MARIJUANA ATTRACTS THIEVES, POLICE

Confusion Over Medical Pot Use

Men armed with machetes in one instance and a gun in another twice have
stormed a garden west of Santa Rosa where marijuana is grown by people who
say they use cannabis for medical reasons.

The thieves weren't the only people interested in the pot. Agents with the
Sonoma County Narcotics Task Force confiscated seven pot plants on their
own, after garden owners called sheriff's deputies for help.

"I feel like we were robbed twice on that day, and so do my patients," said
Will Larson, who coordinates a community of five people who live in a
cluster of homes on Guerneville Road and use pot for ailments ranging from
AIDS to epilepsy.

The incidents are not isolated ones in Sonoma County, and have some growers
of medicinal marijuana wondering if they can get help from officers who are
trying to figure out if the victims themselves are obeying the law.

The confusion centers on Proposition 215, which was ratified by voters in
1996 and states that "seriously ill" people and their caregivers are allowed
to possess marijuana if medicinal use is recommended by a physician.

The problem is that the law does not state how much cannabis a person is
allowed to grow and use. Growers who call law enforcement for help suddenly
find they are being taken to court themselves.

Sonoma County District Attorney Mike Mullins called it the "false promise of
Proposition 215," and blamed the statute's authors for luring sick people
into believing they can grow as much pot as they want in peace.

"This initiative is totally silent as to how you are going to grow and
distribute marijuana," he said Friday.

Mullins said prosecutors have seen an increase in thefts and violence
involving medicinal pot, although many cases go unreported because growers
fear police will make them criminally responsible.

"They might be afraid that we will respond and find plants that are left,
and make them vulnerable to prosecution," he said.

That was the case with Larson, who said 30 plants were in his garden the
morning of Oct. 6 when a group of men hopped over the backyard fence and
began cutting with machetes.

When a resident tried to intervene he was struck in the face with a fist.
The men fled in a Toyota pickup.

The thieves made off with 16 plants. Drug agents called to the scene
confiscated an additional seven, and are now asking the District Attorney's
Office to file a felony charge of cultivation against the people who live at
the compound.

Mullins said he has not seen the task force reports and could not comment on
the case.

Mike Heald, commander of the drug task force, said agents did not go to the
compound seeking the plants, but were forced to act under the law.

In defending the action, Heald offered the analogy of police being called to
investigate a burglary at a home and noticing a stolen TV in the living
room. He said police would be forced to investigate two possible crimes: the
burglary, and the theft of the TV.

"We are investigating the robbery and the marijuana," he said Friday.

Heald blamed the ambiguities of Proposition 215 for forcing agents to make a
judgment call in determining when to confiscate plants.

"What we're faced with on the law enforcement side is to be compassionate,
balanced with the fact that marijuana is illegal," he said.

Drug agents were called to another garden that was robbed in Guerneville on
Sept. 18.

The garden is owned by Lori Converse, who was arrested in 1998 and charged
with cultivating marijuana for sale. The District Attorney's Office dropped
those charges in September.

Converse said two men sneaked into her front yard where she had planted 12
pot plants. The men were chased away by residents, but not before one of the
men pulled out a knife.

Converse called sheriff's deputies to report the theft. Drug agents also
responded, and after obtaining a warrant, returned again Oct. 1 and
confiscated three plants.

Mullins said he is reviewing the reports and is considering bringing charges
of cultivation. He said Converse may be entitled to grow and use marijuana,
but that doesn't mean the other three who use the garden are eligible, too.

"I don't know whether they have affirmative defense under Prop. 215," he
said. "I will have to read the police reports to make that determination."

Converse, like Larson, said she feels like she was victimized twice by the
robbery -- once by the bandits, and again by drug agents.

"I think that it shows the criminals we are easy prey because we can't call
the police to protect us because they will turn around and attack us," she said.

For growers and users, the rights won by Proposition 215 are no longer the
issue.

"It's not about medical marijuana anymore," Larson said. "It's about
protecting patients and patients' rights."

In Petaluma on Aug. 23, two men broke into a home on Bond Avenue around
midnight and stole a dozen plants that were being grown for medical use,
police said.

The robbers held five people at gunpoint during the incident, including a
9-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy. No one was injured.

Police did arrest Richard James McClean, 21, of Petaluma and David
Delasantos, 22, of Santa Rosa, who are now facing charges related to the
robbery.

On Wednesday, four men wearing ski masks returned to Larson's garden and
began pulling his remaining plants from the soil.

The resident who had intervened in the first robbery was struck again, this
time in the arm with a baseball bat, and narrowly missed being shot with a
handgun.

Larson said the incident could have been avoided had deputies taken the
situation more seriously from the beginning.

"If the police would have protected us the first time it wouldn't have
happened the second time," he said.

The sheriff's Violent Crimes Investigation Unit is now involved and pursuing
leads into the robberies, said Sgt. Nelson Pinola.

"We're treating it like a violent crime regardless of whether it's over
medical marijuana or TVs," he said.