Follow-up: Judge Plays Doctor, Convicts Authorized Patient of Cultivating

[Jim Finnel]

A Washington state man with a doctor's authorization to use medical marijuana was convicted of cultivation last Friday after a state judge ruled that his use of the herb to treat chronic lower back pain did not meet the conditions of the state's medical marijuana law. Superior Court Judge Anna Laurie ruled that Robert Dalton's marijuana use did not qualify because he failed to show his pain was "unrelieved by standard medical treatments and medications," such as opiate-based painkillers.

Dalton was arrested in August 2007 after detectives with the West Sound Narcotics Enforcement Team raided his property and found 88 plants growing. Police claimed the plants were more than the 60-day supply allowed by law. But that claim was problematic, since the state Health Department has not defined what constitutes a 60-day supply.

Kitsap County Deputy Prosecutor Coreen Schnepf argued during the trial that Dalton was receiving relief from opiate pain medications and that he needed to have pain that was not relieved by other medications in order to use medical marijuana. It is not known where Schnepf obtained her medical degree.

Defense attorney Douglass Hiatt argued that opiates sickened Dalton and did not relieve his pain, but Judge Laurie sided with prosecutors, effectively overruling the recommendation of the physician who okayed Dalton's medical marijuana use.

An angry Hiatt said the judge had no business second-guessing the doctor's recommendation. "If Judge Laurie wants to be a doctor, she should go to medical school," Hiatt told the Kitsap Sun. "No patient in this state is safe if she's right."

With the conviction, Dalton's medical marijuana card has been revoked and he now faces up to six months in jail for the felony conviction. His attorneys will ask for the sentence to be suspended pending appeals.

Dalton told the Sun after the verdict that he did not want to use opiates for pain relief because they are addictive. "I don't want to be a drug addict," he said. "That's why I chose medical marijuana." [Ed: It should be noted that opiate use for pain management does not constitute addiction, and opiophobia is itself another evil of the drug war just as is medical marijuana prohibition. For some patients marijuana is a better medicine, for others opioids are better.]



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Website: Medical Marijuana: Washington State Judge Plays Doctor, Convicts Authorized Patient of Cultivating His Own Medicine | Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)

 

[mtlhead]

I have also heard (local news) that the grower was selling what he did'nt need to two women, but no mention of how many caregiver statements he possesed. The main focus last I heard was the issue was not with growing the # of plants, but the sale of the excess. With our laws in Washington State being so vague on how much you can have growing, and in what stages of growth they can be, the "RECOMENDED" guidelines need to be followed. We are all still, in the eyes of our fedral government, breaking the law. It just does not matter if you have a card or not in this state, if you choose to follow the "RECOMENDED" guidelines, and "DON'T TELL ANYONE" what your doing, you can have the medicine you need, without the fear of being persicuted by local authorities. If you choose to let others (non-patiants) know what you're doing, supply others, or just have blatent disregard for the legal fact that we need to use our medicine in private, chances are you too will make the headlines. Medical MJ has made a somewhat normal life physically possible for me, albeit a was a hard choice for me to ultimately make (due to my own personel convictions). I value my ability to do what I do, while being under the radar of the Fedral Government, but I try my best to not take any un required chances.

 

[Jim Finnel]

not specific to your state but i was thinking . . .
what if patients had some sort of tags that could be put on plants that were being grown for them. then the extra plants being grown by a provider could be easily identified by leo's?