cannabisnews.com: Group Questions Seizure of Marijuana 





Group Questions Seizure of Marijuana 
Posted by FoM on July 30, 1999 at 12:53:44 PT
Mark Sauer, Staff Writer
Source: San Diego Union Tribune
As Michael Bartelmo moved forward to address the San Diego City Council yesterday, all that could be heard in the hushed chamber was the whir of his electric wheelchair.
 Left a quadriplegic by an auto accident when he was 17, Bartelmo, 35, spoke "on behalf of sick people who belong to Shelter From The Storm," an agricultural cooperative in Hillcrest. "Our garden was raided by police officers," Bartelmo said. "What we want to know is, why this happened. We were following the law. I don't understand why we're being singled out." The garden consisted of marijuana plants. The law in question is Proposition 215, the medical-marijuana initiative passed overwhelmingly by California voters in 1996 and the source of great confusion ever since. Bartelmo, backed by a dozen other "Shelter People" who use marijuana daily to help cope with pain, contended that while his group was following guidelines set by the state Attorney General's Office, San Diego police were not. Acting on "a complaint from a citizen," police visited the Fifth Avenue cooperative July 6 and encountered its founder, Steve McWilliams, who is on probation after entering a plea bargain earlier this year on a marijuana cultivation charge. He is allowed to use marijuana for chronic pain, but not distribute it. McWilliams said he invited the officers to inspect the marijuana plants, which were tagged with the names of about a dozen shelter members. Each member had a doctor's letter on file authorizing use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, McWilliams said. Those letters are now in police possession, along with about 300 pot plants -- more than half of which were not viable -- and a variety of high-intensity lights and other growing equipment, McWilliams said. "Another member and I were arrested, taken downtown, strip-searched and forced to spend a night in jail until we made $3,000 bail," he said. "It's like we had no doctors' letters, like Prop. 215 didn't exist." Group members are "trying our darndest to follow the law," Bartelmo told the council. "But we can't if police officers, the City Council or others in authority won't tell us what the law is," Bartelmo said. McWilliams said that officers went against the Proposition 215 guidelines by confiscating the plants instead of merely photographing them and taking a sample. No charges have been filed against McWilliams or other shelter members. Lt. Carl Black of the San Diego Police Street Narcotics Team said in an interview that he could not comment specifically on McWilliams' case, but said the murky nature of Proposition 215 "puts us between a rock and a hard place." "We have to make a judgment call on how many people are involved and how many plants they're growing," Black said. Particularly galling to the shelter members is that a few blocks away in Hillcrest, the California Alternative Medical Center is buying marijuana in bulk and selling it in small quantities to patients with a doctor's letter on file. While insisting he does not want to see California Alternative Medical Center shut down, McWilliams questioned how the it is allowed to profit by selling marijuana while shelter members are prevented from growing it for their own use. Black said he could not comment on that issue other than to say his officers are aware of the center's storefront operation. Deputy District Attorney Michael Running Sr. said in an interview that he had heard of California Alternative Medical Center, "but I haven't been there, haven't talked to those people." As for McWilliams, Running said he will study the facts and circumstances before deciding if charges will be filed. He said he may wait for new Proposition 215 guidelines that the state Legislature soon could issue. City Councilman George Stevens described confiscation of the group's plants as "an urgent situation," and asked the city manager and city attorney to report back with a clarification from San Diego police regarding medical marijuana within 30 days.28-Jul-1999 Wednesday Copyright Union-Tribune Publishing Co. 
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