Judge Tansil Slapped/Patient Died Anyway

[Alan B. Mac Farlane]

Medical MJ Update 8/28

DEA Raids Alan MacFarlaneąs Garden

Thursday, August 15 a dozen DEA agents raid Alan MacFarlaneąs Santa Rosa
backyard, seizing 128 plants heąd been growing for himself and 11 other
patients. łThe DEA claims to be going after criminals, not patients,˛ says
MacFarlane, łbut theyąre going after patients.˛

Medical marijuana advocates in Sonoma County consider this raid extremely
ominous because there was nothing łiffy˛ about MacFarlaneąs status as a
patient and caregiver under Prop 215, and he was complying with the hard-won
county guidelines as to allowable quantity. Coincidentally ‹or maybe not so
coincidentally‹ it was MacFarlaneąs acquittal on cultivation charges a
year-and-a-half ago that convinced District Attorney Mike Mullins to agree
to guidelines allowing the cultivation of up to 99 plants within a
100-square foot area, and possession of three pounds of dried bud. For a
brief season, Sonoma ranked with San Francisco and Mendocino among counties
honoring the letter and spirit of Prop 215.

MacFarlane, age 49, had been arrested twice in the summer of 2000 and
charged with growing a total of 108 plants. At his trial in January ą01 Dr.
Wayne Keiser testified that the removal of MacFarlaneąs cancerous thyroid
followed by 25 years of cancer treatments had left him with paralyzed nerves
and in chronic pain, which cannabis alleviated. The jury acquitted him and
the foreman urged law enforcement to issue some cultivation guidelines.

The next month DA Mullins prosecuted Ken Hayes and Mike Foley ‹managers of a
San Francisco cannabis buyers club‹ for cultivating 899 plants at their
ranchette in Petaluma. They were acquitted, and by May Sonoma County had
issued its liberal guidelines. MacFarlane says łit appears that the feds are
trying to accomplish what the DA couldnąt ‹stop medical marijuana in Sonoma
County. The message is: even if a jury of your peers approves of what youąre
doing, we donąt and youąre not going to be allowed to do it.˛

This summer MacFarlane, whose home in a working-class section of Santa Rosa
has a 50- by-50 foot backyard with an eight-foot-tall fence, arranged to
grow for 11 medical marijuana users, whose conditions range in gravity from
cancer and quadriplegia to organic mood disorders. Last Wednesday six
unmarked cars pulled up in front of his house around 7:30 a.m. as he was
about to get his Press Democrat. A dozen DEA agents, most in blue DEA
jumpsuits, some in camo, some with M-16s, stormed through his gate.

łThey patted me down and secured me in a chair, handcuffed behind the back.
They took all the plants and went through the whole house for three hours.
They were fairly considerate, although they caused some damage to the gate
on the way in. They read me my rights and proceeded to interrogate me.
They wanted to know if Iąd done any business with Aiko [a Santa Rosa
cannabis dispensary closed by the DEA this spring], and I said Śno.ą I kept
asking, ŚAm I under arrest?ą And they kept saying, ŚWeąre still making that
determination.ą They took my checkbook, they took some receipts. They were
looking for cocaine or MSDM in mineral capsules. They were looking for
California mushrooms in plastic bags... They were looking for an unlicensed
firearm; anything to federally bust me on and sully the waters on medical
marijuana. They took my home-defense shotgun ‹the first round in the chamber
was rock salt‹ and the registration papers. They took some kitchen scales I
mainly used for capsules for myself. They took a drawer full of business
cards of all the medical marijuana patients Iąd met except Aiko, the Marin
Alliance, and Genesis [a Petaluma dispensary]. They took all the patientsą
records that were on the wall. This was all supposedly evidence of a
narcotics trafficking conspiracy.

łThey must have asked me 20 questions about Oakland, if I had any connection
with them. I donąt. They also kept trying to connect me with Kenneth Hayes.
They took my desk calendars from the last three years to look for Ken
Hayesąs name. The calendars show a lot of hospice visits. Iąm a hospice
volunteer. I have a masterąs in psychology and thatąs what I do with it ‹
try to help people who are dying.

Iąm also a disabled combat law-enforcement specialist from the Air Force. I
did what these DEA guys do but on a tougher level. When they found my law
enforcement shield and my hospice identification, I think that changed their
attitude towards me a little. They asked me about money being exchanged and
I said ŚNo that isnąt happening.ą They took a ledger book that showed hours
and reciepts for expenditures that the patients had put in helping to grow
the plants. They said, ŚWhatąs this about?ą and I explained that the
patients were co-operating and that these plants were their property, and we
weąd been trying to document that in some manner since a rental agreement of
even $1 a year is illegal. We stopped keeping the ledger book after a few
months when we realized that each of the patients would have to stand up or
wheel up and claim their property by affirmation as nothing else could
work..
I think by the end the agents realized,ŚThis guyąs a real patient and he
really is a good guy who is trying to do the right thing in helping others
in dire straits.ą˛

After three hours the agents told MacFarlane that he was not under arrest,
but that he might be contacted within five days ‹or never contacted again.
As we go to press Aug. 28 he has not been contacted. He plans to contact the
DEA office in Santa Rosa to request the return of his property other than
the plants (which had just begun to bud),

MacFarlane considers the raid a form of łentrapment˛ by one law-enforcement
entity (the Sonoma County Sheriffąs Department) on behalf of another (the
DEA). łI was doing everything the Sonoma County guidelines said I should
do..
Each patientąs plot was 90 square feet instead of the authorized 100 square
feet. There were about nine plants per patient at the time of the raid and
at harvest it might have been down to seven or eight, which would hopefully
yield about two-and-a-half or two-and-three-quarter pounds per patient. The
guidelines said nothing about height. But some of the agents said they
busted us because the plants were peeking over the top of the fence and were
too high.˛

Which seems plausible, given the mental set of Fedzilla. łVisible defiance.
Must destroy!˛

Before We Leave SonomaŠ

Itąs supposed to reflect poorly on judges when their rulings are reversed by
a higher court, so let us take a moment to recall that back in December ą96,
in the very first Prop 215 case to be adjudicated, People of California v.
Al Martinez, Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Mark Tansil rejected Bill
Panzerąs argument that anyone arrested for marijuana-law violations is
entitled to a pre-preliminary hearing on his/her łmedical use˛ claim, and if
the claim is valid, the case is to be thrown out. In light of the state
Supreme Courtąs Mower decision, Panzer was right and Judge Tansil was
wrong. Itąs way too late to do Al Martinez any good; an epileptic who had
relied on marijuana, he had a seizure while driving in July ą97 and died
when his car hit a tree.

This is the wording that Judge Tansil was unable to interpret correctly: łTo
ensure that patients and their primary caregivers who obtain and use
marijuana for medical purposes upon the recommendation of a physician are
not subject to criminal prosecution or sanction.˛ Some of these ambitious
young Republican judges donąt give serious consideration to civil
libertarian defense arguments; they rule against them by reflex.

Outdoors vs. Indoors, Cont.

Last week a farmer who knows what heąs talking about reminded us that the
cannabis plant thrives in full sun; yet club proprietors are paying
top-dollar dollar ($4,000-$4,200/lb.) for łmedical marijuana˛ grown
indoors..
How did this come to pass?

Marijuna as it is currently being produced and distributed is no different
than any other commodity in our wonderful system: s/he who runs the market
has as much or more influence over price as the producers and consumers.

Arthur T., who grows in a plastic-covered greenhouse on the Humboldt coast,
was told by a club proprietor in San Francisco that his dried buds were łtoo
dark a green˛ to command top dollar. The urban buyer holds the cards in
these negotiations because he has an accurate overview of whatąs available
at what price; the grower, at most, knows what his neighbors say they got or
intend to get for their crop. Also, the buyer knows whatąs in demand by the
patients (called łclients˛ or łcustomers˛ in businesses other than
healthcare). Arthur T. was told that patients base their purchases on
łscent, sight, and name.˛

Although the buyer tells the grower that s/heąs only seeking what her/his
customers want, s/he has a strong bias towards the indoor product because
s/he is likely to have an interest in an indoor grow operation. Demand is
also created for pot grown indoors by the hydroponics store owners,
grow-your-own book publishers, and High Times magazine, with its
glistening-red-hair bud shots (soft core porn, garden variety).

Itąs revealing that almost six years after the passage of Prop 215, the most
popular cannabis strains being offered at the buyers clubs are łSuper Haze,˛
łRomulon,˛ łBlue Dot,˛ łTrain Wreck˛ and łUltra Skunk,˛ instead of ł20%
CBD,˛ ł10% THC,˛ etc..

Itąs true that the club proprietors are operating under threat of closure
and arrest. But if łthe patients˛ had been their top priority, as they
always claim, an analytical test lab would have been set up by now ‹all it
would take is hiring a skilled chemist and investing about $20,000 in
equipment‹and theyąd know the cannabinoid content of the leading strains.
Itąs also disappointing that no clubs track the number of patients treating
what conditions with what strains and getting what results. This basic step
has not been taken despite Tod Mikuriyaąs imploring the clubs since 1996 to
adopt a uniform questionnaire ‹the obvious first step towards transforming
anecdotal evidence into meaningful epidemiological data.

Mikuriya has also been trying to establish practice standards that would
apply to all California doctors whose patients use cannabis. He leads a
group of about a dozen physicians ‹the Cannabis Research Medical Group‹ that
has adopted the standards.
Next step is to get the California Medical Association to sign on. What
cruel irony that the doctor who has the most experience prescribing the
drug, who is most conversant with the scientific literature, who has tried
most assiduously to promote sound record-keeping and data collectionŠ is a
target of the state medical board.

-30-

-----= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =-----
http://www.newsfeeds.com - The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World!
-----== Over 80,000 Newsgroups - 16 Different Servers! =-----