Pubdate: Tue, 21 Oct 2008
Source: News-Times (Forest Grove, OR)
Copyright: 2008 Pamplin Media Group
Contact: http://www.forestgrovenewstimes.com/forms/letters_form.php
Website: http://www.forestgrovenewstimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4520
Author: Stover E. Harger III
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

MEDICINAL MARIJUANA CRIMES ON THE RISE

Sheriff Tests Law On Keeping Site Locations Confidential

Crimes in Washington County associated with medical marijuana grow 
sites are on the rise -- including armed robberies and assaults -- 
but if you're like most people, you didn't have any way of knowing this.

Until now.

That's because the Washington County Sheriff's Office recently 
decided it would change its interpretation of the state's 10-year-old 
medical marijuana law and release information, previously deemed to 
be confidential, about participants in the medical marijuana program 
who break the law under the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act.

The move has raised eyebrows from some medical marijuana advocates 
who say the county law enforcement officials are overstepping their 
bounds and possibly breaking the law themselves.

The Oregon Medical Marijuana Program keeps a confidential list of 
people who are sanctioned to grow a limited number of marijuana 
plants for medicinal purposes. Oregon law (ORS 475.331) states:

"Authorized employees of state or local law enforcement agencies that 
obtain identifying information from the list as authorized under this 
section may not release or use the information for any purpose other 
than verification that a person is a lawful possessor of a registry 
identification card or the designated primary caregiver of a lawful 
possessor of a registry identification card or that a location is an 
authorized medical marijuana grow site."

The sheriff's office concedes that its new policy may violate that 
law. Sgt. David Thompson, sheriff's spokesman said the office is 
taking the possibly contentious step in order inform the public about 
an increasing number of illegal marijuana grows associated with the 
program and to bring to light the possible dangers involved with 
having a medical marijuana grower in your neighborhood.

"We haven't changed the way we are operating or doing business in 
terms of the way we are prosecuting or dealing with Oregon Medical 
Marijuana Program growers," Thompson said. "What we are changing is 
the information that we are releasing to the public. We feel the 
public has a right to know when people are committing crime."

Last month over 2.5 pounds of marijuana and growing equipment were 
seized by the Westside Interagency Narcotics Team at the Aloha home 
of an OMMP participant.

While detectives were searching the house, the sheriff's office 
reports, numerous people showed up to the home looking to buy 
marijuana, which is illegal under the OMMA. Five arrests were made 
and a shotgun was seized from the home.

It didn't stop there.

While the WIN Team was leaving the home they were called to another 
Aloha OMMP participant residence that was reported to have a large 
marijuana grow. The WIN Team found 39 more marijuana plants than is 
allowed under OMMA law as well as six pounds of dried marijuana, much 
more than the 1.5 pounds of dried marijuana that is allowed.

Another recent OMMP related area crime involved a group of masked 
suspects, two of whom were carrying guns, who burst into the home, 
demanding money and marijuana. The occupants of the house were then 
assaulted by the assailants.

Thompson said in most cases the home invasions or robberies at OMMP 
grower homes were committed by acquaintances and many of the 
properties were themselves operating outside the growing guidelines of the act.

Specific statistics on OMMP related crimes are not available, Thompson said.

However, a map (viewable at 
www.co.washington.or.us/sheriff/media/photos/medmj5.jpg) posted on 
the sheriff's office web site shows the general locations of 26 homes 
in Washington County where OMMP patients, caregivers or growers where 
drug arrests or warrants were made in the last year.

The map refers to two sites in the rural Gaston area and three sites 
outside of Banks. The highest concentration of sites is in Aloha, an 
unincorporated urbanized area between Hillsboro and Beaverton.

As of July Oregon has 19,646 medical marijuana patients. The OMMP, 
which administers the medical marijuana act, does not have a tally of 
growers. Nor does it police its participants or provide oversight of 
marijuana grows after they initially approve them.

The sheriff's office has received support from other law enforcement 
agencies for their decision, according to Thompson, but not everyone 
is applauding.

Leland Berger, an Oregon criminal defense lawyer who helped draft the 
medical marijuana act, said that if the sheriff's office was honestly 
concerned about violence associated with the medical marijuana 
program they should teach OMMP participants how to protect themselves 
from burglary and other crimes.

Berger thinks releasing names and addresses of medical marijuana 
users and growers, even if they are arrested, is against the law and 
can't understand why the sheriff's office would do so.

"There isn't any public safety reason to do that and they know it," he said.

Berger said there is a perceived bias against medical marijuana 
coming from the sheriff's office.

Earlier this year Berger represented three men who were denied 
concealed weapons permits by Sheriff Rob Gordon. The sheriff argued 
that federal law prohibits drug users from possessing firearms.

In May, a judge disagreed with that logic and ordered Gordon to 
approve the permits for the men. That ruling was appealed in June by 
the Washington County Board of Commissioners.

Berger said those actions have created a hostile environment for 
medical marijuana participants living in the county.

"Rob Gordon, and whoever else is making policy decisions, decided 
that for reasons which escape me that somehow it's a blight on the 
community," he said. "That somehow things were better when patients 
were prosecuted."

Thompson, however, said the sheriff's office is not against medical marijuana.

"There are people that this act helps," he said. "What we are talking 
about here are the people that are abusing the system."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom