Pubdate: Sat, 24 Mar 2001
Source: Press Democrat, The (CA)
Copyright: 2001 The Press Democrat
Contact:  Letters Editor, P. O. Box 569, Santa Rosa CA 95402
Fax: (707) 521-5305
Feedback: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/opinion/letform.html
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Author: Clark Mason, The Press Democrat
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n170/a05.html

MOLD PUTS RETURN OF SR MAN'S MEDICAL MARIJUANA ON HOLD

Sheriff's Evidence Locker Heavily Contaminated, Officials Say

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.
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