MEDICINAL POT PLANTS RETURNED TO VENTURA MAN

After six months of legal wrangling, medical marijuana user Mike Loftus won
back his 22 marijuana plants Thursday after a judge ordered the Ventura
Police Department to release them.

The problem is they are all dead. They have been dead for months.

But Loftus said the condition of the withered, moldy saplings was less
important than showing police he has a right to possess them. "It is a
matter of principle," Loftus said. "We have to stand up for our rights."

An east Ventura resident, Loftus, 32, was arrested June 30 after police
officers investigating a report of illegal marijuana cultivation knocked on
his door.

Loftus said he showed the officers a doctor's 3-year-old note recommending
marijuana for treatment of Meniere's disease, an inner-ear disorder that
can cause vertigo and nausea.

Loftus believed, he said, that he was protected under a 1996 state law that
allows seriously ill Californians to use and cultivate marijuana for
medical purposes upon recommendation of a physician.

Proposition 215 has created problems for users and law enforcement
officials because it sets no limits on how much can be grown and it clashes
with federal statutes.

In Ventura County, there are no guidelines for police officers trying to
determine how much marijuana is too much. And there is no database
identifying who is a qualified user and who is not.

Whatever documentation Loftus presented to police was unpersuasive. He was
arrested. His plants were seized. And Ventura County prosecutors charged
him with a felony count of illegal cultivation of marijuana.

The charge was dismissed in August after prosecutors determined that Loftus
qualified under the medical marijuana law, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Bill
Redmond, supervisor of the felony unit.

After the case was dropped, Loftus filed a motion seeking the return of his
plants. Prosecutors deferred to the city attorney.

"We don't control any of the police agencies' property rooms," Redmond
said, adding that it would be a violation of federal law for a department
to return marijuana without a court order.

"Police can't just give what is technically a controlled substance to just
anybody," Redmond said.

The motion landed before Ventura Assistant City Atty. Sonia Hehir, who
requested time to research the issue.

Under state law, she said, controlled substances must be destroyed after a
criminal case has been dismissed unless a court finds the drugs were
lawfully possessed. Hehir asked the court for direction.

On Thursday, Superior Court Judge Charles McGrath took up the issue. He
found that the city had no standing to keep the plants and ordered them
returned.

Sitting in court, Loftus smiled and a few supporters cheered.

"The plants are dead," said attorney J. David Nick, who represented Loftus.
"But the mere fact that he gets them back legitimizes this law."