cannabisnews.com: Deputies Seize Medical Marijuana 





Deputies Seize Medical Marijuana 
Posted by FoM on July 20, 2000 at 07:27:24 PT
By Jacob Lehman
Source: The Times-Standard
Phillipsville log truck driver Larry Ford was trying to do the right thing when he invited sheriff's deputies to inspect the marijuana garden he grows under California's medical marijuana law.In response to his phone call, five Humboldt County Sheriff's Department Drug Enforcement Unit deputies and Sgt. Wayne Hanson, unit commander, arrived at Ford's property Tuesday.
The officers took 36 of the 40 plants Ford was growing for himself and three other people with marijuana prescriptions.The incident, and others like it, may lead to a class-action lawsuit against the Sheriff's Department, asking for a restraining order to protect medical marijuana gardens.Since it was approved four years ago by voters, Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act, has caused controversy and confusion at the state and local levels. There is no statewide policy on how law enforcement should accommodate the vaguely worded law, leaving counties to make their own -- often widely different -- policies.In Humboldt County, a 215 enforcement ordinance in the hands of the County Counsel is at least months away from possible ratification. It was drafted by a committee appointed by the Board of Supervisors.In the meantime, as Ford and his friends can attest, it is unclear what is allowed under 215, and the decision is often made by officers in the field."I don't mind playing by their rules," Ford said. "I just don't like them changing the rules. I think they did something wrong."Ford and others, including Garberville sheriff's substation Sgt. Mike Downey, said that in Humboldt County, the standard for Prop. 215 patients, who are allowed to grow their own marijuana, has been that up to 10 plants or two pounds of processed marijuana are allowed per patient.That semiofficial policy is the result of the District Attorney's office telling law enforcement agencies that it will not prosecute Prop. 215 patients who have 10 plants or less.Ford, a Vietnam War veteran, thought he was in compliance with the local 215 policy when he invited deputies to his land. He was growing 10 plants each for himself, his girlfriend, a man who lives off the property and for Jack Kamm, a woodworker who has lived on Ford's land for five years.Ford said that Hanson and his subordinates took all the plants being grown for Kamm and the other man, because they did not reside at Ford's address. They left two plants each for Ford and his girlfriend, who were on the property when the deputies visited, because Hanson reasoned that each plant would yield a pound of smokable marijuana.Kamm said he lives in two rooms on the property, one in Ford's house, because he works late in his woodshop, and room in another house. Two log truck drivers, who have to wake before dawn, also live on the property. He said he has been receiving mail at Ford's address, which is listed on his 215 prescription.Hanson, who recently replaced Sgt. Steve Knight as commander of the DEU, did not return phone calls from the Times-Standard.Sheriff Dennis Lewis said Hanson had the authority to use his own judgment in 215 cases. Lewis added that he was comfortable with Hanson's actions on Tuesday.The Sheriff's Department has not accepted the district attorney's 215 guidelines, Lewis said."One of the reasons is that we've had some people with monster plants that would yield six or seven pounds," he said.District Attorney Terry Farmer was not available for comment.Ford, who said he has some experience growing marijuana, and was arrested for illegal cultivation in 1980, disagreed. A good plant yields between four and 10 ounces of smokable buds, he said, and he doesn't use the twigs and leaves. Ford added that he has not grown marijuana in the years between his arrest and when he received his prescription.The plants that the deputies took on Tuesday ranged from two to eight feet in height, Ford said, and had not started to bud. There was no way that Hanson could have accurately estimated the yield of the plants, he said."It's like looking at a tomato plant and saying, 'Yep, that plant's going to produce 65 tomatoes,' " he said.Ed Denson, a Redway defense attorney who belongs to the committee that wrote the draft of the county's 215 ordinance, said a team of attorneys will probably file a class-action lawsuit over incidents where they believe the deputies overstepped their authority in destroying marijuana plants grown for legitimate medical use.The suit would ask for a restraining order that would prevent deputies from destroying plants in Prop. 215 gardens unless a court decides that too much is being grown.When law enforcement believes a 215 patient is growing too much marijuana, the patient often faces criminal charges and has to justify personal needs in court, Denson said.He recalled one local case in which a chronically ill man who had been growing 70 plants was acquitted of criminal cultivation by a jury, and added that subjects in a small federal study on medical marijuana have been receiving seven pounds of government-grown marijuana a year since the 1970s.As it is now, even if a person convinces a jury that they need a large number of plants, that garden will have been destroyed long before the trial even begins, Denson said.Those people can petition the county for monetary restitution, but Denson said he did not know of a single person who has received anything.Kamm said he is afraid that if he joins the lawsuit he will be arrested for criminal cultivation."But I don't care," he said. "I'm going to push this all the way."He was prescribed marijuana to ease the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from his combat experiences in Vietnam, where he was a gunner on a helicopter stationed 12 miles south of the DMZ, Kamm said.Kamm said he does not smoke marijuana, but uses it in cooking, a method that reduces the psychoactive effects.In addition to the lawsuit, Kamm said he and others may ask the Grand Jury to investigate the actions of law enforcement in regard to Prop. 215 patients.Kamm, who characterized the deputies who took his plants as "thugs," said he was laughed at when he called Farmer to discuss the issue."They had no right to come out and do what they did," Kamm said.Jacob Lehman covers public safety and law enforcement. He can be reached at (707) 441-0512 or jlehman times-standard.comE-mail: editor times-standard.com Contact Information:http://www.times-standard.com/dir/editorial.htmlPublished: July 15, 2000©2000 Times-StandardCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archives:http://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #6 posted by Dr. Ganj on July 20, 2000 at 14:26:46 PT
Humboldt Sheriff's Department Hasn't Read Prop 215
Wow, 10 plants, that's it? Now where in Prop 215 did it say only 10 plants per medical marijuana user? Hummm, still looking....Nope, it states, and I'll quote it, and I'll leave the link below for the Humboldt fuzz to see clearly that there is *NO* limit one can grow, because it would seem quite logical that a sick person should grow enough to last a year-or more. Same is true with other plants. There are good years, and not so good years. Bumper crops, and no crops-that's farming. So if a MMJ grower wanted to grow 80 plants, and maybe those yielded a few pounds of medicine-fine.Having the sheriff's determine what is an appropriate number of plants a Prop 215 grower can cultivate is absurd.I'd sue those insalubrious boars. Take my medicine-see you in court.Here's section (d) of Prop 215:[(d) Section 11357, relating to the possession of marijuana, and Section 11358, relating to the cultivation of marijuana, shall not apply to a patient, or to a patient's primary caregiver, who possesses or cultivates marijuana for the personal medical purposes of the patient upon the written or oral recommendation or approval of a physician]Where's the 10 plant limit there? I sure didn't see it.Dr. Ganj 
http://www.rxcbc.org/exa.html
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Comment #5 posted by fivepounder on July 20, 2000 at 11:32:35 PT
Sargent Hansen
Sargent Hanson claims to be an 'expert' on such matters. That why I say his services are so valuable. I know many growers, but non as expert and as confident as Hanson. I wondered how many # 's he has clipped.
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Comment #4 posted by CD1 on July 20, 2000 at 11:05:31 PT
I wonder
I wonder how Sgt Hanson can determine by looking at two plants that they will produce a pound of smokable marijuana. He must be using the same system other drug warrriors use to (over) estimate the "street value" of plants they find in the woods.Someday, one of these cases will make it to the Supreme Court. God help us then, especially if G.W. (Elect me president even though I had youthful indiscretions, but will be more than happy to throw you into prison for your youthful indiscretions) Bush gets elected and manages to get a couple of his fellow "compassionate conservitives" to sit on the court. (Not that Al Gore would be any better.) 
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Comment #3 posted by Dan B on July 20, 2000 at 09:13:17 PT:
Criminal Cops
"I don't mind playing by their rules," Ford said. "I just don't like them changing the rules. I think they did something wrong."It's not his place to make that call. He has no authority to circumvent the will of the people of California. The law is very clear: people have the right to grow cannabis. Period. End of discussion.He and the others should be brought up on charges of armed robbery, since they carried weapons with them as they "removed" (read: stole) the plants.
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Comment #2 posted by fivepounder on July 20, 2000 at 08:00:54 PT
Dennis the man 
Well that's our sheriff, Dennis Lewis. What gets me is how much they use stupidity as a defense for their actions....... when convenient. Well they have this incredible person who can look at a plant and know exactly haw much is will produce. Yet on the other hand if you drive around here with a license plate from another state, they will stop you if the state you are from does not have a front plate. Keeping a list or even LEARNING which states have only a front plate is well beyond their mental capacitities. This from the sheriff who brought you the pepper spray/headwaters case and who was the first in the country to use pepper spray. Dennis Lewis hates marijuana. It increases his power through all those extra $$ and deputies. Local rumour has it that his brother is a local big grower. True or not, his policies results in basically a form of price support for those lucky and sharp enough to avoid him and his keystone cop army. Maybe this incredibly sharp cop (when he retires) will hook up with the insurance companies and write all us growers insurance policies. He could do something positive with this incredible ability he has instead of making a career out of harassing people who like to grow and smoke a plant that makes people totally nonaggressive. Their attitute only strengthens my belief that to THEM marijuana is a threat to the sick system we all live under. 
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Comment #1 posted by Kanabys on July 20, 2000 at 07:43:56 PT
How *nice* of them....
to not have thrown him in prison. After all, isn't that the answer to everyone who grows and uses weed? ('scuse me while I wipe off the sarcasm that dripped on me.)
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