Pubdate: Wed, 22 Jul 2009
Source: Daily Camera (Boulder, CO)
Copyright: 2009 The Daily Camera.
Contact:  http://www.dailycamera.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/103
Author: Vanessa Miller
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

LOUISVILLE MEDICAL-MARIJUANA PATIENT HEADS TO TRIAL

Man Plans to Give Speech at CU Ahead of Trial

BOULDER, Colo. -- A Louisville medical marijuana patient who was 
arrested last year on suspicion of possessing more than a legally 
allowed amount of the drug is fighting back as he heads to trial in 
Boulder County District Court next month.

Jason Lauve, 38, was arrested June 26, 2008, on suspicion of felony 
marijuana possession after police searched his home and found more 
than 30 marijuana plants. The case is scheduled to go to trial Aug. 
3, and Lauve is asking people to support him by attending the trial, 
writing letters to the media and contacting the Boulder County 
district attorney to "tell him to stop prosecuting sick people."

Lauve, who uses a cane and a wheelchair after breaking his back at 
Eldora Mountain Resort in 2004, also is holding a talk Tuesday at the 
University of Colorado titled "Medical Marijuana: How Patients and 
Caregivers Can Protect Themselves."

"We're depending on the First Amendment to educate people about 
what's going on," said Lauve's attorney, Rob Corry.

At Tuesday's talk, Lauve will share his story about how he was 
injured, how he self-medicated, how he ended up in Boulder County 
Jail and why he's now headed to trial on felony charges.

Lauve, Corry and a patient advocate with the Rocky Mountain 
Caregivers Cooperative hope to educate Colorado patients about the 
law and their rights to legally grow and possess marijuana. Patients 
with "debilitating medical conditions" can use cannabis as a 
medicine, if a physician recommends it, according to Corry.

But authorities sometimes deny that right, he said, like in Lauve's 
case. Corry said his client presented police with a valid medical 
marijuana card when investigators searched his home and seized his medicine.

"He did nothing wrong," Corry said. "I'm baffled as to why the 
District Attorney's Office feels it needs to spend court days and 
Boulder County residents' time to sit for three days and assess 
whether this person is guilty of a felony and deserves to spend time 
in prison."

District Attorney Stan Garnett said he can't comment about Lauve's 
case because it's heading to trial, but he said his office is 
committed to treating Lauve fairly.

"We only prosecute cases where we have sufficient evidence and can 
prove a violation of the law," Garnett said. "We don't prosecute 
cases to make examples of people. In fact, it's important to me and 
everyone in my office that we treat each case individually and each 
defendant fairly."

Garnett said he has a "fair amount of sympathy" for medical-marijuana patients.

"But my job is to enforce the law is it is currently written," he said.

Boulder County sheriff's Sgt. Barry Hartkopp, who works on the 
county's drug task force, said medical marijuana patients can legally 
possess six marijuana plants and two ounces of product. A doctor can 
give permission to have more, he said, but evidence found at Lauve's 
home led investigators to believe that "he was outside the limit of the law."

Lauve said he was just following his doctor's orders on how to treat 
himself for the extreme pain he's suffered since a snowboarder 
crashed into him at Eldora five years ago. Lauve -- who was in his 
10th year volunteering for the Eldora Special Recreation program when 
he was injured -- said he wanted to find a way to wean himself off 
morphine and other opiates, and ingesting marijuana through food 
helped him do that.

Lauve said he got into trouble after trying to grow his own plants 
without much knowledge of how to do so. He had dozens of unusable 
plants, and decided to collect them in trash sacks in his garage. He 
didn't want to put them by the curb for fear that teenagers or 
criminals would find them.

"I had no idea what to do with them," he said.

Even if he had been using all the plants officers found in his 
garage, patient advocate Timothy Tipton said, Lauve had a doctor's 
permission to possess larger amounts of marijuana because he ingests 
the drug -- which requires more plants than smoking.

[sidebar]

IF YOU GO

Jason Lauve will give a talk, titled "Medical Marijuana: How Patients 
and Caregivers Can Protect Themselves," at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the 
University of Colorado's University Memorial Center, Room 247. For 
more information, visit 
www.colorado420.com/news/freetalk.patients.protect1.html

Lauve's trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 3 in Boulder County District 
Court at the Boulder County Justice Center on Sixth Street and Canyon Boulevard.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake