Pubdate: Fri, 25 Oct 2002 Source: Albany Democrat-Herald (OR) Copyright: 2002 Lee Enterprises Contact: http://www.dhonline.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/7 Author: Harl Hass Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n2025/a08.html Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal) CONFLICT OVER POT: LET CONGRESS ACT Marijuana advocates seem intent on making a test case out of the unfortunate local pot seizure that hit the news this week. It is doubtful they will get anywhere in court, but in a larger sense the episode may prove useful anyway. This and similar cases should cause Congress to review and change federal law. VALIANT, the local anti-drug team, had received a tip that three state-authorized marijuana users in the Lebanon area - paraplegic Leroy Stubblefield and his two caretakers - were growing about 100 marijuana plants, far more than Oregon allows. They were about to do "knock and talk" to check this out, and they asked a federal DEA agent who happened to be in the office if he wanted to go along. When they got to the place, they found that the tip was wrong and the number of plants, 12, was less than the law allowed. The DEA man, however, pointing out that federal law does not recognize medical marijuana use, seized the plants. Stubblefield has not been charged with anything, and while the DEA says the case is still under investigation, it is unlikely that the U.S. attorney will waste time trying to prosecute a veteran in a wheelchair for something the state says is perfectly legal. Still, the matter cannot be allowed to rest there. According to the Hemp and Cannabis Foundation, the DEA man who took his plants told Stubblefield: "You're lucky we don't seize your house." According to another version, the agent was nicer, explaining that he had no choice but to seize the plants and that under federal forfeiture laws, if the man got caught with plants again, he ran the risk of losing not just the plants but his house. Under our Constitution, federal law trumps state law. But if federal law gives a federal officer the authority to seize the house of an Oregon resident who does what the state specifically has licensed him to do, there is something wrong. The DEA's assistant agent in charge in Oregon, Ken Magee, made one main point: Seizing marijuana plants is not a matter of policy but of federal law made by Congress. It is Congress, therefore, that can resolve the conflict. It ought to undo the change made in the 1930s when, against the advice of the American Medical Association, it made marijuana illegal. At the very least, Congress should amend the law so that the DEA would not be required to seize plants in states where the voters have decided, as in Oregon, that possession of marijuana for medical use is all right. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D