cannabisnews.com: Police To Draft Policy For Marijuana Growers 





Police To Draft Policy For Marijuana Growers 
Posted by FoM on November 03, 1999 at 09:38:29 PT
By Carol M. Ostrom, Seattle Times staff reporter 
Source: Seattle Times
David Means won't be going to jail. The West Seattle seizure patient who was arrested for marijuana possession last May will even get his pot-growing equipment back. And his bust is spurring an effort to create new guidelines for police who encounter people growing marijuana for medical purposes. 
The Seattle Police Department has drafted proposed guidelines to help officers identify qualified patients or caregivers and protect them from arrest by recognizing "the spirit" of the state medical marijuana law passed by voters last year, said Lt. Mike Sanford of the department's vice and narcotics section. They hope it will prevent a repeat of the Means case, which proved to be embarrassing and awkward for both police and patient. Acting on a complaint, Seattle police raided Means' home and arrested him, even though his doctor had qualified him to use marijuana for medical purposes. Under the law, such patients or their caregivers may possess a 60-day supply of the drug. Now, prosecutors have decided not to charge Means. Dan Satterberg, chief of staff for the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, said Means qualifies as a legitimate patient under the law. Police say they will return growing equipment seized during the raid. Means maintained that police entered his apartment without a warrant, ignored the letter from his doctor qualifying him, ripped up his marijuana plants, seized his growing equipment and trashed his home. Means' physician, Dr. Frances Podrebarac, complained that his carefully executed documentation was powerless to protect his patient from arrest and intimidation. Means lodged an internal complaint against the Police Department, and a lawyer hovered with a potential lawsuit. The prosecutor's office took months to review evidence. The Means bust, said Leo Poort, legal adviser for the Seattle Police Department, "made it clear that we needed a policy." Though the law doesn't prevent police from arresting legitimate patients, "You had to have some common-sense guidelines for law-enforcement officers in the field," he said. In other jurisdictions, there were more awkward cases, such as the arrest in January of a blind AIDS patient and his mother in Tacoma after police found three marijuana plants in their home. Pierce County prosecutors declined to press charges. Seattle's proposed guidelines, designed to avoid such situations, have been circulated to the American Civil Liberties Union and other interested parties. The draft guidelines advise the officer to ask for documentation when encountering a "grow" by someone claiming to be a medical marijuana patient or caregiver. If the person appears to qualify under the law, police are advised to document the grow through photographs, samples, measurements and other means, rather than by confiscating plants and/or growing equipment. Means maintains that police destroyed plants, seeds and equipment worth thousands of dollars. While police say they will return his equipment, Sanford said he won't get back any marijuana. The reason, he said, is partly a health concern: police storage doesn't protect marijuana for future use. For example, he said the leaves might have become moldy. Sanford said he also has a problem sending an officer, sworn to uphold federal, state and local laws, to deliver the marijuana, because the act would technically violate federal laws against distribution. The draft guidelines specify that a patient's documentation should include a statement signed by the patient's physician or a copy of the pertinent medical record noting that his physician thinks benefits from the patient's marijuana use likely outweigh the risks. The police guidelines also call for documentation to define a "daily personal medical use supply amount" for the patient, a requirement that already has been criticized. "That statement is wrong and inappropriate in these guidelines, because it's telling police to look for something that isn't allowed," said Jerry Sheehan of the ACLU. Marijuana is still a federally controlled substance, and doctors have been cautioned to be particularly leery of appearing to "prescribe" it. Dr. Rob Killian, a Seattle family physician who was a prime mover behind the initiative that created the law, said asking doctors to specify amounts could put them "at risk of federal censure." The language was an attempt to address police difficulties with the 60-day supply noted in the law, Sanford said. "One of the things we struggled with the most in drafting this is the amount question," he said. Not only do patients vary in tolerance, marijuana varies in potency. "We'll probably look at that, frankly, case by case." Sheehan said his organization is pleased that the police intend to "deal with the law upfront." However, he took exception to the draft's reference to the "spirit of the law," which "implicitly allows qualifying patients to grow and use limited quantities of marijuana." In fact, Sheehan said the law explicitly allows that. Sheehan also objected to a section requiring documentation to specify that a patient suffers a terminal or debilitating illness as defined by state law. He said that could require that doctors release private medical information for police inspection. For questionable situations, the guidelines call for officers to contact the narcotics division for advice before confiscating marijuana, Sanford said. He said the Police Department also is considering allowing a person who claims to be a qualifying patient to have a grace period to produce the proper documentation. The goal of the guidelines is to spare both police and patients wasted time, embarrassment and frustration. "The Police Department has no interest in seizing equipment or causing grief to people who are sick. The patients have no interest in being embarrassed and having to go get equipment back once it's been seized," Sanford said. Sanford hoped to get a final draft on Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper's desk by early next month. Wednesday, November 3, 1999 Copyright © 1999 The Seattle Times Company Related Article:Med Marijuana Patient Arrested in Seattle,WA.- 5/23/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread1416.shtml
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Comment #2 posted by kaptinemo on November 03, 1999 at 16:22:21 PT
The effectiveness of political action...
is being demonstrated in Seattle. Now, imagine this happening all over the Union. It can be done, but only if you get active. It might mean being 'clean' for months or a year but it will be worth it.For all those narcs reading this: you know the laws are unjust. You might even know the racially prejudiced origins of cannabis prohibition. You might even know how little debate Congress in 1937 gave the subject (2 hours!) and that when a Representative asked if the AMA had been consulted, the idiots who pushed for the law *lied* and said the AMA agreed with the proposal, when they certainly hadn't.You might know all that, but you may still be telling yourself "I am only following my orders." Well, you will soon be facing the results of your indifference when more and more States enact MMJ laws of their own. Take a hint from the above, and get cracking; this time, no force, not even the Federal government, will be able to withstand the firestorm if laws favorable to MMJ are enacted and cops try to end-run them politically. The people are indeed speaking.Are you listening?
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Comment #1 posted by mitch on November 03, 1999 at 14:27:15 PT:
article- police to draft....
kudos for the Seattle Police Dept.
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