cannabisnews.com: Marijuana Suit Claims Search Abuse 





Marijuana Suit Claims Search Abuse 
Posted by FoM on March 17, 2001 at 14:56:04 PT
By Maline Hazle, Record Searchlight 
Source: Record Searchlight
Claiming they maliciously abused the law in searching his house and taking his marijuana plants, a Montgomery Creek man is suing Shasta County Sheriff Jim Pope, District Attorney McGregor Scott and two of Pope's deputies.And in a separate action earlier this week, a San Francisco Bay area doctor who writes medical marijuana recommendations filed a $400,000 claim against Shasta County, charging Scott, Pope and other officials retaliated against his medicinal marijuana work by having him hauled before the state medical board last year.
The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Shasta County Superior Court on behalf of Robert Vanoy, who has a doctor's recommendation for medical marijuana use.But rather than protect him from criminal prosecution and other legal sanctions, as required by California's 1996 Compassionate Use Act, Pope, his deputies and Scott have used their own arbitrary medicinal marijuana guidelines to harass Vanoy, the suit contends.The suit, which seeks $25,000, court costs and attorney's fees, is the second civil action filed against Pope and Scott by Oakland attorney William M. Simpich. Also named in the action are sheriff's deputies Jim Farmer and Jerry Shearman, members of the county's Marijuana Eradication Team.Simpich's first suit, filed in February 2000 on behalf of medicinal marijuana user Richard Levin, 50, and his wife, Kim, 36, both of Redding, names deputies Tom Barner and Jerry Ashman.That suit later was expanded into a class-action suit on behalf of all the county's taxpayers and medical marijuana users. The case is expected to go to trial in late summer.Vanoy's case differs in that, unlike the Levins, he was not arrested. A spokeswoman for Scott said Friday that Vanoy's case was referred to the district attorney for possible prosecution, but was rejected specifically because he was a medical marijuana user.Charges against Kim Levin later were dropped, but Levin went to trial and was acquitted of growing marijuana for sale in 1999.Vanoy could not be reached for comment, but the suit contends that on Aug. 27, 1999, Farmer, Shearman and an unidentified third deputy searched his house and property without a warrant, confiscated his marijuana plants and seized two firearms, guns that belonged to a neighbor.Two months later, according to the suit, Shearman called Vanoy and said the guns would be returned if he promised not to sue.But when the guns had not been returned by mid-2000, according to the suit, Vanoy called the sheriff's office to ask where they were.Then, on July 27, Shearman and two other officers went to Vanoy's house, saying that the "district attorney sent them . . . to check up on him" and ensure that he was complying with the county's medical marijuana guidelines, which allow no more than two plants, the suit says.When Vanoy told them he was growing plants for himself and another patient, the officers confiscated four of the eight plants they found growing at his house, according to the suit.The suit attacks the guidelines, the searches and the continuous visits from deputies, arguing that they "thwart rather than facilitate" legitimate use of marijuana.The guidelines are "wholly improper" and used "in an arbitrary and irrational manner," part of "a relentless campaign against marijuana in any form" the suit says.Simpich said officers ought to be able to articulate the reasons they're searching houses without warrants."It's that kind of drug war mentality where the ends overtake the means that's so frustrating," he said. "What I find with these medical marijuana cases is there's a continuing history of abuses from not following search and seizure laws. . . . It's everything that's wrong with the drug war — encapsulated."Sheriff Pope declined comment Friday, saying that he has not seen the suit."I don't know anything about it," Pope said.Scott, who was out of town Friday, said through a spokeswoman that he has not seen the suit and referred queries about it to the Shasta County counsel's office.County Counsel Karen Jahr did not return a call seeking comment on the Vanoy suit and the $400,000 claim Simpich filed against Shasta County on Monday on behalf of Tod Mikuriya, a Berkeley doctor who has made hundreds of recommendations for medical marijuana use statewide.In addition to Pope and Scott, that claim names the Shasta County Board of Supervisors and the county Probation Department.Mikuriya charges that he and several patients were hauled in front of the state medical board last year in retaliation for his recommendations and court testimony on behalf of Shasta County medical marijuana patients.If the county denies the claim, Mikuriya can sue. Note: Medical user says sheriff, DA have arbitrary rules. Reporter Maline Hazle can be reached at 225-8266 or at: mhazle redding.comSource: Redding Record Searchlight (CA)Author: Maline Hazle, Record SearchlightPublished: Saturday, March 17, 2001 Address: PO Box 492397, Redding, CA 96049-2397 Copyright: 2001 Redding Record Searchlight - E.W. Scripps Contact:  letters redding.com Website: http://www.redding.com/ Related Articles:Levins Sue Over Pot Arresthttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread4758.shtmlRedding Police Won't Return Marijuana To Vethttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread4663.shtmlCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on March 17, 2001 at 20:22:18 PT
My Opinion
Hi Doc and Kapt,Some of you know we owned a video store for 10 years and I was able to look at how opinions changed as movies were released. People would return a movie like Born on the Fourth of July or Platoon with a whole new awareness of what it was all about. The power of a picture can say more then many books.Because television and movies are so much a part of our culture we can relate to people like Robert Downey Jr. and when Rock Hudson was diagnosed with Aids the world woke up to the epidemic. Thank goodness for this movie. I look forward to seeing it. Look how it made Ted Koppel feel.Archerd: Koppel Hooked on Drugs http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9038.shtml Ted Koppel went to see ''Traffic'' twice -- and now ABC's ''Nightline'' will air five segments on the picture, starting March 19, ''examining the issues behind this Academy Award-nominated film.'' Koppel said. ''We ('Nightline') have done over 5,000 shows and I don't think a movie has ever prompted us to do ONE show. But I went to see 'Traffic' twice and was so impressed by it and the honesty with which they showed it.'' Wouldn't it be something if a movie really does make them change the drug laws? That would be great.
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Comment #3 posted by dddd on March 17, 2001 at 20:07:29 PT
just the beginning
I have a feeling that there will be alot more ofthese type lawsuits in the next year or so...To playon kaps 'shit comin' down the hill',thing;;;;What startedas a wee turd at the top of the hill,will 'snowball' into a hugejaugernaut,,,and indeed,it will send the political cockroachesscurrying in all directions.I am worried about one thing however,,,Professor Nemo mentioned thechanging tone amongst the pols as they see the avalanche of excrement comingdown the hill,and they start talking about rehab,and "treatment"{(Orin Hatchs' recentcomments about Traffic are a good example)},,,,but I think what will happen,is thatthe actual reform of the Drug Wars laws,will be delayed by spineless politicians,andantis,,,who will cloud the issue by making "treatment"the new mantra,as opposed toactually reforming the laws,and repairing the Constitutional damage that has alreadybeen done. I have nothing against treatment,,but I think there is a danger in the concept.The term"treatment" itself,implies the exsistance of a "problem".I dont think there is a "problem"with marijuana,other than the ones that are a result of prohibition.The "treatment" thingis something that will be used to ignore the myth of an actual "problem" with marijuana,whichis still lumped together with heroin and crack as a "drug".......I think I'll have an ice cold beer now.It's not a "drug",,is it?...................dddd
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Comment #2 posted by kaptinemo on March 17, 2001 at 17:59:13 PT:
Backlash, indeed.
It's too bad it took a movie to catalyze this...Well, Doc, sad to say, but the literature about the racist origins and possible commercial skullduggery underpinning the DrugWar has been available in printed form since the 1960's. But nobody but serious scholars and reformers read it. The public certainly didn't.If it takes a movie pandering to melodrama and sensationalism to get the public's attention, and to get them thinking about something that they just took as an eternal, immutable given (To paraphrase and old British song, "There'll always be a DrugWar") then more power to Hollywood.An old saying: S**t flows downhill. The longer it flows, the faster it goes. The faster it goes, the harder it hits.This has been coming for a long time. The wind of racial bigotry thinly disguised (and sometimes not even that: read Harry Anslinger's testimony to Congress and marvel at the bald-faced crackerism exhibited by him - one wonders whether Mr. Anslinger was a Kloset Klansman) as a law to protect the public was sown many years ago, and now the present day antis have reaped the beginning of a whirlwind. The vast majority of the rank-and-file antis are feeling the barest wisps of the approaching hurricane, mistaking them for gentle breezes that they can ignore. The smarter of them are watching the sky, and are troubled by the advancing storm clouds. The smartest of all are trying to steal our thunder, attempting to make noises like reformers by 'championing' such things as rehab...while still trying to jail, rob and kill their way out of the problem. A problem that they made with their idiotic laws. They think that, by sounding like reformers, they can pacify the public while still playing their old games. Or as one reformer remarked at the beginning of the Klinton Administration: "They want to sound like liberals, but they are still DrugWarriors." And we wound up with the highest numbers of cannabis related arrests in history.But now more people are slowly, fitfully, waking up to the realization that the DrugWar doesn't work. Never has, and never will. They'll want answers as to why it took so long to find this out; answers the antis simply can't give. After all, they've had 87 years to 'get it right'. 
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Comment #1 posted by Ethan Russo, MD on March 17, 2001 at 15:09:16 PT:
Backlash Begins
When the law is not observed by those charged with carrying it out, these abuses will continue unless a spirited offense is mounted. We are seeing it now in the form of countersuits and DA recalls. The vast majority of the populace is through with the War on Drugs. It's too bad it took a movie to catalyze this, and that a majority of politicians still have not read the signs. 
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