Marijuana, a growing battle

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FruityBud

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Mike Stetler is proud of his garden. It took him months to get the lush jungle just right.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" he said.

A decade ago, the labor of planting would have been impossible for Stetler. Strung out on Demerol, OxyContin, morphine and oxycodone, the pain-addled Navy veteran was, he says, "a slobbering zombie, stupid and living in la-la land."

Since 2002, though, when he started growing and smoking the medicinal marijuana he now tends so carefully, he hasn't touched a pill.

"The pain isn't all the way gone, but I can live again. I can get out of bed. The sun is shining on me again," he said. "See what God does? He gives us something beautiful to use. This healing herb. And what happens?"

What happened is sheriff's deputies landed a helicopter on his land, broke open two padlocked gates and ransacked his trailer, ripping a gaping hole in the roof. They seized 44 marijuana plants and more than eight state-issued medical-marijuana cards that indicate other medical-marijuana patients have told the state he is their designated caregiver. They left a search warrant hanging over Stetler's medical-marijuana sign.

Almost eight years after Colorado voters approved Amendment 20, engraving in the Colorado Constitution the lawful use of doctor-recommended medical marijuana for those "suffering from debilitating medical conditions," police and prosecutors zealously pursue medical-marijuana growers like Stetler, citing everything from the fact that they just don't like the law to concerns about public safety and confusion over what the law allows.

The law is "overly broad," "a work in progress," "vague" and "a mistake," according to cops and prosecutors along the Front Range, home to more than three-quarters of the state's 3,302 residents enrolled in the Colorado medical-marijuana registry program. There are 12 states in the U.S. that have medical-marijuana laws. Of the 10 with marijuana card systems, Colorado is theonly state that does not issue caregivers like Stetler licenses that specifically allow for cultivation.

"Marijuana cultivation is a violation of federal and state law. Just because someone says 'medical marijuana' doesn't mean we automatically back off and we don't enforce the law," said Larry Abrahamson, district attorney for Larimer County, where more than 45 percent of felony marijuana cases in the past decade have involved growers, many with state-issued cards. "Just because we have Amendment 20 does not mean we have free marijuana for everyone."

Raid, but no charges

Tucked into a lonely corner of 7,755- resident Huerfano County, Stetler has nursed 33 new marijuana plants from the sandy soil. Good medicine, he says, squeezing sticky, stinky and crystallized buds atop listing 7-foot stalks.

His plants are growing on private land miles from a paved road in two sheds posted with 13 state-issued medical-marijuana certificates that designate Stetler is now a licensed care giver for 13 patients. His doctor has advised he needs 15 plants to alleviate his constant pain stemming from a 1990 car accident.

Since the raid more than a year ago, Huerfano County Sheriff Bruce Newman has not filed any charges or returned Stetler's plants. No visits from police. Not even a ticket or a letter. Newman said he's waiting.

"We want to see what happens with some of these other cases," said Newman, who suspects not all of Stetler's 44 plants were legal and has destroyed them. "There's a lot of legal stuff up in the air, and it's going to take judges making decisions to figure it out."

The amendment seems to be functioning for people who use and distribute medical marijuana. Eleven storefront dispensaries operate openly in Colorado, some distributing medical marijuana to as many as 600 patients who need as much as an ounce of the weed a week. More than 500 doctors have recommended marijuana, and the number of patients on the state's registry has almost doubled since January.

"I'd have to say it is working," said Denver attorney Warren Edson, who represents half of the state's dispensaries. "But the dispensaries are not cultivating, and there's a huge need. The cultivation side is problematic."

Indeed, for the green-thumbed suppliers of the statewide demand for thousands of pounds of medical marijuana, life is not good. While Amendment 20 outlines a host of protections for medical-marijuana patients and allows them to designate a caregiver, the law does nothing to address growers.

So though many medical-marijuana patients designate growers as caregivers, the marijuana farmers are subject to arrest-first, ask-if-it's-medical-later SWAT raids. They face lengthy and costly legal battles, which, regardless of an acquittal, dismissal or conviction, end with dead marijuana plants.

"The police are supposed to be protecting me from thieves and such, but they are the thieves," said Stetler, who is one of three designated caregivers in Colorado preparing a civil lawsuit demanding compensation for plants destroyed by police.

"It's not right. They are making up their own laws and mocking the state's laws they are supposed to be protecting. They are mocking the voters they serve."

"Where do they think all the medical marijuana for more than 3,000 patients comes from?" said marijuana farmer Chris Crumbliss, who has been raided twice in Larimer County despite possessing dozens of state-issued medical-marijuana cards from patients listing him as their primary caregiver. "Do they want one person growing for 50 people, or do they want 50 people growing on their own?"

Law rubs wrong way

For police, Amendment 20 conflicts with federal laws and long-held state laws prohibiting cultivation of marijuana.

Even worse, say police, Amendment 20's requirement that all property and plants seized in a medical-marijuana investigation "shall not be harmed, neglected, injured, or destroyed" is unworkable. (If a cop waters a marijuana plant, is she breaking the law?)

And the notion that marijuana — which the federal government considers a "Schedule I" substance alongside PCP and methamphetamine — can be legal at all dismisses decades of law enforcement culture and ingrained drug war doctrine.

Larimer County's Jim Alderden is a folksy sheriff who refers to Amendment 20 as an "ill-conceived law" and aggressively pursues marijuana growers. They may call themselves licensed caregivers, but he calls them "dope dealers."

"Wholesale drug dealers are hiding under the umbrella afforded them by the statute," he says. "These people are nothing more than dope dealers, and they are hiding under this thing, and we are not going to back off. These people who say they are caregivers providing for 60 to 70 people are running the same sort of scam you see on the West Coast where people see a physician who is willing to prostitute themselves for money and say 'here's the dope.' "

Scott Carr, the regional director for Colorado's THC Clinic in Wheat Ridge, disagrees with Alderden's assessment of doctors who recommend marijuana. Carr says the doctors in his clinic care for their patients and advise the best treatment for their ailments.

"We do a pretty extensive screening of medical history. We get charts and copies of doctor notes," Carr said.

Jeff Sweetin, head of Denver's branch of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, regularly hears growers pleading their product is medical marijuana. When the operations "reach into hundreds of plants and millions of dollars, that argument that they are immune because of state medical-marijuana laws is absurd," Sweetin said.

"I think it was a mistake. It's bad public policy, and it put cops in a terrible spot," Sweetin said of Amendment 20. "The very term 'medical marijuana' doesn't hold much water. I mean really, what kind of medicine do you smoke?"

Sweetin fields calls "all the time" from Colorado cops begging his help when a court orders the return of marijuana or growing equipment.

"Ninety-nine times out of 100, our answer is, 'This is not our problem to fix.' I feel for these guys and they are my friends and they are partners, but it is not the position of the DEA to rescue everybody from their state's legislation."

A need for clarity

You can read the rest at: hxxp://tinyurl.com/6z5zc6
 
I couldn't even finish reading this, my anger level was increasing at an exponential rate. This is just so wrong on so many different levels. Why did they need to destroy that mans home to exercise their warrant?
 
Yes definitely an infuriating article but it does bring up a good point which is that law enforcement has been busting marijuana operations for so long it is engrained into their head and although this is not right it is essentially the reason why medical users have to live in fear, well at least until the government steps in or the people.
 
So though many medical-marijuana patients designate growers as caregivers, the marijuana farmers are subject to arrest-first, ask-if-it's-medical-later SWAT raids. They face lengthy and costly legal battles, which, regardless of an acquittal, dismissal or conviction, end with dead marijuana plants
thats the part that concerns me...among others
 
and the cops probably smoked or sold the product themselves.i hate cops and what they stand for.reminds me of when i was arrested yrs ago,sitting on a bench,handcuffed,waiting to be booked into the jail.a couple women officers and 3-4 men officers were taliking about taking criminology classes and the other doing this and that.i snickered.they walked over to me and asked me what i thought of law enforcement officers.i asked if they wanted my honest opinion,they said yes.i told them,what i thought it took to make an police officer,was someone that was to damn lazy to get out and do an honest days work.of course i got an butt whipping and a cell.but it was worth it all.
 
FruityBud said:
Almost eight years after Colorado voters approved Amendment 20, engraving in the Colorado Constitution the lawful use of doctor-recommended medical marijuana for those "suffering from debilitating medical conditions," police and prosecutors zealously pursue medical-marijuana growers like Stetler, citing everything from the fact that they just don't like the law to concerns about public safety and confusion over what the law allows.

they just don't like the law?:confused: who do these people work for?:confused: hmm, can you say kickbacks?


"The police are supposed to be protecting me from thieves and such, but they are the thieves," said Stetler, who is one of three designated caregivers in Colorado preparing a civil lawsuit demanding compensation for plants destroyed by police.

> sick 'em 'ol boy. let 'em know you don't want thieves' working for you.
throw a 'destruction of private property' charge on 'em too. make 'em pay
for thier shortcomings...


Larimer County's Jim Alderden is a folksy sheriff who refers to Amendment 20 as an "ill-conceived law" and aggressively pursues marijuana growers. They may call themselves licensed caregivers, but he calls them "dope dealers."

"Wholesale drug dealers are hiding under the umbrella afforded them by the statute," he says. "These people are nothing more than dope dealers, and they are hiding under this thing, and we are not going to back off. These people who say they are caregivers providing for 60 to 70 people are running the same sort of scam you see on the West Coast where people see a physician who is willing to prostitute themselves for money and say 'here's the dope.' "


> is this guy supposed to be a sheriff, or a medical specialist?
sounds like judge, jury, and prosecution = Roy Bean...
this is why we all need to vote for 'our' elected officials...
..thanks fruitybud...
A need for clarity

You can read the rest at: hxxp://tinyurl.com/6z5zc6
...
 

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