Pubdate: Wed, 06 Aug 2014
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2014 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: John Aguilar
Page: 4A

LAUVE SUIT BLAZED THE WAY

Five Years Ago, the Pivotal Marijuana Verdict Was a Defining Moment in
Cannabis Use and Regulation.

BROOMFIELD - Exactly five years ago, a beaming Jason Lauve rolled out
of the Boulder County Justice Center in his wheelchair, balancing on
his lap an assortment of marijuana that had just been returned to him
by sheriff's deputies.

A jury minutes earlier had acquitted Lauve - a victim of a
debilitating back injury after a snowboarder plowed into him five
years earlier - of possessing excessive amounts of medical marijuana.

In the years since Lauve left the courthouse a vindicated man Aug. 6,
2009, the marijuana landscape in Colorado has shifted dramatically -
most notably with the legalization of recreational pot in 2012. But
many look back on Lauve's trial as a defining moment in the
still-evolving world of cannabis use and regulation.

"That case got us in part to where we are today," said Rob Corry, the
Denver marijuana advocacy attorney who defended Lauve.

The 2006 acquittal of Gunnison resident Ryan Margenauon felony charges
of possessing pot without a medical marijuana card preceded Lauve's
trial. But Corry said the latter case was far higher-profile and had
greater policy impacts.

"It was significant because it caused a lot of prosecutors to ask why
they were taking these cases and wasting taxpayer money," he said.

One of the prosecutors who began to loudly question the wisdom of pot
prosecutions was Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett, whose
office had charged Lauve.

"It was a pivotal case for me," Garnett said. "It pointed out what
juries thought about marijuana possession - which wasn't much."

He said the case also made it plain to him that the possession limits
spelled out in Amendment 20, the medical marijuana initiative passed
by Colorado voters in 2000, couldn't be enforced effectively given the
defense's successful argument at trial that the law allowed a patient
to have as much pot as was "medically necessary."

Police had found 34 ounces of marijuana and more than 30 pot plants -
far more than the 2 ounces of usable pot and six plants permitted by
the statute - in Lauve's Louisville home.

In September 2009, Garnett announced that marijuana possession cases
would become the lowest priority prosecution for his office. The next
month, he dismissed charges against a Nederland medical marijuana
patient who faced felony charges for having 50 pot plants.

Garnett said his office hasn't prosecuted a minor pot possession case
since Lauve was acquitted.

"A lot of things contributed to getting where we are today, and
clearly the Lauve case was a part of that," he said.

Lauve, who now lives in Broomfield, likened his case to the first few
pieces of mortar being chiseled out of the Berlin Wall before it fell
in 1989.

"It was a hole in the armor (of marijuana law enforcement)," he said.
"The two sides could now communicate; it was no longer polar opposites
on this."

After he was found not guilty, Lauve said he began receiving calls
from patients, attorneys and dispensary owners throughout Colorado.

"They said 'Thank you for standing up,' " said Lauve, who still uses
forearm crutches to get around. "'How did you do it? Can I see your
case?' I felt empowered. It showed me we can defend our rights."

Elisa Kappelmann, owner of Southern Colorado Medical Marijuana in
Colorado Springs, said Lauve inspired her to fight when she was
charged with two felonies after police raided her grow house in 2010.

Police said Kappelmann was growing far more plants than state law
allowed. But a jury in 2012 found her not guilty after Corry, her
attorney, argued that the "medically necessary" element in the state's
medical marijuana law applied to the case.

"The Lauve case was a breakthrough because before that if you were
going to court, you were going to jail," Kappelmann said. "The stigma
is so great with marijuana that law enforcement thinks it can run over
you. Jason came down and encouraged me to fight."

Lauve, who went on to publish a medical marijuana magazine and now
consults for the burgeoning industrial hemp industry, said much work
remains to be done in the field of cannabis legalization. There are
still district attorneys taking on medical marijuana patients, he
said, and the industry struggles under the dual conflict of being
legal statewide yet illicit at the federal level.

But those challenges, he said, don't diminish the accomplishments made
in the pot legalization movement since he nearly collapsed in a
Boulder courtroom five years ago after hearing his not guilty verdict.

"This has happened faster, better and bigger than I could have
imagined," Lauve said.
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MAP posted-by: Matt