CALAVERAS RAID ON CHURCH NETS 287 POT PLANTS

Group: Grass Had Medical Use

SAN ANDREAS -- The Calaveras County Sheriff's Department this week raided a
fledgling Wallace church that had created what it called a "congregational
caregiver program" to provide marijuana to those with medical needs.

Authorities said they destroyed 287 growing marijuana plants at Northern
Lights Church. Investigators detained and interviewed three adults and one
child during the Wednesday-morning raid, but no arrests were made.

David Jack, who uses marijuana for medical reasons and is one of three
ministers at the Universal Life-affiliated church, said the marijuana was
being grown on behalf of 20 patients, and another 14 people were seeking
help through the church.

"This is very, very frustrating," said Jack, an outspoken advocate for
medicinal marijuana. "We have some very disturbed people who have worked
together to try and raise these plants. We tried to do everything right."

Jack, who serves on a task force created by the Board of Supervisors to
develop guidelines for medical-marijuana use, said the church falls under
the legal heading of "caregiver" and therefore should be permitted to
supply marijuana to people who have a medical recommendation to use it.

Proposition 215, passed in 1996, made it legal for people suffering from
certain medical conditions to use marijuana if they have a doctor's
recommendation or approval.

In San Joaquin County as well, a group called San Joaquin Medical-Marijuana
Association is asking officials to find ways to allow lawful distribution
to medicinal users.

Jack, like the advocates in the nearby Valley, has been frustrated by the
inability of Calaveras residents to safely obtain marijuana for medical
purposes. In June he said a dispensary had been established to provide the
drug to residents legally entitled to use it.

Jack said the Northern Lights Church congregation agreed to operate as a
caregiver through the church. "It's a cooperative of church members," Jack
said. "Not all of them smoke it or ingest it. I know one lady who uses a
strip of hemp in her bible -- she considers (marijuana) a holy sacrament."

Sheriff Dennis Downum said people interviewed at the church on the morning
of the raid did not claim Proposition 215 as a primary defense for growing
marijuana.

"They basically claimed a 'sacrament' defense," Downum said. "But there's
no provision in the law that I'm aware of that gives a church any
sacramental right to grow marijuana or distribute marijuana.

"They've got us confused, to some extent. But what they're putting forward
is not, in my opinion, listed as an exemption under Proposition 215."

Jack disagreed, though, saying court cases have set a precedent for
allowing a cooperative to serve in the role of a primary caregiver.
District Attorney Peter Smith said he had never heard of a church being
designated as a primary caregiver with respect to medical-marijuana use. He
would not comment on the specific facts of this case because he had yet to
receive the reports from the Sheriff's Department.

Downum said his department became aware of the marijuana grow site after
neighbors registered "numerous complaints" about it. "You could look up
there from Southworth Road and see a lot of plants growing," Downum said.
"And when you got up into the driveway, you could see a big fenced-in area
that was basically solid marijuana plants."

Jack said the church was not trying to hide anything. "We have signs on the
front of our church that said this was medicinal marijuana," he said.

Jack also had written Smith two days before the raid and informed him the
church had created its "congregational caregiver program in order to
provide a co-op for our church members who have a physician's
recommendation for medicinal cannabis."

Smith said he hadn't seen the letter until after he got a call from Downum
informing him about the raid.

Jack said he was appalled at this week's raid. "Law enforcement is trying
to make a mockery out of our faith and our religious belief we have of
helping comfort people in a more humane, humanitarian, more spiritual way,"
he said.

Authorities served two search warrants in the 8000 block of Southworth Road
Wednesday morning and while executing the first, they found more than 150
growing marijuana plants in the front yard and 70 more plants in the back
yard, according to a Sheriff's Department report.

A second search warrant was served at a second building on the property,
which was the church, and deputies found 67 growing plants. "That was
designated as the church," Downum said. "But all that was inside was a set
of drums and a bunch of marijuana plants. There were no pews or seats."

To reach Lode Bureau Chief Francis P. Garland, phone 736-9554 or e-mail
garnel@goldrush.com