Quick Hits (page 2)
Police Refusal to Return Medical pot Prompts Suit
By: Charles McCarthy (Fresno Bee)
MADERA -- Whether the city of Chowchilla and its former police chief, John Robinson, should be penalized for refusing to return about a pound of medical marijuana to its owner remained undecided Friday.
After hearing three afternoons of arguments, Madera County Judge James E. Oakley told lawyers for both sides that he will decide after reading written arguments. He asked to see those by July 29.
"I want you each to have the last word," Oakley said.
Testimony cleared little of the legal haze around a discrepancy between federal law, which holds that possessing marijuana is illegal, and state law, which allows the conditional use of marijuana for medical purposes.
The marijuana has been kept in a Chowchilla police evidence locker since it was seized from Michael Celli, 43, of Chowchilla more than a year ago.
Celli's lawyer, William McPike of Auberry, wants Robinson and the city of Chowchilla held in contempt for violating a court order in July 2003 directing that the marijuana be returned to his client.
Robinson cited federal law for his refusal.
McPike took the witness stand Friday on behalf of Celli. Questioned by defense lawyer Neal Costanzo of Fresno, McPike said that after the court order was presented at Chowchilla police headquarters last July 7, Robinson told him and Celli: ''The DEA is coming out this afternoon and is picking it up."
Federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents didn't pick it up, and the marijuana's medicinal value now is doubtful, McPike says. But, he contends, Celli should be repaid its value ($4,800) and $5 per day since July 2003. McPike also asks for "appropriate criminal penalties and sanctions" along with $4,500 in lawyer's fees.
The controversy started April 25, 2003, when Chowchilla police seized two bags of marijuana while issuing Celli a parking citation. Celli argued that the pot, which he used to combat the effects of migraine headaches, was legally purchased at an Oakland medical marijuana co-op.
Police forwarded a criminal complaint to Madera County District Attorney Ernest LiCalsi, who studied the case and decided not to pursue charges.
A visiting judge from Humboldt County ordered police to return the pot, but Robinson refused, leading to the contempt-of-court claim.
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Growin' Our Own (page 2)
Home-Grown in Broken Homes
By: Herb Terry
Every year countless potheads from across the globe make pilgrimages to their Holy land of Holland. This year we were among that dutiful throng. We came on a special mission: To offer Bud Life's readers a clear window into Dutch grow houses.
Upon arriving in Amsterdam, an excited coffeeshop employee welcomed us to "the real happiest place on earth". He described it as "Disneyland on pot", and then later, "paradise without the forbidden fruit". Following that metaphor, we asked him who grew the 'trees of knowledge' and stocked his coffeeshop's shelves. Now understanding the focus of our article, not coffeeshops but grow houses, our excitable friend grew serious. "Sorry", he said, "that's the part we don't talk about. We don't talk about growers or suppliers". He asked, also, that we don't use the name of his shop or him in any article about grow houses.
After several more cold shoulders in the coffeeshops, we brought our investigation to the Cannabis College Amsterdam. We were handed a pamphlet at the door, which read, "The time has come to update global knowledge (about cannabis), surely our best defense against the War on Drugs". We asked a volunteer why Dutch growers remain 'unknown soldiers' in this war against the War on Drugs in a country that's in allied hands. His response: "it's not - well, not entirely."
Marijuana is, in fact, as banned in Holland as it is anywhere else on the planet. It is listed as an illegal drug under international law. In other words, before liberal countries like Holland, Switzerland or Canada can even think of full legalization they need to convince other signatories (such as Germany, the UK and the U.S.) that it is 'high' time for a change in international legislation.
For now, the more pro-pot countries tiptoe around true legalization by imposing confusing and paradoxical regulations on the drug. In Switzerland, one can buy great quantities of smokeable marijuana, but it is 'intended' to be used only as aromatherapy in bathing. And in Holland, licensed coffeeshops are allowed to sell marijuana but, here's the catch, they are not allowed to buy the product they are selling! Nor can they grow it themselves, unless it is for personal use and even then each person is only allowed to grow three plants and under the strictest natural conditions. So how does their supply match their exhaustive menus of 'home-grown' Dutch bud? Coffee shop managers won't say and, generally, police won't ask. It is what locals call the 'back-door policy'.
Dutch cops are not staking out alleys behind coffee shops to make a bust. However, if they are given a tip about a grow house or illegal sale, or simply happen to stumble upon the one or the other, then they do their job and the 'criminals' are given a sentence similar to that in other European countries. We were informed that it is usually only the people caught growing or selling the plant that are held accountable. At the same time we are told that it is common knowledge that large groups, known as 'marijuana mobs', control the coffeeshop supply by setting up small grow houses in the poorer neighborhoods of Holland.
Other than providing that legal information, the folks at Cannabis College could offer us no leads in our search for a true grow house. They recommended that we be satisfied with having seen the quasi-legal, naturally-grown plants in their exhibit and cautioned us that the people we were looking for, those that supply the coffeeshops, are generally 'seedy characters'. We laughed at the warning, unsure if he intended the pun, and left in pursuit of the seediest Amsterdam had to offer. Perhaps one of those socialites on the streets of Amsterdam, the ones that address you in whispers and seem to think you're named Charlie Cokexspeed.
Later that evening we were in a coffee shop seeking inspiration for our next move. After a while we started chatting with some young kids that had come into Amsterdam from The Hague, among them sixteen year old stoner Renz V. They were telling us about the best shops and bud in town. Later we began whining about how unhelpful we had found the Dutch to be in our hunt for the nurseries. Renz V. perked up in defense of his countrymen "people could get in a lot of shit for helping you with that". We told him that we would not write anything they did not want exposed, like their names or the address of their grow house. That's when we got our big break. If we gave him a couple bucks, Renz said, and smoked him some joints on the way, he would take us to a true Dutch grow house just outside of The Hague.
We agreed and left Amsterdam the next morning. After arriving at Den Haag's central station we took a long bus ride out of the center of town and into what was clearly a poorer neighborhood. It turned out that the grow house we were visiting was in fact Renz's own home, where he and two brothers lived with their single mom, and had plants locked up in their attic. On the long hike up his typical Dutch stairwell, he explained how a few big men brought in all the equipment and set everything up, that his family hardly had to do anything to take care of the plants and that when it was time for a trim the men came back and did all that work as well. It was those men that paid them. Likely, I thought, it is those men that our friends at the C.C.A. had referred to as being 'seedy'.
The inside of the attic looked like the interior of a very cramped spaceship, there was a lot of light and equipment, and the tall plants looked like the aliens operating the controls. There were six or seven plants, bunched up and growing into each other; two of them looked like a different sort of plant than the others and also looked less bushy. Renz was just starting to explain something about the thinner ones when we heard the front door downstairs creek open. Renz darted off down the steep, narrow steps with alarming speed.
We stayed where we were, unsure of what to do, and could hear him saying something in Dutch to whomever had just come in downstairs. There was a pause and then yelling, his voice and a woman's. His mother, we thought. We were right. We came down the stairs as she was charging up them; likely she had seen our shoes. When she saw us, she froze, perhaps because we were older than the friends to whom she assumed he had been showing off ; perhaps because there was a pad of paper in my hand and a camera in the photographer's. Then she backed down the stairs and recommenced yelling at her son, giving him little smacks upside the head as we all made toward the front door.
Outside the house she spoke to us for the first time in English, not as well as your average Dutchman, "It is not you..you to write". I assured her that her son already had me promise not to give their address or family name. "And what pictures for? It was a digital camera and we showed her that we had only taken one picture so far and that it was only a close-up of the bushier plants; she asked us to erase it anyways. We did what she asked and left right away. Firstly, because it would be unethical for us as journalists to do otherwise and secondly, because she had begun to cry.
After we left Renz's house, and Renz's terrified mother, we agreed that Amsterdam is indeed a lot like Disneyland, complete with the exploited poor, hidden behind the scenes to provide all the fun. Making souvenirs for Disneyland tourists; growing pot for Holland's.
Our time in Holland was coming to an end and we were satisfied, at least, that we had seen a truly typical Dutch grow house. We had had a great time in Amsterdam and, at times, it did feel like "paradise without the forbidden fruit". However, discovering that pot is not as legal as we had thought it to be - that it was still criminals running the show, hiding behind families like Renz's - was like finding a worm in the apple and that left a bad taste in our mouths.
If you want to see nice, natural plants growing in Holland you can tip toe through tulips or visit the lovely displays at The Hash and Hemp Museum or the Cannabis College Amsterdam. Don't fool yourself though; the stuff beyond that glass is not what you'll be smoking. Don't imagine your Dutch joint has come from open fields or a nice sanitary government lab. In Holland marijuana is grown in a much more familiar way: It's growth profits criminal organization, it is grown without care (but likely with lots of chemicals), locked up in the closets and attics of some desperate and exploited people. Why is this the 'familiar' way the world over? International law extends that far. Until it gets changed, "the happiest place on Earth" remains as real as the giant talking mouse that coined the phrase.
Note: The name 'Renz V' was used in an effort to further protect the family's identity. That is not his actual name.
[Ed note: Herb Terry is a freelance travel journalist currently based in Palermo, Sicily.]
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Pipeline (page 2)
Man to Fight to Regain Marijuana -- Again
By: Amy Hilvers, (Bakersfield Californian staff writer)
In what may be a first, the Kern County Sheriff's Department returned marijuana it seized in a raid. But many hours later, sheriff's officials took back the weed. Deputies came to Victor Allen Love's home a little after 10 p.m. and confiscated six large bags of pot, which he had picked up that morning from the department's property room.
"Well, pop my bubble," he said in disappointment.
Love, who was acquitted by a jury of marijuana charges in February, has a doctor's recommendation for the drug, which he says he uses as medicine.
After numerous trips to court asking for his property and filing a $53,000 claim against the county, Love received a letter from the Sheriff's Department saying he could come pick up his marijuana at the property room in Bakersfield.
"I went to the right pile and stirred the right flies," said Love, 55. "I'm sorry to say that's how it is."
But Sheriff Mack Wimbish said later that a mistake was made. "It is an error in releasing the marijuana. We should not be doing that," he said.
The sheriff said at the time he didn't know if the department would try to reclaim the bags of pot.
Love said he would talk to the judge at his next hearing to see if he can get the pot back.
Love, a leader of the local branch of the Church of Here and Now, was in a spry mood when he went to retrieve his weed earlier in the day, despite suffering from arthritis, gout and asthma.
"I haven't had any good medicine since they arrested me," he said.
Authorities believed Love was selling pot out of his Mountain Mesa home and arrested him last September on suspicion of cultivation and possession for sales. They uprooted and seized more than a dozen plants from his backyard garden.
A jury acquitted Love of the charges, but authorities did not return the giant sacks of marijuana plants they took.
Love went to the property room Tuesday wearing his standard blue denim overalls and a big smile.
"This is something I never thought would happen," he said.
"I'm just happy to get my medicine back so we can live a fair quality of life," he said after loading the seven large bags into his vehicle. He said most of it was unusable because of mold, but at least he got it back.
"Yes, it's in there," he said, smelling a piece he plucked off the plant.
He said living without his supply was difficult for him and his girlfriend, Deborah Peugh.
"I get in so much pain I want to cut my hands off. I want to cut my feet off," he said recentlyat his home after tending to a freshly planted marijuana garden.
After Love beat the charges, he became a sort of go-to guy for other medicinal marijuana users in Kern.
"I felt like it was about time," he said of his acquittal. "A big weight has been lifted off my shoulders."
Since then, Love hosted a "Weedstock" gathering of medicinal marijuana users and advocates and said dozens of people from all over the country have called seeking advice.
Bill Hause of Bodfish said he called Love when he saw an article about his acquittal. Hause, who suffers from liver failure, recently moved from San Diego and wanted to know more about the local medicinal marijuana scene. He said doctors told him that traditional prescription pain medications could cause him to fall into a coma, he said.
Love told him of a doctor he could see and about the laws.
"He was telling me we have patients' rights," Hause said. "He's a pretty sharp guy.
"I don't think any patient should have to suffer some brutal assault by the Sheriff's Department," Hause added. "I think that patients should be protected by the law, not hassled by the law."
Love had professed his innocence all along, saying that he did everything in his power to follow the law. He had a current doctor's recommendation. He put up signs in the yard that said he was growing marijuana for medical purposes and listed how much he was allowed under the law.
But he was thrown in jail because authorities believed he was selling it.
"It didn't seem to make a difference whether you follow the letter of the law or not," he said.
His doctor traveled from Northern California and testified that she gave Love and his girlfriend a written recommendation to use pot. Marijuana charges against Peugh, who was arrested after Love, were dismissed following his acquittal.
Love has another formal court hearing, where he is seeking another box he said was not returned. In the meantime, he said he wanted to make sure authorities were aware of the law.
"How can I be jailed if I follow the law?" he said.
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Dakota Joseph Arts