Quick Hits (page 4)
Court Backs Jailed Grandpa's Claim of U.S. Negligence
By: Eric Malnic (L.A. Times)
The car Jose Aguado Cervantes bought at a U.S. marshal's auction in 1999 came with more than he bargained for: 119 pounds of marijuana, hidden in the bumpers.
Customs agents found the marijuana three months later when Cervantes drove the car from his home in Tijuana into the United States. It cost the 67-year- old grandfather 3 1/2 undeserved months in jail.
However, a federal appeals court has said while there wasn't much he could do now about the jail time. But the court said his negligence claim against the federal government "is an entirely different matter."
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said the government's argument against Cervantes' negligence claim was "patently without merit" and "so off-the-mark as to be embarrassing."
What recompense, if any, Cervantes eventually may get has yet to be determined. Cervantes' attorney, Stephen J. Estey of San Diego, said he would press for damages.
The appeals court said the car Cervantes bought at a federal auction in San Diego on July 15, 1999, had been seized by the Immigration and Naturalization Service four months earlier, after it had been used to carry undocumented immigrants across the border.
Cervantes says the INS and the marshal's service failed to inspect the car before the sale. If they had, he said, they would have found the marijuana, hidden in compartments welded into the bumpers.
"Cervantes remained similarly unaware of the contraband until its discovery by U.S. customs agents as he tried to cross the U.S. border on Oct. 22, 1999," the appeals court said. "Although Cervantes denied knowledge of the marijuana and informed agents that he had purchased the vehicle at a U.S. marshal's auction, he was arrested and incarcerated."
The government eventually realized that the marijuana had been there before Cervantes bought the car and dropped all charges. But by then, he had spent months in jail awaiting trial.
Cervantes, who had never before been arrested, filed claims against the government alleging negligence, false imprisonment and false arrest.
The appeals court agreed with an earlier district court ruling that he cannot recover damages for false arrest and imprisonment, because customs agents had reasonable cause to arrest him. But the appellate judges disagreed with the lower court's ruling that Cervantes' negligence claims were similarly unwarranted.
The government's arguments, they said, "simply fail the straight-face test."
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Tan 'n' Trends
Growin' Our Own (page 4)
From Peru to You
By: Anonymous
Hi! My name is Tammy. I just got the cutest little black dress! I kind of had to, my boyfriend just died. Do you know how hard it is to find anything cute in size 3 with a 42 inch bust? It isn't easy, I'll tell you. But I found one so now I can go to the funeral. I think there's going to be a funeral. My boyfriend's friends have all gone from the house here, so I'm not for sure.
Silly me! You don't even know what I'm talking about, do you? Here, I'll explain.
My boyfriend, Richard - well, actually Ricardo, but he said I could call him Richard 'cause I don't speak Spanish - had a business here in Peru. I don't know what the business was all about, I'm not real good with that stuff. I took a business class in high school, but that was the year I dropped out, so I don't know how it ended. Anyway, Richard had a business. He did real good in his business, too. He always wore Versace suits. He even had designer socks! Now I ask you, would he have designer socks if he wasn't doing good? Richard has this real nice house, too. He called it an estate. It has all kinds of buildings around the house and a great big tall fence all the way around the property. He had a bunch of his friends to work with him. They took care of whatever went on in all those buildings and watched for people climbing over the fence and stuff. Richard didn't like it if people tried to come to the house without an invitation. I think party crashers are just so ... so ... you know - poopy! We almost always had a party going. Richard had lots of friends. They must have real good businesses or jobs or something too. They all dress in Versace and Armani and stuff. They're from all over the world, so a lot of times I couldn't understand what they said at all. But it was still fun having all the parties. Richard used to get me the prettiest clothes to wear! He made the best drinks, too. He used to make a special one just for me. He even named it after me - the TT - he said that stands for Tammy twist. It makes my nose and mouth all tingly, kind of like there's bees buzzing around in them. I can drink a bunch of them and not get real drunk, too. Pretty good, huh?
One time, at one of the parties, one of Richard's friends went out to one of the buildings with Richard. (I have to stay out of the buildings - Richard said they aren't any place for a lady.) When they came back inside Richard's friend was all mad. He spoke some other language, so I didn't know what he was saying, but you didn't need to know to see why he was mad. Somebody had spilled powdered sugar all over his pretty Armani suit. He was just yelling like anything. I know why, though. It's real hard to get stuff dry cleaned here. I mean, you have to send it like to another town, ours is too small to have a dry cleaner.
But I'm supposed to be telling you what happened to Richard. We went for a drive about a week ago. Richard has all kinds of different cars, and he likes to drive real fast. I like it too! So we went for a drive. There's only one road to the house with pavement on it, so that's the one we were on. We drove for maybe half an hour when all of a sudden - POP! One of the tires blew up. I thought we were going to wreck. I was so scared! But Richard was a good driver and he got the car stopped okay. We both got out of the car to look at the tire. We were talking and looking at the tire and when we stood up to get in the trunk so Richard could change the tire there was a whole lot of guys I didn't know around us. Richard looked mad, and kind of scared, too. I knew these guys weren't friends of Richards because they were dressed in, like, old blue jeans and tee shirts. None of our friends dress like that! Did I say yet that they had guns? They did. Some were long and some were just the size to fit in your hand. They all looked real scary. These guys started yelling at Richard and me. I told them I don't know Spanish, but Richard told me to shut up. Then I knew he was real upset, because he never, ever told me to shut up before. Usually he said 'be quiet'. These guys were yelling about 'coca'. I told them we didn't have any Coca Cola, and I tried to give them one of my Dr. Peppers. The meanies! The guy I gave it too threw it on the ground by my feet. It splashed all over my shoes. I was wearing my pretty pink satin ones with the bows on the back. They're all ruined now, and I'm so mad! When they did that Richard told me to get in the car and sit there.
Well, I did. I was kind of crying a little about my shoes being wrecked and about all the yelling because it was scaring me. But I was more mad than anything else. I decided I'd show them! I know how to drive a car. I used to drive my Dad's car back on the farm in Wisconsin before he left me and Mom. I started the car up and those nasty men set off a bunch of firecrackers! Well that scared me too and I stepped on the gas real hard. There was some dirt and stuff on the road and it sprayed all over those guys. I liked that. Then I could hear the firecrackers hitting the car. They were throwing firecrackers at the car! I was too far down the road then to see them real good, so I turned around and drove right at them. I'd show them for throwing stuff at Richard's pretty car! When I drove at them I was going pretty fast and they ran like all get out into the trees and bushes by the side of the road. I hit the brakes real hard when I got to where Richard was and the car skidded a little ways past him. He was laying on the ground. I thought maybe one of the bad guys had hit him, so I got out of the car and ran to him. He was bleeding like anything! He told me they shot him! I helped him get into the car, and that was real hard because he was messed up pretty bad. Then I started to drive to town to the doctor. I was so scared. Richard tried to talk to me, but he just kind of made gurgling noises.
When I got to the doctor's office I ran inside and told them Richard was hurt and needed the doctor. Everybody in the office ran out to the car. See, they all know Richard because he helps people in town have food and things like that. Everybody just loves him. Well, they did. The doctor got all excited when he saw Richard and he was yelling things to the other people in Spanish and to me too. He kind of forgot that I don't speak Spanish. A lot of people that heard all the yelling came to look in the car at Richard. Some of them made crosses on their chests and left in a hurry. I've seen people do that in movies and it usually means somebody died. I stopped the doctor and asked him if Richard was dead. He told me no, but that Richard probably wouldn't live very much longer, maybe just a few minutes. Then the priest guy from the church came and started praying over Richard. I was so sad! I didn't know what to do. A couple of the ladies from the doctor's office took me inside and tried to give me a glass of water. Then the doctor came in and said "it's all over." Just like that. "It's all over."
He sent a kid to the house to tell Richard's friends there what happened to him. Two of them came to the doctor's office in just a few minutes and they took Richard away. I tried to ask them about a funeral, or if Richard had family we should call, but all they would tell me was "we take care of it." Another guy from the house came to the doctor's office and drove me home. He told me I should go back where I came from real soon.
That was a week ago. Everybody that was living here and working here all left when they found out about Richard. I'm all alone and I don't like it. I keep hoping one of the maids or maybe the cook will come back to help me, but they haven't. I guess I better get hold of my Mom in Wisconsin and ask her if I can come stay with her for a while. I had almost finished school to be a nurse's aide when I met Richard and moved here. Maybe I can go back to school and start where I left off. I'll have to get a job of some kind because Mom is pretty poor. Right after the funeral I'll go back to the States. I guess there's going to be a funeral, but nobody has said anything yet.
I'm writing all this down in case any cops or anything come to find out about Richard. Maybe they'll catch those guys that killed him someday. I'm going to leave this here in Richard's house.
Wait, I hear somebody in the next room! Oh goody! I'll bet it's the cook! I'm going to ask her to make me a big plate of those little shrimp and cheese thingies with the hot chi
(Ed. note: This story was sent to us anonymously by mail from Peru in April. We have edited it for spelling, but have changed nothing of the content. You are reading it exactly as it came to us - unfinished.)
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Pipeline (page 4)
Medical pot Clubs Thrive Discreetly Fear of feds Keeps Users Quiet in Bay Area
By: Janine DeFao (S.F. Chronicle)
When federal officials shut down the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative in 1998, Angel McClary Raich faced what she considered a "life-threatening situation."
"I could die in 45 days without medical marijuana. It literally keeps me alive," said Raich, 37, an Oakland resident who suffers from an inoperable brain tumor, seizures, wasting syndrome and chronic pain.
For Raich, it wasn't difficult to find another source for the marijuana she relies on daily to quiet her pain and seizures and stimulate her appetite. What was harder, she said, was to quell the fear that federal agents would break down her door, seize her stash and even jail her.
Such is the state of Proposition 215, the medical marijuana initiative passed by California voters in 1996.
A high-profile federal crackdown on medical marijuana has resulted in the closure of clubs throughout the state, raids on growers and arrests of activists including Ed Rosenthal, who was convicted of cultivating marijuana but spared a prison sentence in June.
But activists say the crackdown has not curtailed access to medical marijuana in the Bay Area, and the number of cannabis clubs and other providers is growing to meet the needs of thousands of patients.
Still, many providers and patients alike live in fear of federal prosecution and so have kept their activities under the radar.
"It seems the more the federal government puts pressure on dispensaries, the more that pop up," said Don Duncan, director of the Berkeley Patients Group, one of many innocuously named medical marijuana providers. But "it's a good idea not to provoke a lot of attention. We're worried all the time the (Drug Enforcement Administration) could come crashing into Berkeley."
"There's a risk involved, but it's important to take that risk," he said.
There are at least 35 medical pot clubs in the state, nearly all of them in Northern California and more than half in the Bay Area, said Dale Gieringer, coordinator of the California chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
"Hardly a month goes by that I don't hear of another dispensary opening up, " he said. Wayne Justmann, chairman of San Francisco's medical cannabis task force, said the number of clubs in the city has grown from just two five years ago to 11 today.
"We haven't missed a step in providing services for people who qualify under 215 irregardless of what's happening in the courts or Washington or Sacramento," said Justmann, 58, who uses medical marijuana to treat symptoms of HIV.
While one large provider, Cannabis Helping to Alleviate Medical Problems, closed a year ago because it feared it was about to be raided, another organization has since opened in the same spot, Justmann said.
Activists say the local situation is in stark contrast to Southern California, where the number of clubs may be down to just one. Many of those patients are making their way to the Bay Area to obtain the drug.
Supportive local governments have allowed networks to grow in the Bay Area, they say.
San Francisco and Marin County's public health departments provide medical marijuana ID cards to patients who provide documentation from a doctor that can be verified. San Francisco has handed out some 5,000 cards since July 2000.
The Oakland cannabis cooperative, which no longer dispenses the drug, also distributes ID cards, which clubs typically require even to allow someone in the door.
Gieringer of NORML estimates that 40,000 Californians are using medical marijuana, the majority of them in Northern California.
"In the Bay Area, Proposition 215 is definitely a daily reality," said Steph Sherer, executive director of Americans for Safe Access, a Berkeley- based national advocacy group.
But Sherer and others say that reality is not worry-free.
"I do talk to a lot of people who are so afraid of the federal government crackdown that they're afraid to get an ID card and be out on some list because they're afraid they'll be followed home and busted," she said. "I've had hundreds of patients tell me they'd rather try to find it illicitly than go to a dispensary because they're afraid of being targeted."
While clubs remain plentiful, some advocates say the supply of safe, quality marijuana has been hampered by the federal government, which maintains marijuana is an illegal drug with no legitimate medical use.
Rosenthal, arrested in February 2002, was the major provider for the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana, the only dispensary in that county.
"He was the only legitimate guy we could go to. Our patients lost a tremendous amount of medicine," said Lynnette Shaw, alliance founder. Now, the alliance relies on patients who grow their own marijuana to provide extra for those who don't.
The Marin group was one of six -- including the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative and Dennis Peron's Cannabis Cultivators Club in San Francisco -- ordered to stop dispensing marijuana by a 1998 federal injunction, but Shaw has been fighting the injunction in court and has ignored the order, so far without repercussions.
Raich also has taken her fight to the courts, going on the offensive and seeking an injunction that would prevent the federal government from prosecuting her for using a drug she deems life-saving. While she lost the case in March, she is appealing.
The federal crackdown, she said, "has bonded the patients, caregivers and providers. Even though our bodies are weak, our minds and spirits are stronger than ever."
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