OFFICIALS IMPOUND 'MEDICAL' POT CROP

Police tipped off by cascading water

For the second time in recent weeks, police have seized a sizable amount
of marijuana from someone claiming to be a member of the Cannabis Club
who was growing the weed for medicinal purposes.

A running water hose led authorities to their latest seizure Saturday
night, an 806-plant plot of pot being grown at an East Oakland loft
allegedly by Frank Townsend, 60, of Crockett. Townsend pleaded
innocent Tuesday to charges of felony cultivation of marijuana and
possession of marijuana for sale.

On May 2, officers seized 41 plants from an East 9th Street location,
where they said they found evidence the grower had the ability to
cultivate at least twice as much more. Two men are being prosecuted in
that case.

Vice Squad commander Lt. Rick Hart said Tuesday just because someone
claims to be a member of the Cannabis Club "doesn't give them carte
blanche to grow and possess any amount they want.

"They have to abide by the regulations," he said. "If they have 800
plants they're going to jail."

Hart acknowledged the City Council has placed a low priority on police
investigating medicinal marijuana-related cases. But Hart said if
police receive complaints from citizens or tips from reliable
informants on where "large, sophisticated grows" of marijuana are,
officers will investigate.

If there are "extenuating circumstances" where an officer has some
doubt if the marijuana should be seized and someone arrested, they
will call a supervisor who will make the final decision, Hart said.

In a policy adopted in 1998, the City Council set 144 plants and 11/2
of cultivated marijuana as the amount a person can have in their
possession for medicinal purposes.

But a prosecutor said no matter what city policy is, the District
Attorney's Office decides whether to charge such cases based on state
law, which in the case of medicinal marijuana is Proposition 215.

"We look at the cases on a case-by-case basis," the prosecutor said.
"Any (city) policy is superseded by state law."

Police also warned of the dangers of having large amounts of marijuana
on one's premises. One investigator said it could result in home
invasion-style robberies.

Jeff Jones, executive director of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers'
Cooperative, confirmed Townsend was a current club member.

Jones said members qualify with a doctor's written or verbal
recommendation, which is followed up by a volunteer nurse who verifies
the note with the doctor and the doctor with a state board.

Proposition 215, known as The Compassionate Use Act of 1996 in the
California Health and Safety Code, doesn't limit the number of
marijuana plants patients suffering from AIDS, cancer, anorexia,
glaucoma and arthritis can have.

"Prop. 215 is vague in the number count that it gives," Jones said.
"It gives the right and the ability for the patient to (grow) for his
own medical needs. The current interpretation is that collective
gardens are legal and if a patient wanted to possess 5,000 plants in
an open space he could."

Oakland attorney William G. Panzer, who co-authored Prop. 215, is
representing Townsend. He said Townsend's case is "definitely"
medically related.

"Mr. Townsend is not going to allege that the entire scope of the
cultivation was for personal use," Panzer said. "People are allowed to
grow for other patients as caregivers. Whether a person can grow for
distribution to others is still up in the air."

Panzer said collective growers operate discreetly, and he could only
recall two medical marijuana thefts in the past two years: one in
Alameda County, the other in Sonoma County.

"Nobody wants to get ripped-off," Panzer said. "When you buy your wife
a big diamond ring, you don't put a note in the paper saying there's a
$10,000 ring at your house."

Saturday's seizure started about 7 p.m. in the 1400 block of 14th
Avenue. When firefighters responded they found the floor where the
water was running full of marijuana plants and they immediately called
police.

Sgt. Jeff Van Sloten said "it was a pretty elaborate system. He had
lamps on motorized tracks and the plants were in pots in different
areas depending on their size." He said the plants ranged in size from
seedlings to 6-footers.

The only thing the suspected grower did not have was a remote
controlled "drip system," Van Sloten said, apparently choosing to
water the plants himself.

On May 2, acting on a tip, police obtained a search warrant and raided
a warehouse space in the 3600 block of East 9th Street rented by a
motorcycle customizer where they found a sophisticated "indoor grow"
of 41 marijuana plants and evidence more had been grown there. The
plants, two to three feet high, were in one room. Also found was a
growers certificate in the name of one of the suspects from the
Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative and a California Compassionate Use
Act of 1996 physicians statement in the suspect's name, police said.