Pubdate: Sat, 26 Mar 2016
Source: Wichita Eagle (KS)
Copyright: 2016 The Wichita Eagle
Contact: http://www.kansas.com/604
Website: http://www.kansas.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/680
Author: By Amy Renee Leiker

GARDEN CITY MARIJUANA ADVOCATE SUES STATE OVER SON'S REMOVAL FROM HOME

Shona Banda Is Suing the State, Other Agencies

She Claims They Violated Her Constitutional Rights to Parent Her Son, 
Treat Disease

The Garden City mother who has become a face of the medicinal 
marijuana legalization movement in Kansas is suing the state and some 
of the agencies involved in questioning and removing her 11-year-old 
son from her home last spring after he spoke up about her cannabis 
use at school.

Shona Banda claims in the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, that 
the state and the agencies are depriving her of her civil rights to 
treat a debilitating condition she suffers from and to parent her 
child. She also claims employees at her son's school and the Garden 
City Police Department violated her constitutional rights when they 
questioned her son without parental permission and searched her 
property without a warrant.

The 20-page suit names the state, Gov. Sam Brownback; Kansas 
Department for Children and Families Secretary Phyllis Gilmore; the 
Garden City Police Department and its chief, James R. Hawkins; and 
Garden City Unified School District 457 and one of its former 
counselors, Tyler Stubenhoffer, as defendants.

Banda is demanding payment of an unspecified amount of money for 
injuries and what she calls ongoing pain and suffering. She asked for 
a jury to hear the case in Wichita.

Banda filed the lawsuit Thursday, on the one-year anniversary of the 
police raid of her home. She was not immediately available for 
comment Friday afternoon.

Asked for comment on the lawsuit, DCF spokeswoman Theresa Freed 
pointed to the agency's mission to "protect children, promote healthy 
families and encourage personal responsibility." She said DCF 
recommends children be removed from their homes when serious safety 
issues exist but not solely for marijuana use.

"The court has final say regarding placement of children," Freed said 
in an e-mailed statement. "Marijuana is an illegal substance in the 
state of Kansas. It can have both direct and indirect detrimental 
consequences on families."

Spokespeople for Garden City public schools and Brownback's office 
said both said they do not comment on pending litigation. The Garden 
City Police Department did not return a phone call seeking comment 
about the lawsuit.

Banda, 38, is a marijuana advocate and author of "Live Free or Die: 
Reclaim Your Life ... Reclaim Your Country." The book recounts her 
use of cannabis oil to treat Crohn's disease, an inflammatory bowel 
disease that can lead to life-threatening complications.

The story of her son's removal from her home last year sparked 
national and international attention and calls to decriminalize 
medical marijuana use in Kansas.

She is acting as her own attorney in the federal case, according to 
court records.

Banda's 11-year-old son was removed from her custody after he made 
comments about her using cannabis during a drug education program at 
his school on March 13, 2015. The subsequent search of her property 
by Garden City police on March 24, 2015, yielded 1.25 pounds of 
marijuana, cannabis oil and other drug-related items.

Authorities, in a police affidavit released last year, said the boy 
told school officials his mother and other adults in the house were 
avid drug users, including his older brother and the brother's 
live-in girlfriend. The boy also knew in great detail how to turn 
marijuana into cannabis oil and said the drugs were within his reach, 
the affidavit says.

Banda's federal lawsuit says her children were aware that she uses 
cannabis to treat Crohn's disease and that she educated them about 
the substance, as well as "cautioned her 11-year-old that it is a 
medication." At no time did she allow her younger son to use it, the 
lawsuit says.

Banda's federal lawsuit says her children were aware that she uses 
cannabis to treat Crohn's disease and that she educated them about 
the substance, as well as "cautioned her 11-year-old that it is a 
medication." At no time did she allow her younger son to use it, the 
lawsuit says.

Banda has been charged in Finney County District Court with three 
felonies and two misdemeanors connected to her marijuana use: 
possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance 
within 1,000 feet of school property, unlawful manufacture of a 
controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia to cultivated 
less than five plants, possession of drug paraphernalia and child 
endangerment. Adjudication of that case is pending.

She faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.

The lawsuit claims that "emerging awareness" of the medicinal uses of 
cannabis and its perceived benefits, as well as pending and enacted 
legislation in most states, has given patients a fundamental right to 
use it to "alleviate excruciating pain and discomfort" from medical conditions.

"Subjecting her (Banda) to up to thirty ... years in prison for using 
a plant that has been shown in studies to significantly reduce the 
symptoms and pain associated with Crohn's Disease when no other 
prescription drug or remedy has been effective in doing so 
objectively shocks the conscience of any reasonable person," the lawsuit says.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom