cannabisnews.com: Sheriff's Comments Anger Medical Pot User





Sheriff's Comments Anger Medical Pot User
Posted by CN Staff on August 23, 2004 at 07:51:49 PT
By Greg Massé, Post Independent Staff Writer
Source: Post Independent 
A legitimate medical marijuana user said he takes offense to Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario's statements decrying the use of pot for medical conditions. Jeff, 44, a Glenwood resident, is HIV positive, and has hepatitis C and heart disease. The Post Independent is withholding Jeff's last name to keep his medical conditions personal.
Jeff said he uses medical marijuana to give himself back the appetite he lost as an effect of hepatitis C. He contacted the Post Independent after reading a story in which Vallario said he's not convinced there is a legitimate need for medical marijuana. "I was a little insulted. I'd sure like to meet that Vallario," Jeff said.Vallario said he thinks possession of marijuana should be a felony-level offense. He also said he's not convinced that sick people "have to smoke marijuana to solve things.""I think there should be another way. I think there are people who abuse that for their own personal drug usage," Vallario said in the recent story.Vallario was commenting on the Two Rivers Drug Enforcement Team arrest of four people for growing pot in their Rifle home. The suspects said they are on Colorado's medical marijuana registry and were growing the pot legally. Police say the suspects far exceeded the limit on how many plants could be grown. Jeff said he's not gay, has never slept with a man and has never used a drug needle. He said he's a professional businessman with a family who contracted HIV from a woman in Seattle several years ago. Jeff's lack of appetite, which was actually caused by the hepatitis rather than HIV, caused his body to shrink from 155 pounds down to 119 pounds. He first tried Marinol - a derivative of marijuana's tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, that comes in pill form - but that didn't work. Next his doctor had him try megestrol acetate as an appetite stimulant. "It did seem to have a small effect," he said. But it wasn't enough. "It's really hard to explain, when you feel hungry, but you don't want to chew the food or swallow it," Jeff said of his appetite loss. "Your system rejects wanting to swallow it. It's frustrating because you're hungry."Jeff said when his doctor first suggested using marijuana as an appetite stimulant, he laughed."I'm not a drug addict, I'm not a pothead, it's just not my style," he said. But once he began using pot, mostly by baking it into cookies, he gained 36 pounds in three months, going from 119 pounds to 155 pounds. Jeff said he normally bakes it into cookies because that method of ingesting the pot stimulates his appetite without getting him "stoned."But sometimes the lack of appetite that he's trying to fix with the pot keeps him from being able to eat the cookie. That's when he has to ingest it in some other way. Even with HIV, hepatitis C and heart disease, Jeff said he's feeling healthy. All of his medical problems are relatively under control, something he partially credits to his marijuana use. "I would not be in the good health situation I'm in now if it weren't for it," he said. He said after reading Vallario's comments, he was surprised at the sheriff's lack of compassion. "What if one of your children had terminal cancer and the doctor recommended it? What would you do?" he asked. "I just think Vallario needs to get his ducks in a row about people who need it."Jeff, who came here from the Seattle area, has been on Washington's marijuana registry for three years. While still officially a Washington resident, Jeff said he plans to get on the Colorado registry as soon as possible. While Jeff disagrees with Vallario's attitude about medical marijuana, he said he completely agrees with the Aug. 2 arrest of Gene Brownlee and his family if they were breaking the law by growing too many marijuana plants. "I fully support the arrest they made," he said. He said that as with any substance, whether it's prescription drugs, alcohol, or anything else, there will be some people who abuse their privileges. But most people, he said, will abide by the rules. "There's a handful of people who abuse it," he said. "They use people like that as an example of the medical marijuana law."He called Vallario's attitude on medical marijuana an uneducated opinion. "Either don't speak publicly about it if you don't know what you're talking about, or get educated," he said. "I just don't think he showed any compassion. He's wrong. He's really wrong. I don't want to see the day when I get arrested for something that keeps me alive."They should treat us with a little dignity and respect since we're already dealing with (diseases); it isn't easy," Jeff said. Source: Glenwood Springs Post Independent (CO)Author: Greg Massé, Post Independent Staff WriterPublished: August 23, 2004Copyright: 2004 Glenwood Springs Post IndependentContact: news postindependent.comWebsite: http://www.postindependent.com/Medicinal Cannabis Research Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/research.htmCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #7 posted by runruff on August 23, 2004 at 14:04:19 PT:
Felonious farmeing
Our corrupt, self serving, perverted government has invented a new type of criminal. Claiming that a certin type of gardening is harmful to society they have invented the felonious farmer.
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Comment #6 posted by CorvallisEric on August 23, 2004 at 13:04:25 PT
More on TRIDENT
Since I couldn't find this in CNews and it's somewhat relevant, I've taken the liberty to copy the whole article.-------------Myers: TRIDENT's work was 'lawsuit waiting to happen'By Aspen Times writer Naomi Havlen
July 29, 2004On Tuesday District Attorney Mac Myers released a statement profiling his reasons for this year's departure with the Two Rivers Drug Enforcement Team, or TRIDENT.Myers said his decision to take the district attorney's office out of TRIDENT is now an issue in the district attorney race between Colleen Truden and Lawson Wills. He said he has an obligation to the office and to the public to discuss his reasons for the split.An investigation has been launched by the Colorado Bureau of Investigations into the loss of "apparently a substantial amount of money [that was] seized and held by TRIDENT," Myers' statement says.Steve Vaughan of the CBI's Montrose office confirmed the agency is conducting an investigation, but said he could not comment further. Vaughan directed questions to Carbondale Police Chief Gene Schilling, the TRIDENT board chairman who had a hand in requesting the investigation in the first place.Schilling also declined to comment yesterday, saying that "since the investigation is ongoing, I can't release any information about that."But Myers explains in his statement that his problems with the drug enforcement team actually began in January 2003, when he says the team became sloppy and "poorly managed." Specifically, Myers did not condone the use of confidential informants while trying to make arrests, saying sometimes the informants were criminals who were on probation at the time - a direct violation of state probation directives.He also claims that TRIDENT officers often failed to prepare reports, handled evidence poorly and refused to turn over information to prosecutors that is required to be given to the defense.Because of insufficient evidence or cases involving confidential informants on probation, there were an "inordinately high number of dismissals and uncharged cases which, of course, created resentment on the part of task force members."Myers says prosecutors don't have absolute immunity for work done before filing charges, and he felt the work by TRIDENT was "a lawsuit waiting to happen, and I did not want my office in the position of being sued for the recklessness of the task force."But Myers also says he has long supported drug prosecution and has aggressively prosecuted drug dealers. He said since last winter, TRIDENT has become largely inactive but is working on coming back with new, capable officers.
Myers: TRIDENT's work was 'lawsuit waiting to happen'
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Comment #5 posted by CorvallisEric on August 23, 2004 at 12:55:55 PT
About that bust and TRIDENT
Biased selection of excerpts from "Vallario stoked about pot bust" -- There are additional bloody details in the article. You may need to enter zip code and birth year to access.http://www.postindependent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040813/VALLEYNEWS/108130022The marijuana bust was the first since TRIDENT temporarily suspended its operations in February and it came less than a week after 9th Judicial District Attorney Mac Myers penned a statement in which he called TRIDENT "the sloppiest, most poorly managed law enforcement agency I have seen in my 25 years working in the criminal justice system."In all, there were 131 plants in the apartment, according to TRIDENT. -- [One arrestee] told police she was a registered caregiver for five patients who are allowed to use medical marijuana, but even with that many patients, she was still over the state threshold, Vallario said. -- "We added it up and there were too many plants," Vallario said.Contrary to [another arrestee's] statements that there were 20 to 30 officers at the house during the raid, there were only about 10, Vallario said. -- "There were considerably less than 20 or 30," he said. -- The claim has fueled public speculation that TRIDENT is an overly aggressive, military-styled organization, a sentiment that Vallario regrets. -- "I would hope, especially in Garfield County where we've received so much support, that people understand there's a reason for the helmets and the vests," he said. "I guess what concerns me is that people might be misled as to what TRIDENT does by what these people say publicly."Vallario said that while he'll abide by the law that allows marijuana to be used for medical purposes - Amendment 20 of the Colorado Constitution - that doesn't mean he likes it. -- "I don't agree with it. I'm not a supporter," he said. -- In fact, Vallario said he thinks possession of marijuana should be a felony.Vallario also explained why he called the medical marijuana law "stupid" in a story in another newspaper. -- "The point I was getting at is there's no backside to this," he said. "They're allowing people to possess it and grow it, but somebody had to get it illegally to begin with."
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on August 23, 2004 at 09:52:12 PT
Truth
I'm sorry. This war on Cannabis should have been over before it ever started. I hope soon that this part of the war on drugs will be over. Quote from Woodstock - 1969" Pot makes them happy. If pot makes them happy maybe we should put all the addicts on pot "
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Comment #3 posted by Max Flowers on August 23, 2004 at 09:46:56 PT
Truth
That CHP officer was either lying or was horribly misinformed. Either way, it's good that you tried to straighten him out.May I suggest that you not passively leave it at that. Be a good activist--follow up and call his supervisor and let him know that this officer either lied or was badly mistaken, and attempted to intimidate with that false statement about CA law, and that you would like to help CHP make sure it doesn't happen again to someone else. The higher you go in a police agency, the more PR-conscious they are. They will have to care what you are saying, to a certain extent. Every time something like that happens, it's incumbent on the citizen who knows the truth to insist it be recognized by the police agency. If you just let it go, they will continue to operate under their lying/mistaken premise.Please call the CHP and ask to talk to the officer's supervisor about it. If you don't want to, let me do it. I live in CA too. 
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Comment #2 posted by Max Flowers on August 23, 2004 at 09:36:17 PT
Angers me too
Over and over again, these cops prove that intellectually they are deficient to do their jobs, not to mention lacking the human decency which one would hope public servants have.They must be stupid if they can't fathom the simple fact that there is a state law that protects the people THEY SERVE and that they (the cops) work for the state and the people of their state."An uneducated opinion"... that's putting it exceedingly gently, I'd say. More like ignorant, prejudiced, bullheaded and stupid. These gunslinging ham-fisted mini-despots think they can issue pseudo-medical opinions when they aren't allowed by law to nor are they anything like qualified to. A sheriff can no more act upon his medical opinion than I can practice as an attorney! In both cases it would be dangerous, arrogant and illegal to do so. The man in this article ("Jeff") blows it too by saying that he supports the arrest of someone whom cops think is growing "too much" medical cannabis. The reality is that no one should be caged for growing a plant. It is immoral and evil to cage humans for growing plants. 
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Comment #1 posted by Truth on August 23, 2004 at 08:12:27 PT
When will they learn?
Martha and I got pulled over by the CHP last week for speeding, I did get a ticket, my first in five years. The cop said that he smelled marijuana and asked if we had any. I said yes, she does, and she has a script. The cop asked to see the papers so Martha produced them. After looking it over he told us the Highway Patrol does not recognize them. I told him it was state law. He told me they don't have to accept them because they are a state agency but he wasn't going to debate it on the side of the road and sent us on our way with a ticket. He didn't want to see the medicine after I told him how much we had. The officer was friendly and polite but we didn't like the way he intimidated us as if we were breaking possesion laws.
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