cannabisnews.com: Mold Puts Return of SR Man's Medical Marijuana 





Mold Puts Return of SR Man's Medical Marijuana 
Posted by FoM on March 24, 2001 at 16:57:27 PT
By Clark Mason, The Press Democrat
Source: Press Democrat
A dangerous mold of mysterious origin is growing on marijuana and other items in a Sheriff's Department evidence room and it's expected to cost at least $64,000 to clean up, county officials said.The existence of the mold was disclosed Friday in a court hearing involving a Santa Rosa man who wants his plants returned after a jury acquitted him in a medical marijuana case.
Sonoma County officials are opposing the request, saying the evidence locker where his plants are held is so badly contaminated that the room is off limits."It's a serious issue," Deputy County Counsel Anne Keck said. "People have to put on an environmental bunny suit to go in there. The spores are airborne."Sheriff's Lt. Jay Farmer said the locked room contains evidence from about 7,800 criminal cases. Besides marijuana in burlap bags from a number of large busts, other items include VCRs, TVs and guns."You name it, it's in there," Farmer said.Alan MacFarlane, who is seeking the return of marijuana grown in his backyard, expressed skepticism about the contamination, and his attorney asked a judge to appoint another expert to investigate.According to a report prepared for the county by an environmental health and safety consultant, there are three types of mold growing in the evidence room -- once a laundry room in the old jail -- and the one that poses the most serious health problem is called scopularlopsis.The unusual fungi is "an opportunistic human pathogen" that can cause widespread infection if an individual's immune system is suppressed, according to the report prepared by the Cohen Group of San Mateo.The consultant, Gregory Raymond, said he rarely sees scopularlopsis in the thousands of samples he collects each year."There's very little information on this type of fungus in the literature," he said. "I talked to microbiologists. None had heard about it growing on marijuana."Authorities say the problem isn't likely to affect prosecution of current court cases, since most of the evidence in the room was taken four to eight years ago.But, Farmer said, some of the evidence may still be pertinent to cases on appeal.County supervisors have allocated $217,000 to sort through evidence in the contaminated room and decide how much needs to be decontaminated and kept, and how much can be destroyed or returned before the Sheriff's Department moves into its new headquarters, currently under construction.Farmer said that even without the mold, the evidence would need to be sorted and its status researched. He said the cost of the decontamination process by itself is about $64,000.County supervisors allocated an extra $260,000 this week to purge old evidence in other storage areas.During a hearing on MacFarlane's request, Keck said non-porous surfaces can be decontaminated, but that the burlap bags and the marijuana itself cannot be rid of the fungus."We're skeptical of this claim," replied defense attorney Sandy Feinland. "There's no logical explanation for the contamination of these plants. They were raised in Mr. MacFarlane's back yard."There have been at least two other cases in Sonoma County in which marijuana was returned to defendanst after drug charges were dismissed because they qualified as users of medical marijuana."Now we're asking for the return of the marijuana," Feinland said. "Suddenly the plants are so contaminated they will endanger the county if they're released."Feinland noted that during MacFarlane's recent trial, some of the buds and other portions of the 110 plants seized from him was brought into the court in paper bags and shown to the jury.But Prosecutor Alex "Bud" McMahon said the specimens that were introduced in the trial were most likely preserved and kept in a different environment than the old laundry room.He requested that the judge refuse to release any of MacFarlane's marijuana until the matter can be studied further."The court doesn't want to return property to the defendant that could actually kill him," McMahon said.Judge Robert Boyd said he will delay a decision until he gets more information. He set another hearing on the matter for April 3.Note: Sheriff's Evidence Locker Heavily Contaminated, Officials Say Complete Title: Mold Puts Return of SR Man's Medical Marijuana on Hold You can reach Staff Writer Clark Mason at: cmason pressdemocrat.comSource: Press Democrat, The (CA) Author: Clark Mason, The Press DemocratPublished: March 24, 2001Copyright: 2001 The Press Democrat Address: P. O. Box 569, Santa Rosa CA 95402 Fax: (707) 521-5305 Contact: letters pressdemo.com Website: http://www.pressdemo.com/ Forum: http://www.pressdemo.com/opinion/talk/ Feedback: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/opinion/letform.htmlRelated Articles:SR Patient Aquitted in Pot Case http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread8504.shtmlSR Man Acquitted in Medical Marijuana Casehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread8499.shtmlCourt Case To Test How Much is Too Much Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread8496.shtml
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