of the extreme right wing. He makes my skin crawl. But he has a legal right to do what he does, therefore I want to have my own church too (minus the global domination ambitions). [ Post Comment ] Comment #22 posted by FoM on June 25, 2004 at 08:58:58 PT Max Flowers I understand where you are coming from. My beliefs are deeply rooted in my life and that's why I can't think certain ways. It's personal for me but for no one else. I don't go to Church or belong to any Church. My beliefs are just mine. [ Post Comment ] Comment #21 posted by Max Flowers on June 25, 2004 at 08:53:05 PT FoM I understand but what you're saying... I guess what I'm saying is a bit weird for some. I'm just saying that many of us should take the religious protection angle up as a tactic, just the same as the civil rights movement used constitutional law as its strength. Millions of Christians use religion to advance their political aims as well, so why not us? I'm not suggesting that anyone actually worship anything that they don't want to.Myself, I don't literally worship the plant either, but it is a sacrament to me and it does form a large part of my spirituality. It's a bit of an abstract concept I guess. To me, Revs Adler, Shields et al are some of the smartest people in the movement. I'm not a Christian at all myself, but I would absolutely join (but I'd rather FORM) a church that invokes real constitutional protection, not only for the protection but just for the joy of thumbing my nose at those who otherwise would feel freer to lock me up for cannabis. If Adler is telling the whole truth about how everyone who carries his card is immune from prosecution on religious grounds, then I am deeply impressed by what he has created.For years I've imagined starting a church called the Church of The Miracle Flower or something like that, that is totally cannabis based (no Jesus dogma), and pissing off lots of people by getting it formed and licensed etc, just because I CAN under US law. [ Post Comment ] Comment #20 posted by FoM on June 24, 2004 at 12:14:54 PT Max Flowers I think if people want a religion and believe in it they should follow their heart. I personally can't look at Cannabis in anyway except how I believe. I believe that all plants and animals are a gift from the Creator. I grew up being taught not to put anything above the Creator so my beliefs are very deep seated in my heart. I was taught that we shouldn't worship the creation but the Creator. I hope this makes sense and this is just for me and no one else. [ Post Comment ] Comment #19 posted by Max Flowers on June 24, 2004 at 12:07:23 PT You guys are kind of missing the point (Cantheism) Whether or not in your deepest private thoughts and feelings you really believe in worshiping the plant itself, etc is not at all the point. We should all *say* we do, vehemently, in order to get enough people mobilized behind it to "qualify" it as a religion and thereby gain the protection that is supposed to be guaranteed under the Constitution! Believe me, I know plenty of Christians whom, based on their deeds and words, I seriously doubt really have "true faith", yet their religion is protected and thus they are as well... they will never be persecuted based on their "faith", yet Rastas are, as are quite a few Muslims I'm sure, and as many peyotists (native American and otherwise) are. Forget the more esoteric question about it---the point is for us to form a body politic, a cohesive group with something more concrete to mount our fight to than just being "activists". Activists are too easily disregarded these days, even though they (we) do good work. It's harder to deny a group with a solid Constitutional basis for their greivances (religious persecution and denial of religious freedom and rights) than it is to blow off "those nutty pot activists".I have felt for quite a while that the way out of this mess is to use the power inherent in religious protection aspects of the Constitution. I think it may be the one aspect that everyone from cops to Congresspersons to feds to Presidents will be afraid to attack. [ Post Comment ] Comment #18 posted by afterburner on June 24, 2004 at 10:40:01 PT Hope - Comment #2 "The list of names is long and includes babies, children, women, men, and the elderly and incapacitated. Loved ones, friends, neighbors, brothers and sisters are on that list."Many, but certainly not all of these victims, are in prison for cannabis-related charges. The statistics on cannabis incarceration are included in the "Almost one-half million Americans ... in prison for drugs-only offenses."( A Prison State, If Not a Police State http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/18/thread18794.shtml ) The bloated US prison system has imprisoned a larger percentage of its citizens than any other country in the world or in history. And these prisoners and other victims have families, "Loved ones, friends, neighbors, brothers and sisters," sons, daughters, parents, grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, the list goes on and on. No wonder we are finally seeing such a profound backlash to the drug war insanity of the federal government! The number of people affected by the vindictive and scientifically-indefensible policies of the ONDCP, DEA, FDA, NIDA, HHS, and Congressional lackeys is vast. [ Post Comment ] Comment #17 posted by Hope on June 24, 2004 at 09:06:52 PT FoM Right. A gift he created for us. [ Post Comment ] Comment #16 posted by Hope on June 24, 2004 at 09:05:09 PT Ganda I didn't see anything about worshiping a plant either. I liked the site. Chris is saying something and saying it well. [ Post Comment ] Comment #15 posted by VitaminT on June 24, 2004 at 09:00:46 PT Fingers crossed people Today the Supreme court will say whether it will hear Raich v. Ashcroft.If they don't: Parts of the CSA are officially unconstitutional. [ Post Comment ] Comment #14 posted by FoM on June 24, 2004 at 08:57:39 PT Hope I was beginning to think I was alone in how I feel. Cannabis is a plant that has excellent medicinal properties so I consider it a gift. [ Post Comment ] Comment #13 posted by Ganda on June 24, 2004 at 08:44:43 PT instead of worship..... how about respecting 'the resinous powers'?I don't see where it states one must worship it. If so, please correct me. [ Post Comment ] Comment #12 posted by Hope on June 24, 2004 at 08:32:38 PT FoM Makes perfect sense to me. That's how I think, too. It's hard to tell how serious Chris Conrad is about Canthiesm. Sorry, but I can't worship a plant...any plant. I couldn't be a good canthiest anymore than I could be a good spinachist. [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by Dankhank on June 24, 2004 at 08:15:39 PT mee tooo billos, you speak for many who are hesitant to voice pain. It is odd how we are the target of a war and must espouse peace.If the jews had fought back perhaps less than 6 million would have died.Richard Nixon declared war on me and every succeeding president has affirmed that war.Innocent people are grieviously harmed, some unto death, every day in the name of the Drug war. Yet we say peace. That's OK, but don't ask me to mourn when an occasional LEO pays the price ascribed to any tyranical exercise of enforcement.I want to live peacefully, they won't let me. [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by FoM on June 24, 2004 at 08:02:59 PT Hope To this day I still don't understand religious theories about Cannabis. I believe the Creator gave us plants and that is all plants including Cannabis. Does this make sense? [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by Hope on June 24, 2004 at 07:57:29 PT Cantheist Code "I will share my faith, but not be obnoxious about it.We pray for our oppressors, and work for a better world."(I can agree with a lot of his philosophy/theology.) [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by Hope on June 24, 2004 at 07:51:18 PT Some of the rules of Cantheism Summer solstice: Bonfire jumping.Undertake cannabinges, periods of intense consumption of cannabis.Freedom pilgrimage: Take the sacrament in a land that it is free from oppression at least once in your life, and remember the years of persecution.(Way to go, Chris!) [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by Hope on June 24, 2004 at 07:44:21 PT recognized religion? Chris Conrad seems to be advocating such.We are a passionate lot. No doubt.I think I've spoken with Chris online. As I remember, I liked him.I personally prefer to honor the creator and thank him for the creation. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by Ganda on June 24, 2004 at 07:16:24 PT Cannabis and Religion Cantheism (1997), derived from Kantheism (1996 fr. Greek: kannabis + theism). "A mystical religion based on the inherent goodness of the Cannabis plant."http://www.equalrights4all.org/religious/cantheist.htmlIs this a recognised religion? [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by Hope on June 24, 2004 at 05:24:03 PT They are likely "Fed Wannabes" "They don't know if they are Feds or whether they are answerable to the people who pay their salaries, namely their neighbors." [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by billos on June 24, 2004 at 04:52:08 PT Hope......... You are correct..........I should know better to write in the heat of passion....Just remember our most powerful weapon is in hand come November 2. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by kaptinemo on June 24, 2004 at 04:47:31 PT: Another example of confused loyalties They don't know if they are Feds or whether they are answerable to the people who pay their salaries, namely their neighbors. Obviously, Mr. McArthur suffers from this seriously debilitating condition.Mr. McArthur is an LAPD cop, yes? A local. Not even a State official, just a local cop. He is charged with only handling local statutes and laws. He is empowered to do nothing else. It is not his prerogative to, on his own initiative, seek to 'bump' a case up to the Feds for further action; that is the job of his bosses - or SHOULD be. But...he loses the local case, so just like the little piggies in the childhood fable, he runs ' "Weee-weee-weee!" all the way home!' to his spiritual comrades, the Feds. Which leads back to something I've been harping about for years: the dangerous blurring of the lines between local, State and Federal LE organizations thanks to the corrosive influence of the Federal DrugWar. Mr. McArthur's actions are further proof that far too many LEOs have become little more than Federal cat's-paws, acting on the behalf of the Feds rather than that of the localities WHO PAY THEM THEIR SALARIES. Who do people like McArthur owe their allegiances to? Are they of the belief that they are sworn Fed officers while still drawing pay from Los Angeles? That a dual allegience is acceptable, when he has in effect BROKEN LOCAL LAWS? That he had the temerity to show up at the raid is evidence of just how far this rot has gone. This is another Don Nord case waiting to blow up in local LEO faces. To quote a famous personage: "Bring it on!" [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Hope on June 24, 2004 at 04:34:20 PT Billos We won't resort to violence. Ever. Enough have died. Enough have suffered. We are already well aware that prohibitionists are better at violence and vindictiveness than we are. The list of names is long and includes babies, children, women, men, and the elderly and incapacitated. Loved ones, friends, neighbors, brothers and sisters are on that list. What prohibitionists are not better at is reason, understanding, mercy, justice and truth. We are better at that and that, along with our amazing perseverance, is our entire hope and strategy. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by billos on June 24, 2004 at 03:35:26 PT Enough is enough.................................. The Revolutionary War was started by the New Contintental Congress to rid the New Colonies of Government Oppression.Does this sound familiar? Is America headed for another revolutionary war?Let’s face it, the new Americans decided that risking life and limb was worth the fight for their freedom. Is this notion a thing of the past?I think not. I think we, as Americans, have had enough. If not for the fact that we all have become complacent in our way of living, we all might pay more attention to the movement that is happening and proliferated by the government against our own society.How much longer can we continue to see the truth yet speak of false? How much are we to be led and brainwashed to think that where the government is leading us is all true and righteous? I for one have absolutely had it. However there is one more step to take before we think of resorting to violence.Take the time, for God’s sake, to go see Fahrenheit 9/11. There is no movie magic here. It just depicts the true Bush and company for what they really are. It’s “The TRUTH.”As an American, we owe it to ourselves to see this movie. If Bush gets another 4 year term, I believe it will be the end of America as we know it even though it’s been years since the degradation of the government and American fascism started. It started after John Kennedy was assassinated. Nobody out there knows who I am. I do know who most of you are. You are the people who don’t give a shit about what happens until it affects you or your family. Well, in light of what is happening today, I consider 80% of Americans to be my brothers and sisters. It’s the other 20% that is in the way and it’s time to take back control.In 1775, Americans let their government know that they had enough and thank God they did. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment