cannabisnews.com: Keystone Kops Nail 'Pothead' in Great Pain Keystone Kops Nail 'Pothead' in Great Pain Posted by CN Staff on September 06, 2004 at 10:06:31 PT By Jon Caldara Source: Daily Camera Dana May is not your traditional pothead. No tie-dye, no little dancing-bears bumper stickers (some Deadhead is going to have to explain that one to me sometime), no Cheech and Chong records. He's a hard-working family man with three kids. In fact, Dana is a gasp Republican. He has had a long, successful career as a truck driver. He did try pot about 25 years ago. Since then, he'd never touched the stuff. Up until a couple of years ago. Nine years ago he was injured in a work accident. He was pinned underneath a tractor. It crushed his sciatic nerve. The result was pain, massive chronic pain. Unmanageable pain. In nine years, he has endured 10 separate surgeries to alleviate the pain and reconstruct his body. All to no real effect. Every imaginable narcotic pain drug was prescribed: Demerol, OxyContin, Percocet and morphine. Twice, morphine pumps were installed into his body. He even tried the drug that contains the active ingredient found in marijuana; that just gave him headaches. He described the pain as feeling like his body was on fire, constantly. It was so debilitating, he considered suicide. Not the example he wanted to give to his kids. In 2000, the people of Colorado passed an initiative allowing the medical use of marijuana. After trying everything else, Dana's doctor suggested he try medical marijuana. He was put on the registry and grew his allowed number of plants. It didn't cure his pain. But he says it is the best relief he has found, and it allows him to manage his pain and function. So everything was working just fine for about a year and a half, until one day six months ago when a joint DEA-Arvada police task force of around 20 officers, guns drawn, sirens blaring, came to confiscate his handful of plants and growing equipment. Dana showed the feds his medical marijuana permit. The response, "we don't care." His equipment, his plants were seized by the DEA. Dana was forced back on his ineffective cocktail of narcotics. So ridiculous was this bust, the Arapahoe County DA wisely refused to bring any charges against May. Thanks to the lawsuit pushed by attorney Rob Corry and the mounting bad press, the DEA returned the equipment to Dana Thursday morning. But it will take Dana the better part of six months to grow his plants back. That's nearly a year in total without the pain relief he prefers and has a legal right to. So this entire exercise was a victory for whom? Certainly not May, who was visibly in pain the two times I met with him personally for my radio and TV shows. Not the DEA, which spent resources chasing a guy with six plants instead of going after true drug traffickers. Not the city of Arvada police, who were called away from working on real crime. And now those on the medical marijuana registry can have the anxiety of worrying if they are next on the DEA hit list. Those who want to legitimately join the registry will be more prone to skirt the law and use pot illegally, which gets to the whole point of the law in the first place. But the real loser in all this is the state of Colorado. Apparently our law doesn't matter to the feds. Hell, it doesn't matter to local law enforcement and judges. In order to get permission to ransack May's house, the DEA had to secure a warrant from a state judge. So either warrants are given out like grocery-store coupons, this judge wasn't given all the information by the cops, or the judge is disregarding the law. I don't know if Arvada's cops are reimbursed by the DEA for loaning them equipment and manpower for this bust. But it really doesn't matter; it is still our tax money Let me make it clear; I am not extolling the virtues of medical marijuana. I can't tell you if it is the best way to manage pain or reduce nausea from cancer treatments. But I can tell you that the people of Colorado created a legal means for guys like Dana May to choose the treatment he did. You don't have to be pro-pot or even pro-medical marijuana to demand that the federal government respect our state law. You don't have to even like the medical-marijuana law to expect our judges and law enforcement to respect it. Jon Caldara is president of the Independence Institute in Golden. He lives in Boulder.Source: Daily Camera (CO)Author: Jon CaldaraPublished: September 5, 2004Copyright: 2004 The Daily CameraWebsite: http://www.thedailycamera.com/Contact: openforum thedailycamera.comRelated Articles & Web Site:Medical Marijuana Information Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/medical.htmFeds Back Down in Medical Pot Casehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19401.shtmlAiling Auroran Sues for Seized Pot's Returnhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19396.shtmlAiling Man To Feds: Give Back My Pot http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19269.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #22 posted by kaptinemo on September 08, 2004 at 04:29:33 PT: More sophistry Stop and think; according to the twisted logic of the Feds, ANYONE who touches your doorknob is somehow magically granted a license to ENTER your home, as you can no longer have an expectation of privacy.Of course, all a positive test proves is that SOMEBODY who may have had drugs in their system - like the postman, the UPS man, the plumber, the newspaper boy, whatever - touched the doorknob. And since the probability approaches 100% that you've touched any paper money recently, you have the tiniest smidgen of cocaine residue on your fingers. Unavoidable, since so much of US curency is contaminated in PRECISELY this fashion. This is like the bit where a cop in Detroit walked into a store with a drug dog, the dog alerts on the cash, and the cop tries to seize it in forfeiture.This is one very ugly camel trying to stick it's snot-dribbling nose under the tent flap, and needs to have it not just swatted, but smacked with an electric cattle prod. For it's a direct challenge to the already tattered and torn Fourth Amendment.Otherwise...we can expect another civil war soon. Because this is how the *first* civil war, the Revolutionary War, began; against the usurpation by the Crown of the ancient English common law of a 'man's home is his castle'. [ Post Comment ] Comment #21 posted by Hope on September 07, 2004 at 19:51:15 PT the knob swipe is a new level of low.It's so irritating to think of law enforcement checking people's doorknobs for traces of drugs...when they should be looking into IMPORTANT matters. Matters of life and death and harm and injury and theft. They don't have enough time for that...they are seeing if they can seize some property or something...or at least make arrests and keep their budgets and jobs. It's disgusting. [ Post Comment ] Comment #20 posted by CorvallisEric on September 07, 2004 at 11:46:12 PT The knob swipe Trespassing (Comment #19) is a perfectly good argument. If "they" don't buy that, here's another (quoting "them" from the news article):The exterior of a home cannot be expected to remain untouched, as friends, solicitors, campaign workers and delivery people come to the door, Assistant U.S. Attorney Leshia Lee-Dixon argued.So how the hell, in the absence of any other probable cause, can you say that drugs found on the doorknob have anything to do with the occupants? [ Post Comment ] Comment #19 posted by kaptinemo on September 07, 2004 at 08:12:31 PT: The Feds are crossing the line once more In re The Observer's Comment #17, the Feds have really pushed the limits of propriety on this. The question must be asked: DID THEY STEP ONTO THE MAN'S PROPERTY IN ORDER TO OBTAIN THE KNOB SWIPE?If they did, they trespassed. It doesn't get any plainer than that. No amount of sophistry can make that simple fact go away. They trespassed...illegally. And they knew it. [ Post Comment ] Comment #18 posted by goneposthole on September 07, 2004 at 07:29:27 PT billions for Iraq It's compassionate conservatism at work. You need to be saved from yourself.More compassionate conservatism at work:http://www.unknownnews.org/040827a-dn.html [ Post Comment ] Comment #17 posted by observer on September 06, 2004 at 22:49:12 PT Narcs go fishing: warrantless door handle testing Warrantless door handle testing irks residentsFound: Mon Sep 06 22:17:24 2004 PDT http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/article/casperstartribune.net8607.htm (bot link)''Federal prosecutors insist no warrant is needed to swab a doorknob and run the ion-scanning test to detect whether occupants and visitors have been in contact with drugs.'' http://tinyurl.com/3q9ty (perma? link) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot [ Post Comment ] Comment #16 posted by Virgil on September 06, 2004 at 20:50:05 PT The thought herders I bet I have caused doughnut man to gain 20 pounds in the last three years. I was checking Google for use of the exact phrase "thought herding" and it seems I lead that list. It had 90 results but a lot of them were for things like "If you thought herding cats was tough..." Google returns 7 results for "thought herding" with 6 of them coming to CannabisNews and 1 in a non-meaningful way to a South African music link.Sometimes it seems like nobody in the world is really trying to figure this all out, even though I know it is not true at all. Why would not one of the wits in the newspapers not write something that made it to the Internet that would include the phrase "Policy by Mythology" or "The Great Right Dope" for Bush. It is not like it is not reducing an evalution down to the nearest thing to a grunt. Orwell spoke of doublethink where people could hold a belief and its opposite in their head in what we might call cognative dissonance. Articles like this break the party line to at least form a question instead of accepting the propaganda as fact. People hold many questions in their mind. For example, if Delta-9 THC breaks down to Delta-11 THC when cannabis is eaten, how does it feel if it is true that it more psycho-active. Does delta-11 occure naturally in plants?These testimonial reports easily defeat the lies of the prohibitionists and testimonials from the 10s of millions of Americans have their effect also. There are websites that collect these testimonials and soon there will be one with video. It just has to happen with DVD burners being $40 and digital cameras being under $300 and kids growing up with gaming video cards that can do anything. My idea for a website would be described as linkexchange.com or maybe even Victoryby list.com. It would have subjects like 9/11 or even apple cider vinegar or heart disease would be up and people would submit their favorite link for the subject. Then a "jury" would vote on them. Maybe it is just adding the human intellegince to a Google search, but it sure would be helpful in taking back the country.The controlled media has been complicit in keeping CP alive and is a flip side on the coin that has the prohibition laws. Any blow to a controlled media is a blow to CP and an education on the controlled media is harmful to the cause of prohibition.I developed the expression "controlled media" for my own thinking. The Google results for "controlled media" return "about 51,100." That is really sad, because if you wanted to overload Google a few of us could search for "liberal media" and things would go haywire. It is all like correcting papers here in the comment section and any "liberal media" needs to be corrected to "controlled media."I have moved on from controlled media to the thought herders. The mission of the controlled media is thought herding. That is as strong an attack on cannabis prohibition as can be made with a stab from the front.In this article we see some real reporting and not thought herding. People that really want careers in journalism, cannot afford to deal in fantasy creation and preservation. One thing about tokers, they have no long-term memory loss and a defamation on character for using cannabis by an upside down media whore is an attack on dignity that will not easily be forgotten.The AARP article is going to be huge. Many will see that things are upside down and that the thought herders were making fools of them. People do not like to find out they were fooled. Free Cannabis For Everyone. [ Post Comment ] Comment #15 posted by ekim on September 06, 2004 at 20:25:41 PT w for wrong who will do right well Edwards was in town tonite -- thousands stood in the pouring rain for hours to see him. rain stopped just as the band started to play and the rest of the nite was clean smelling and fresh in the open air. no umbrellas or signs were let in was a good event but still i feel empty in that part of me that wants to be spoken too. the stuff on bush the only thing i see is that many a person has done the deeds but who will stand up and stop the madness look at ol Bill lying on the gurney and he had a chance to do right ----------hard to think just watching Stevie Ray on 103 dir tv--- http://www.libertybill.net [ Post Comment ] Comment #14 posted by siege on September 06, 2004 at 19:56:49 PT off topic AWACS The men on the AWACS can cover over 1000 MILITARY combat interceptors at one time. For 2500 miles AWACS are RENTED FROM THE COMPANY that built it, for 250,000 every 24 hours if memory is wright that was D storm.. So some one was asleep all the way around. ((At the time of the real hi-jacking there were as many as 22 hi-jacked aircraft on NORAD's radar screen.)) The AWACS had to be advised when NORAD was. And if they were not they would still have know. It wound have been a mess on there screen all the alerts would have been going OFF. AWACS could have pulled them out in minutes by it self. that is there JOB. [ Post Comment ] Comment #13 posted by kaptinemo on September 06, 2004 at 18:36:04 PT: Good to see you, Jose! Y Senor Lehder! You've both been missed.As to the above article, more and more people are coming around to the idea of this overweening Federal influence in State matters has become too dangerous to ignore. Or tolerate. It's an inherently expesnive and futile usage of resources best applied against (that is, if its' proponents are *truly* serious) the so-called "War on Terror". And to go after the sick and invalid, well, this gives the lie to all the lofty rhetoric about "protecting America" (From whom? From palsied MS sufferers, little old ladies in chemo turbans, chronic pain victims, etc.? Of what possible threat can such be to 'national security'? Yet the DrugWarriors persist in their predations against the weakest members of our society; such big, bad specimens of American manhood. I am reminded of what the great comic Don Rickles once said of Congress: "They should all be put into a home, and stop bothering the American people.") [ Post Comment ] Comment #12 posted by Hope on September 06, 2004 at 18:32:53 PT Jose I'm relieved to hear that you made it through the storm. [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by FoM on September 06, 2004 at 18:13:04 PT Here's The Article Jose Posted BUSH 'TOOK COCAINE AT CAMP DAVID' Sep 6 2004 And wife Laura liked dope, says book By Emma Pryer GEORGE W Bush snorted cocaine at Camp David, a new book claims.His wife Laura also allegedly tried cannabis in her youth.Author Kitty Kelley says in her biography The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty, that the US President first used coke at university in the mid-1960s.She quotes his former sister-in-law Sharon Bush who claims: "Bush did coke at Camp David when his father was President, and not just once either."Other acquaintances allege that as a 26-year-old National Guard, Bush "liked to sneak out back for a joint or into the bathroom for a line of cocaine".Bush has admitted being an alcoholic but, asked during the 1999 election if he did drugs, he said: "I've told the American people that years ago I made some mistakes."I've learned from my mistakes and should I be fortunate enough to become president I will bring dignity and honour to the office."Later an aide clarified his remarks saying Bush hadn't taken illegal drugs in the past 25 years.Kelley says that the Bush family covered up scandals because of their wealth and influence. She claims George W started drinking at school and continued at Yale university to overcome shyness.Former student Torbery George says in the book: "Poor Georgie. He couldn't relate to women unless he was loaded."Another says: "He went out of his way to act crude. It's amazing someone you held in such low esteem later became president."His supporters have slammed the allegations as outrageous.The White House said: "This book appears to be filled with the same trash discredited years ago."-BILL Clinton has joked he will try to be happy about his heart bypass operation. The ex-president said on his website: "This sure isn't how we planned to spend Labor Day weekend but we're doing our best to enjoy it." http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/tm_objectid=14609301&method=full&siteid=50143&headline=bush--took-cocaine-at-camp-david--name_page.html [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by mayan on September 06, 2004 at 18:11:27 PT Jose... Glad you got power back. Glad you made it through!From the article...So ridiculous was this bust, the Arapahoe County DA wisely refused to bring any charges against May."Ridiculous". That pretty much sums up the war on this amazingly verstile plant. It's time to take our country back. It's now or never. The way out is the way in...Mike Ruppert blows the top off 9/11: http://www.kitcomm.com/comments/gold/2004q3/2004_09/1040905.003201.bweeeeeee.htmBOOK RELEASE: Michael Ruppert releases "Crossing the Rubicon" + his Commonwealth Club Speech in SF: http://www.911citizenswatch.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=396&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0Protesters Allege 9/11 Terror Attacks Were Government Conspiracy: http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=\Nation\archive\200409\NAT20040903a.htmlMEDIA ADVISORY: 9/11 Citizens' Commission + Pre-Event Morning Press Conference - Sept. 9th NYC: http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/archive/scoop/stories/d5/bf/200409060217.9d62ab40.htmlPress Picks Up on 9/11's AWOL Chain of Command: http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20040801011459507 [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by FoM on September 06, 2004 at 18:06:18 PT Hi Jose! Glad you made it thru the hurricane ok! That link is really something. Here is the link for those who might want to buy the book when it's released on the 14th. I hope this hits MSNBC, CNN and Fox!The Family : The Real Story of the Bush Dynastyhttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0385503245/qid=1094519052/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/103-5389730-4539054?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by jose melendez on September 06, 2004 at 17:54:03 PT The truth shall set us free. Hurricane Frances is gone, power is back on. Oh, to be young and irresponsible:http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/tm_objectid=14609301&method=full&siteid=50143&headline=bush--took-cocaine-at-camp-david--name_page.html [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by FoM on September 06, 2004 at 17:05:03 PT Virgil I just looked again for any article about Tom and Rollie but I haven't found one this year. Maybe they aren't going to do anymore. I'll keep looking and hope they do. Maybe they think that no one will remember after 3 years. We sure know that isn't so. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by observer on September 06, 2004 at 16:38:30 PT medical marijuana & prohibitionist propaganda an excerpt from Drug War Propaganda: The people in some US states have demanded that seriously ill patients simply not be arrested for possessing small amounts of marijuana. Staunch prohibitionists will have none of that, though. Any hint that terminally ill cancer patients might be allowed to have cannabis to ease their vomiting and suffering is converted into full-scale "legalization" of "marijuana" for children."Legalize marijuana? Simply don't do it," urged one Arkansas writer. "House Bill 1303 would allow the legalization of marijuana. It falls under the guise of medicinal usage,"[26] was the confident assertion. Not imprisoning some small section of the population of cancer patients and other physically ill folk is painted as total access."This is medically and scientifically incoherent," the writer continued, forgetting that patients are now jailed for using cannabis. Medical marijuana, it was asserted, is a plot. Wealthy malefactors were bankrolling the insidious conspiracy: "Leaders of the legalization movement have been funded from the pockets of three individuals. One billionaire and two multimillionaires have already spent millions of dollars across the nation to place initiatives and bills on the ballot of all states. They disguise their concerns as compassion for suffering patients when in fact the concerns of these individuals lie in their desire to legalize any form of illegal drug so that the door may become open to legalization of all drugs."[27] _Drug War Propaganda_ (C)2003, Doug Snead(the entire book is online http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/ with permission of the author) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/ [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by Virgil on September 06, 2004 at 16:27:10 PT It all stinks I still have thoughts of Tom and Rollie this Labor Day holiday. All I can say is that it all stinks. I think we should join the police state on that and smell up some courtrooms with body odor or colognes.What happens when someone goes a few days and is challenged on their smell- "I just came to the conclusion that everything stinks and I was just joining the police state."Well, Tom and Rollie at least you taught some of us how bad things can stink. We are working on cleaning things up, but the criminals are in public office having shown obedience to the concentrations of wealth and they use the public treasury to entrench their treason. Everything stinks and maybe some well placed body odor from time to time might become a tool of reform. You sure better not go around asking for liberty or death. Dam, it all really stinks. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by The GCW on September 06, 2004 at 15:11:37 PT Us free. Galatians 5:1, It was for freedom that Christ set us free; [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by global_warming on September 06, 2004 at 14:17:54 PT Workers Day "Dana showed the feds his medical marijuana permit. The response, "we don't care." His equipment, his plants were seized by the DEA. Dana was forced back on his ineffective cocktail of narcotics."We don't care, that is the mantra of these people, they just don't care. They don't care if this man is in pain, they don't care if this man lives or dies, they "just" do not care.They are only interested in enforcing the "law", the law that has allowed these thugs to act like angry jackasses, the law that allows these people to come into a citizens home and act like "gestapo agents", the laws that those fat buttholes in Washinton DC hide behind, the law that destroys families, destroys "people", amen, the law that obscures the truth, that truth that reveals, the total and compassionless group of people that hide behind the devil, that shield, that protects them from God.They have murdered millions of people, in gas chambers, and millions more have suffered and died at the hands of these villians, who disguise themselves as human beings, and many more millions are waiting to die, to end this prison that we call existence, that we call reality.These jackasses hide, for the light of truth will destroy them, cast them into everlasting pits of fire and horror, for their deeds will anchor them in the "pit", the depths of no return.The threads of our social fabric have been torn and the rift is great, the few that remain to bare witness will hide and shield their eyes, for the end will cover all with the blood of the innocents, the blood of the "Son of Man".-gw [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by The GCW on September 06, 2004 at 12:56:47 PT Colorado is getting sick of the Feds.&"...the DEA had to secure a warrant from a state judge..."That has to stop.State judges are to uphold state law.&That's the pattern; pounce with out charges. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by FoM on September 06, 2004 at 10:08:45 PT News Brief from The Denver Rocky Mountain News Medical-Pot User Gets Equipment BackBy Rocky Mountain NewsSeptember 6, 2004Dana May, a medical marijuana user, and his lawyer picked up May's pot-growing equipment Thursday from the Drug Enforcement Administration.May, 45, and lawyer Robert J. Corry Jr. backed up May's sport utility vehicle into the Denver Federal Center and loaded up five light stands, two cloning machines, nine water pumps and other pieces of equipment.On Aug. 26, assistant U.S. attorneys agreed to return May's equipment after Corry filed suit against the Aurora Police Department, demanding that it return May's gear.With the blessing of his physician, May is on the registry of legal medical marijuana users in Colorado. But DEA agents and Aurora police confiscated his marijuana plants and pot during a raid earlier this year. The DEA has said it will not return his marijuana.May uses the drug to treat chronic pain from a 1995 accident.Copyright: 2004 Denver Publishing Co. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment