Quick Hits (page 2)
Major Marijuana Farms Found in Mountains
By: Staff Reporter (Fresno Bee)
AUBERRY, Calif. -- Nearly 700 marijuana plants were ripped Thursday from a remote mountaintop northeast of Auberry, a day after more than 1,600 other plants were found about 10 miles away, state narcotics officials said.
With the state's annual Campaign Against Marijuana Planting program, which works to eradicate marijuana gardens in remote areas, kicking off its season last week, the two Auberry-area gardens are the first to be discovered in Fresno County.
"They may be the first ones, but we can bet they won't be the last," said an undercover Fresno County sheriff's narcotics detective. "I'm sure we'll be finding more in the next couple of months."
Shirley Lessiak, a CAMP spokeswoman and a special agent with the state's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, said more than 2,300 marijuana plants were found earlier this week in Tulare County.
On Thursday, a day after a CAMP helicopter crew caught sight of what appeared to be a small marijuana garden on top of a mountain about 17 miles northeast of Auberry, east of Jose Basin Road, a team of about 15 officers drove up to the site.
Using four-wheel-drive vehicles, it took the team nearly an hour to cover six miles to the top, using an old logging company dirt road.
The garden, 4,700 feet in elevation, was surrounded by pine trees and beneath manzanita bushes.
The garden yielded 681 plants, ranging from less than a foot to about 2 feet in height.
An irrigation system, apparently using water from a nearby spring, was found in place, but investigators said it appeared that most of the watering was done by hand.
Investigators said whoever worked the gardens apparently did not stay there, as no campsite was found.
Officials pulled the plants out by their roots and carried them to a waiting pickup to be hauled to a county burning site.
Earlier in the week, a marijuana garden also was found east of Auberry just off of Highway 168, Lessiak said.
Most of the plants were described as small, no higher than 3 feet tall.
No one was in the garden when officers arrived, and Fresno County sheriff's deputies said it appeared the garden had been unattended for about two or three weeks.
Lessiak said a plastic irrigation system was in place, but no water source could be found.
"Apparently the place went dry," she said, perhaps explaining why the garden was left unattended.
The CAMP program, established in 1983, has destroyed about 3 million marijuana plants, Lessiak said.
It operates from about August to October and uses state, local and federal personnel.
In addition to state narcotics agents and Fresno County sheriff's narcotics investigators, the operations Wednesday and Thursday in the Auberry area also included U.S. Forest Service special agents and members of the California National Guard.
A record 354,164 plants were seized in California last year under the program.
Nearly a third of them were uprooted in the Central Valley, Attorney General Bill Lockyer told reporters last October.
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Growin' Our Own (page 2)
Whadda Ya Mean I'm Under Arrest?
By: Elmore Stone
In my travels and travails throughout the State of California, A.K.A. State of Confusion, on my trusty motorcycle I have met some real interesting people. Some cool and some real assholes, just like we all have. No matter, it seems, where I end up or who I'm talking with the conversation eventually turns to weed. Not that there is anything wrong with that. It just happens.
What really piques my interest about these conversations is the majority of folks I have spoken with, almost without exception, are fully in favor of medical marijuana while only about 7 out of 10 are in favor of legalizing weed completely. This is all good news, let me tell you.
At the same time, these same people are really pissed off about the medical marijuana patients being busted. I've even spoken to a couple of deputy sheriffs about this situation, asked them their opinion, and have been told that they won't arrest a medical pot user. They have bigger fish to fry. Real bad guys to catch -- like robbers, murders and rapists. These deputies don't have the time or, and more importantly, the want to arrest legal stoners.
Which brings me to the main point of this sermon. Why are legal stoners, i.e., medical marijuana patients being arrested, prosecuted and quite often, convicted?
In California the law stipulates that a patient shall have the right to obtain, use and cultivate marijuana for medical purposes. The same holds true for the care giver. Now the salient question is how does a person become a patient? A seriously ill California resident (and no seriously ill does not mean a hang nail, hang over or hanging it all out, it means exactly what it says -- seriously ill) merely requires a "recommendation" from the treating physician. The recommendation can take either a verbal or written form. That is it. Be a (1) California resident with a serious illness and (2) see a doctor who is willing to recommend marijuana as a possible medicine to try.
Hey, guess what? You, the newly inducted medical marijuana patient, can now use marijuana legally for your illness. Ain't it great? Oh ha. Don't be surprised if you hear a knocking on your door some evening followed by the rather rude verbiage 'police ... open up ... you are under arrest'.
You, the medical marijuana user -- the patient -- are now on your way to some county run cross bar hotel for at least the evening and quite possible much longer. All for obeying the law.
I can not begin to explain, let alone factually say, why medical Mary Jane patients are being busted. I have no clue. Those who are doing the arresting, for the most part, are not the feds, the DEA. No, they are deputy sheriffs or city police living in our cities and counties. Why the hell our local police and sheriffs are busting sick people is not only beyond me, it is, to be sure, beyond the pale.
Now last month we ran a feature about what appears to be an increase in the arrests of medical pot patients. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We all know it is happening, but why? So I decided to contact William McPike, the lawyer for the dude who was pictured at the top of that story.
McPike is a pretty cool individual. He let me ask all kinds of questions and he provided all the answers. Naturally, in legalese, a language I refuse to learn. The bottom line on medical pot users is that, simply put, the law -- the will of the people -- is utterly ignored. That is what he told me.
The good news, there actually is some, is that Bill has developed a fast-track method for helping the now busted patient. McPike files a demurrer, legal pleading -- before the patient's arraignment hearing showing that no public offense has been committed by the patient. No muss, no fuss and the patient is freed and off the hook completely. So far the demurrer procedure has worked flawlessly.
The same, unfortunately, can not be said for getting a patient's medicine returned to them. Even with a court order requiring the cops to return the pot the police are refusing to obey the order. Can you believe that shit? Well, believe it because that is the way it is. Sucks doesn't it?
According to Bill McPike, he is working on that but would not discuss it with me. Whatever it is, I hope McPike is able to jack the police who refuse to adhere to a court order dead square in their bad faith asses.
My last question to him was "how do bona-fide patients protect themselves?" His answer was amazing and at the same time sickening. Before I can get into that I have to say this does not constitute legal advice. Now that I have said that, in order to prevent a bust, what can the bona-fide patient do? The answer is ... nothing. If the cops want to bust a patient they are going to do it. All a patient can do is to (1) have a copy of the recommendation, a certified true copy preferably, real handy and (2) keep their mouth shut, the 'I ain't going to tell you shit' syndrome. I might also add that once a person has a recommendation from their doctor and, as such, has magically transformed from person to medical Mary Jane patient ... find a fucking lawyer before the shit hits the fan.
Hey, sorry to say that, but it is true. I know a person should not need a criminal defense lawyer because they are obeying the law. It's illogical and you all are preaching to the choir on that score. I also know that an ounce of prevention is worth much more than a pound of cure. Yes, pun intended. The choice is yours and yours alone.
What is really entertaining is how much is enough pot for a patient to have, use or be growing? Well, if you are looking for a straight forward answer, you are reading the wrong story. There is no set amount. No 'how much is too much'? Because pot is palliative, there can be no set amount. It varies from patient to patient. Whether you have an ounce or a few pounds if you are a bona-fide patient the amount, the quantity, is absolutely irrelevant. Prosecutors and cops, on the other hand, view the quantity issue through their jaded eyes. So don't be surprised if the criminal complaint also charges you with 'possession with intent to sell'.
Think about it. No prosecutor in their right mind is going file charges against a patient. Ain't going to happen ... Cap'n. They are going to charge a patient as a criminal. Either as a illegal user or as a dealer or both. Rather nasty tasting medicine isn't it? For obeying the law a patient can be busted and treated as if he or she is a criminal. How ludicrous is that?
The letter recommending pot as a medicine from your doctor is worth its weight in legal gold. While it does no good in preventing arrest it does, at least in theory and according to McPike's method, act as a "legal bar to prosecution." One thing though has to be a gen-u-wine for certain, the date on the recommendation must be, as in its gotta be, before the date of arrest. Let me put it another way, if you got popped on the Fourth of July, 2003, and your recommendation is dated the Fifth of July, 2003, you -- are -- fucked.
I'll tell you something else, mounting a criminal defense is expensive. Lawyers are not cheap to come by. And if you enter a plea, guilty or not guilty, at your arraignment hearing the legal fees are going to climb faster than a speeding bullet. This is not talking the trial either. Some attorneys charge thousands of dollars and that does not include trial, so shop around.
Being a medical marijuana patient in California, even though the law is technically on your side, is no walk in the park. The seriously ill California resident who is considering medical marijuana needs to be prepared. I know that is adding insult to injury, sick and knowing that a certain kind of medicine could land that person in the can for a while and cost several thousands of dollars to fight. I know it sucks rocks but it is better to be prepared way ahead of time than to be behind the eight ball and try to play catch up after being busted.
I'm not saying that every medical pot patient will be busted. I'm not saying that at all. However, if you have a serious illness that may qualify for a recommendation from your doctor, for crying out loud, try to get it. Don't smoke as a medicine without the recommendation first. Get the frigging recommendation first. Then have some certified true copies made of it and put the original in a very safe place. Then, and I can not emphasize this enough, find yourself a lawyer and get their legal advice on what to do and how to do it. It is all in being prepared.
Hopefully, you the patient, will never be hassled, arrested or prosecuted. Hopefully the medical weed will help. From what little I have read on the subject weed tends to work quite well as a medication for a large variety of ailments.
Preparation, don't be caught without it.
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Pipeline (page 2)
Study Finds No Harm
By: Norml (press release)
University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Study Finds No Harm to HIV+ Patients with Short-Term Medical Cannabis.
UCSF researchers found no harmful changes in HIV virus levels in patients on combination antretroiviral therapy in a safety study looking at both smoked marijuana and dronabinol, an oral medical cannabinoid.
"People with HIV are a vulnerable population, so successfully addressing the safety concerns allows us to move on to effectiveness studies, three of which are currently underway here," said study author Donald Abrams, MD, professor of clinical medicine in the UCSF Positive Health Program at San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center (SFGHMC).
The findings, which appeared in the August 19, 2003 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, mark the first publication of a randomized, controlled study involving medical marijuana in a major peer-reviewed journal in several years.
Sixty-two HIV-infected patients on antiretroviral regimens containing a protease inhibitor completed the 25 day inpatient study. Patients were randomized to three groups--20 received smoked marijuana, 22 received dronabinol, and 20 received an oral placebo.
The study measured changes in HIV virus levels in blood (rising levels tend to indicate disease progression) and CD 4 and CD 8 T lymphocyte cell counts.
These disease - fighting white blood cells are essential for defending against infections and are targeted and destroyed by the HIV virus.
The study investigated whether cannabinoids would alter the levels of the virus either by changing the levels of the protease inhibitor medication or by a direct effect on the immune system. Fifty-eight percent of the participants entered the study with levels of HIV virus circulating in their blood below the limit currently detectable by the usual tests. They ended the study with no change in their undetectable status. In all three arms, patients with detectable levels of virus saw no change in the levels of HIV in their blood over the three-week study period. There was no significant change in CD 4 or CD 8 T-cell counts for the placebo group over the course of the study. CD 4 T-cell counts rose by about 20 percent for both the smoked marijuana and the dronabinol group. CD 8 T-cell counts rose by 20 percent in the smoked marijuana group and by 10 percent in the dronabinol group. "The change in lymphocyte counts for the smoked marijuana group is intriguing. At a minimum, it contradicts findings from previous studies suggesting that smoked marijuana suppresses the immune system," said Abrams.
While not the primary objective of the study, weight gain was observed in all three groups, possibly due to regularly scheduled meals and snacks. Statistically significant weight gain occurred in both the smoked marijuana and the dronabinol arms compared with the placebo arm, though the gain was fat, not in the desired lean body mass compartment.
Co-authors of the study are Joan F. Hilton, DSc, MPH, UCSF associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics; Roslyn J. Leiser, RN, clinical nurse, Starley B. Shade, MPH, senior statistician, Steven G. Deeks, MD, UCSF associate professor of medicine, and Thomas F. Mitchell, MPH, program director, all in the UCSF Positive Health Program at SFGHMC; Tarek A. Elbeik, PhD, UCSF associate researcher in laboratory medicine at SFGHMC; Francesca T. Aweeka, PharmD, UCSF professor of clinical pharmacology; and Neal L. Benowitz, MD, UCSF chief of the division of clinical pharmacology and vice chair of the department of biopharmaceutical sciences. Also, Barry M. Bredt, MA, specialist, and Morris Schambelan, MD, UCSF professor of medicine and director, General Clinical Research Center at SFGHMC; Bradley Kosel, PharmD, visiting postdoctoral scholar in clinical pharmacology at UCSF; Judith A. Aberg, MD, associate professor of medicine at Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.; Kathleen Mulligan, PhD, UCSF associate professor of medicine at SFGHMC; and Joseph M. McCune, MD, PhD, UCSF professor of medicine at the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology.
The study was supported by a research grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a part of the National Institutes of Health, which also supplied the marijuana cigarettes for the trial. The dronabinol and placebo were supplied by Roxane, Inc., Columbus, Ohio.
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Dakota Joseph Arts