Pubdate: Wed, 20 Jul 2011
Source: SF Weekly (CA)
Copyright: 2011 Village Voice Media
Contact: http://www.sfweekly.com/feedback/EmailAnEmployee?department=letters
Website: http://www.sfweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/812
Author: Chris Roberts

GEORGE GASCON FLIPFLOPS ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

With less than six months as district attorney on his resume - and 
zero cases personally tried in court - George Gascon has a thin 
record on which to stand for re-election in November. But the former 
chief of police is doing what he can to rally a base, even among the 
medical marijuana community.

"My office is not interested in prosecuting legal cultivation sites 
connected with a registered dispensary," Gascon told a July 5 meeting 
of Americans for Safe Access, a patients' advocacy group.

Meanwhile, his office is pressing felony charges against 63-year old 
Wayne Kiloh, who has legally cultivated medical cannabis for Green 
Cross for nearly seven years, according to its CEO, Kevin Reed. 
Kiloh's Richmond District home was raided by police in July 2010, and 
despite Reed's good standing as a registered dispensary operator and 
his insistence that Kiloh was growing for his collective, prosecutors 
declined to drop charges during a July 7 hearing and offered Kiloh a 
felony plea.

Erica Derryck, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney, assures SF 
Weekly this could all be cleared up easily. "Someone from Green Cross 
communicated to police that [Kiloh] was not an employee," she says, 
noting that a permit from the Department of Public Health, on site at 
Kiloh's home, was expired. If Green Cross presents any information to 
the contrary, she says, the charges may be dropped, "but nothing has 
been presented to us to demonstrate any relationship."

The Green Cross disputes this. "At no time did a conversation between 
Green Cross and the police take place," spokeswoman Caren Woodson 
says. Paperwork at the Hall of Justice demonstrating Kiloh's 
legitimacy - including tax forms and a letter identifying Kiloh as a 
grower for the collective - was seized by police during the raid, and 
extra copies were furnished to prosecutors as late as this July 7, 
Woodson says. "All of it is right in their hands," she says.

Kiloh's attorney, Jeremy Blank, is working to settle the case with 
prosecutors, who will take their cues from Gascon for a full four 
years if he wins in November. But what cues will he send?
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart