Pubdate: Thu, 22 Aug 2002
Source: Chico News & Review, The (CA)
Copyright: 2002 Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.newsreview.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/559
Author: Laura Smith

UP IN SMOKE

Federal Government Clashes With County Over Small Medical Marijuana
Garden

SMOKED OUT: Diane Monson, who holds a doctor's recommendation to use 
marijuana for back spasms, read the text of Prop. 215 to federal drug 
agents as they hacked her six marijuana plants from the ground last week.

Don't tread on me: Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) introduced legislation 
last year that would repeal federal laws that restrict the states' rights 
to allow medical marijuana use. The legislation would also reclassify 
marijuana from a Schedule 1 narcotic to a Schedule II drug, a change that 
would recognize that there are valid medical uses for marijuana. The bill 
is still being discussed.  When the federal drug agents asked Diane Monson 
where her marijuana plants were last week, she didn't hesitate to tell them.

Why should she? She had a doctor's recommendation to smoke pot (to relieve 
chronic back spasms), and, with just six marijuana plants growing in her 
yard, was well within Butte County's guidelines for medicinal possession. 
Monson never had a problem before. She's a peaceful person and was making, 
of all things, a batch of granola when the police arrived.

But she only thought she was safe.

As it turns out, the Butte County sheriff's deputies who searched her 
Oroville foothills house last Thursday really didn't have a problem with 
her small crop. But the federal drug agents who assisted them certainly 
did. And that's where the problem came up.

"If the [feds] weren't there, we'd have left the plants," said Sheriff's 
Lt. Jerry Smith. "We're not out to bother with small medicinal grows like 
that."

Even so, and against the pleadings of Butte County District Attorney Mike 
Ramsey, the federal Drug Enforcement Agency agents ripped Monson's plants 
out of the ground. The sheriff's deputies, Monson said, gave her five 
minutes to harvest what she could of the plants before the DEA agents took 
them.

As the feds hacked the plants from the ground, Monson said she read them 
the entire text of Prop. 215.

"I thought they might need to hear it," she said. "I couldn't believe they 
were taking the plants. I mean, this is just so against what the will of 
the people of the state of California is. I wasn't doing anything against 
the law."

Monson is right--partially. She wasn't doing anything against state law, 
but her small marijuana garden was completely illegal in the eyes of the 
federal government. And increasingly, if you get busted on marijuana 
charges--whether medical cultivation or medical possession--depends on who 
does the bust.

If it's the county, at least in Butte County and you're growing fewer than 
six plants, you're most likely in the clear. But if it's the feds, you're 
in trouble.

In a way, Monson is lucky. Because she had only six plants, she probably 
won't face any federal charges. So why seize the plants in the first place, 
especially since she's a medicinal user? That's the question DA Ramsey 
asked of U.S. Attorney John K. Vincent, who authorized the seizure.

"I was using words like 'wrong headed' and 'stupid' and 'high handed,' when 
I was talking to [Vincent] about it," Ramsey said. "I was very angry about 
it, when [Monson] was squarely within 215."

Ramsey was notified of the bust while the sheriff's deputies and DEA agents 
were already at Monson's house. They were there because Monson and her 
husband were the original owners of and held the note on a Berry Creek 
house where sheriff's deputies found a large, sophisticated marijuana grow 
this spring. The buyers of the home made their payments on time every 
month, Monson said, and they never suspected that anything illegal was 
going on in the house.

Because of the size of the Berry Creek grow, the federal government is 
prosecuting the case (there've been two arrests), and that's why the DEA 
agents accompanied the sheriff's deputies to Monson's house for a search.

When he was notified of the search, Ramsey acknowledges that he pleaded 
with the feds to leave the plants alone. Monson wasn't breaking state law, 
he said, so why bother?

"I was told that [the federal government's] policy is to not recognize any 
medical excuse for marijuana," Ramsey said. "... I was very angry that they 
were going to [take the plants] and questioned the necessity of it. I told 
him this was going to bring bad publicity, and [Vincent] said he'd take the 
heat, but the plants needed to be taken and destroyed."

Vincent didn't return phone calls asking for comment.

California isn't the only state trying to make sense of dichotomous state 
and federal marijuana laws.

Twelve states (California among them) have reduced penalties for possessing 
a small amount of marijuana to mere fines, and this fall Nevadans will 
decide at the polls if they want to legalize and tax marijuana. Clearly, 
the states are becoming more lax about marijuana, but the federal 
government seems determined to maintain its illegality.

The resulting confusion about jurisdiction has all but turned Prop. 215 
into a Trojan horse. When county law enforcement officers are prevented 
from arresting growers who use Prop. 215 as a defense, all they have to do 
is call in the DEA.

The tension between state and federal law is almost sure to lead to a legal 
showdown sometime in the future, but in Butte County it appears to have 
begun already. Ramsey denied that there are more federal agents in Butte 
County than ever but acknowledged that he's "having discussions" with them 
about already-blurry jurisdictional boundaries.

"They'll probably be around less now," Ramsey said. "Because I'm pissed."
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