MEDICAL POT USERS SEEK HELP IN THEFT

But They Say Claim Denied by Insurance

A gunman stole 3 pounds of marijuana from the garden of several
medical marijuana users at a southwest Modesto home last week.

The growers valued the prime buds, which they'd tended from seeds for
nine months in a greenhouse full of bell peppers, tomatoes, corn and
sunflowers, at $12,000 to $16,000.

No one has been arrested.

The four men each had medical clearance to use marijuana, which
allowed them to grow cannabis for personal use, Modesto police reported.

The men reported the theft twice, first to police and then to their
insurance company. Their renter's insurance, they hoped, would
compensate them for the loss. It wouldn't have been the first payout on pot.

One insurer paid $12,375 to a Sacramento man who lost 3 pounds to an
armed in-truder in 2000, according to news reports. A year earlier,
another Sacramento man was the first person reportedly reimbursed for
marijuana through household insurance. He received $6,500 from CGU
California Insurance for 13 plants sheriffs' deputies seized from his
garage. A handful of other reimbursements have been reported since then.

The Modesto men's insurance company declined. But the company, said
Antonio, 50, who asked to be identified only by his first name, told
him they would have considered his claim if the outdoor plants had
been appraised or if his buds had been inside.

Farmers Insurance Group could not confirm Antonio's explanation
Thursday or comment on the company's general policy, spokesman Jerry
Davies said.

"Each claim like that is different," Davies said. "They are all
investigated from the get-go."

But the company has compensated for pot losses before. In 2000, a
Southern California couple received almost $7,000 from Farmers after
police seized 14 pot plants from them, news reports show. Farmers
concluded the plants fell within the "trees, shrubs, plants and
lawns" section of its homeowner's policy.

California has more than 200,000 medical marijuana users, according
to Dale Gieringer in the state office of the National Organization
for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Twelve other states, according to
NORML, have medical marijuana laws: Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine,
Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont
and Washington.

"This isn't just something strange happening out in California," said
Ryan Landers, senior adviser in Sacramento for the Compassionate
Coalition, a nonprofit group that supports medical marijuana efforts.

California insurance companies that have covered marijuana losses
cite Proposition 215, the 1996 California ballot measure that
authorized medicinal marijuana. If it's legal to use the plant, and
you have a doctor's note to prove it, then it's legal to own it, the
reasoning goes. And if you own it and you're insured, the plants can
be covered like any house plant or shrub.

One reason insuring marijuana poses a challenge, said Candysse
Miller, the executive director of the Insurance Information Network
of California, is that it's hard to determine its value.

"That's a challenging thing to do with a narcotic that's sold on the
street in most cases," she said. "You have to determine street
value. And what street? It's a pretty broad market. There aren't a
lot of people writing receipts for marijuana."

Another complication is that states and the federal government have
butted heads for years over medical marijuana, leaving insurance
companies with different policies.

"Until that's clearly defined, you're going to find insurance
companies on both sides," Miller said.

According to State Farm spokesman Greg Sherlock, the company does not
cover marijuana-related losses.

Allstate "possibly" covers certain losses, spokeswoman Patty Kelly
said. "If it was legal to have a plant, it could be covered by
personal property under a homeowner's policy," she said.

In 2001, Allstate paid a Placer County man $4,900 for 17 plants,
according to a news report.

The U.S. Supreme Court has dealt several blows to medical marijuana
users since then. That year, justices ruled against the backyard
cultivation of pot for personal use. And insurance payouts on
marijuana have become increasingly rare since a 2005 ruling that the
federal government can ban its possession, even in states that have
approved it for medical use.

Because of the legal battles, insurance companies have become more
cautious, said Landers, who suffers from full-blown AIDS, chronic
pain and chronic headaches. In 1999, he received $10,000 when someone
stole 1 to 2 pounds of marijuana from his home. He was the second
person to receive an insurance check for lost marijuana, but payouts
such as his would be hard to come by these days, he said.

"You're going to have a fight on your hands."