MARIJUANA ARREST MADE

A Bay Area man was ticketed for transporting marijuana Thursday after 12
immature potted plants were found in the back of his vehicle.

Patrick McMahon, 30, of San Mateo, was stopped near Pioneer Trail after a
deputy was tipped off by a motorist. El Dorado County sheriff's deputies
confiscated the plants as well as a small amount of marijuana they found in
a backpack in the front seat.

McMahon said the plants were "straight from the cannabis club." He presented
Deputy Mike Sukau with identification from the Oakland Cannabis Buyers'
Cooperative.

"He said he was bringing them to a friend who has a cannabis card or a legal
reason to have it," Sukau said. "Someone is typically allowed, with a
medical card, to use it, but the case law is unclear right now on how they
view transporting it, which is why I'm doing what I'm doing."

The Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative is a business that issues
identification cards and sells hemp products. In 1998, the cooperative's
medicinal marijuana dispensary was shut down by the federal government.

"We don't dispense medicine ... we also do not release information about
patients," said a spokesman for the cooperative, who refused to be
identified.

Sukau stopped the vehicle after a woman driving by his patrol car flagged
him down. She told him about seeing a Blazer carting around a bunch of
marijuana plants.

Sukau quickly spotted the Blazer at 4:15 p.m. and clocked it going 43 mph in
a 35-mph zone. He pulled McMahon over on Blackwood Road.

The Blazer's rear windows were darkened and mirrored, but Sukau said he
still was able to see plants in the bed of the vehicle because a window was
slightly open.