Pubdate: Sat, 10 May 2008
Source: Record Searchlight (Redding, CA)
Copyright: 2008 Record Searchlight
Contact:  http://www.redding.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/360
Author: Ryan Sabalow
Referenced: The ruling http://drugsense.org/url/0uknYXm5
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Philip+Denney
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

SUIT DISMISSED OVER MARIJUANA RAID

Doctor to Appeal, Says Agencies Targeted Him Because of Pot Stance

A federal judge has dismissed a Redding doctor's First Amendment 
lawsuit in which he accused law enforcement officials of targeting 
him because he was an outspoken cannabis advocate who recommended 
marijuana to patients.

Dr. Philip Denney says he plans to appeal the decision handed down 
recently by Senior Judge Lawrence K. Karlton of the U.S. Eastern 
District Court in Sacramento.

"We feel this is definitely not over," Denney said. "We feel that the 
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is going to be very interested in 
reading the matter."

Denney claims that federal law enforcement officials teamed with 
Redding police, the Shasta County District Attorney's Office and 
others to target him during their investigation of Dixon Herbs, a 
marijuana dispensary that agents busted and shut down in December 2005.

In a suit filed in November 2006, Denney alleged an informant and an 
ATF agent visited his office on separate occasions, gave false 
identification, reported chronic

pain and received written recommendations for marijuana.

Denney said the agents wrote in their report they debated wearing a 
wire to their sessions with the doctor.

The agents then went to the Redding herb store and bought medical 
marijuana, according to court documents.

Denney alleges that his practice was targeted because he's a vocal 
medical marijuana advocate who frequently recommends the drug.

Being targeted by agents because of his advocacy is a violation of 
rights protected by the First Amendment, the state law that legalized 
medical marijuana and a Ninth Circuit ruling that guaranteed a 
doctor's right to recommend it to patients, he said.

Lawyers for the various law enforcement agencies named in the suit 
said Denney was never the target of the investigation.

Rather, his office was chosen because of convenience and because 
employees at Dixon Herbs had recommended the informants go there to 
get a doctor's recommendation for medicinal cannabis.

"We were not out to get him," Redding police Capt. Peter Hansen said 
Friday. "What he was doing, even though we may not agree with it, was 
in compliance with the law. He wasn't the focus of the investigation."

In his ruling late last month, Karlton agreed that there wasn't 
enough evidence to show that the agents went to the doctor's office 
because he was so outspoken, nor was there enough evidence to say 
they singled him out from other physicians who also prescribed medicinal pot.

But Denney said he thinks judges on the Ninth Circuit might see the 
issue differently, considering they were the ones who originally 
ruled that doctors could discuss the drug with their patients and 
recommend its use.

"If he wants to continue taking it up, we'll continue fighting it 
because they're absolutely no merit to his claim," said Shasta County 
District Attorney Jerry Benito.

Doctors have been able to recommend marijuana in California to 
patients since 1996, despite federal laws that say it's illegal.

Doctors may be able to "recommend" the drug in written form, but they 
are forbidden from writing a formal marijuana prescription, nor can 
they assist patients in obtaining marijuana or grow it for their 
patients to use. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake