MEDICAL MARIJUANA ADVOCATE FUMING OVER RAID ON HOME

An Everett medical marijuana advocate is outraged that drug agents
served a search warrant on his home, confiscated hundreds of
marijuana plants, and took computers and other records.

Steve Sarich said those records contained personal information of
about 200 people associated with his organization CannaCare.

The raid was Friday at his north Everett home, where he runs the
organization. He gives marijuana starter plants to people eligible to
use medical marijuana under state law.

"We don't sell any pot," Sarich said. "What they were doing is
harassing us to get patient names. It was a political assassination."

Sarich has openly promoted marijuana use for medical purposes under
the 1998 state initiative. The law allows patients to get a doctor
recommendation for marijuana to ease pain or to aid them for a
variety of illnesses, such as glaucoma, cancer and multiple sclerosis.

Those patients are allowed to grow or possess a 60-day supply of
marijuana, under the law.

The federal government doesn't recognize laws in 11 states that allow
the use of medical marijuana.

Members of the Kitsap County-based West Sound Narcotics Enforcement
Team and federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents Friday served
a search warrant at Sarich's home.

Simultaneously, a second warrant was served at the Renton home of
Sarich associate John Worthington.

West Sound Sgt. Carlos Rodriguez said officers confiscated more than
1,500 marijuana plants, computers and plant-growing equipment from
Sarich's residence. Six plants and some papers were taken from the
Worthington home, according to search warrant documents.

Sarich said only a few ounces of marijuana were found at his home,
and most of the items seized were cuttings and starter plants. Agents
also took $1,020 that Sarich said was set aside to pay his Snohomish
County PUD bill.

Worthington and Sarich accused the Kitsap County officers of
retaliating for information that Worthington sent to the Legislature
last week. Worthington has accused the Kitsap drug unit of
circumventing the state medical marijuana law by turning marijuana
cases over to federal authorities.

Kitsap officials wrote in court documents that they had a lead and a
belief that they would find a large number of marijuana plants in the
raids. Rodriguez said the case is still under investigation and he
declined to comment further on it.

There have been no arrests, and no charges have been filed.

"Our intent is to disrupt mid- and upper-level marijuana
manufacturers," Rodriguez said.

Pat Slack, commander of the Snohomish Regional Drug Task Force, said
he was told in advance about the raid and Kitsap officials assured
him they didn't need help.

Worthington said he was directly associated with Canna- Care for
about a year but has ceased active participation. He was afraid that
authorities would come after Sarich, and he tried to avoid becoming
involved, he added.

Steve Newman, a Bothell man associated with CannaCare, said he
doesn't like it that records were taken.

"I feel kind of threatened about it," said Newman, a multiple
sclerosis patient who has a doctor's permission to use marijuana.
"I'm not a dealer. I'm an MS patient trying to get relief for my MS."

He said he's working with Sarich on producing a medical card for
people who use marijuana to help with health problems. He was afraid
that he would become a target when he got involved with CannaCare so
he stopped using marijuana.

Confiscation of records and possible dissemination of medical
information is something that bothers the ACLU, said Alison Holcomb,
director of the state ACLU Marijuana Education Project.

"We're interested in what kind of protection we can offer them on the
medical records," Holcomb said. "We'll see if there's some way we can
obtain a (court) protective order."