POT RETURNED IN PLACER COUNTY CASE

Deputies follow court order

With a court order to back him up, Robert De Arkland picked up his pot
Wednesday from the Placer County Sheriff's Office.

De Arkland proudly showed off a brown paper bag half full of withered
juvenile marijuana plants pulled up by the roots and stored at the Auburn
sheriff's headquarters after a raid Oct. 1.

In an action that demonstrates just how altered the drug enforcement
landscape has become since 1996's Proposition 215 was approved by voters, a
Placer County judge ordered De Arkland's marijuana returned.

De Arkland, 70, of Fair Oaks, has a recommendation from a Sausalito
physician to smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes. A retired heavy
equipment operator, De Arkland said he is also prescribed pain killers for
prostate cancer, sciatica and arthritis pain.

"When the pain pills wear off, I smoke a joint," De Arkland said. "I only
take four or five tokes."

For the Sheriff's Office, turning over the marijuana and De Arkland's
pot-growing equipment was simply a matter of honoring a court order, a
spokesman said. The marijuana had been held in evidence.

"We honor any court order," said Lt. Dan Hall. "If the judge says release
it, that's fine with us."

Hall said the release of marijuana to its owner was a first for Placer
County since the medicinal marijuana proposition was added as an amendment
to the state Health and Safety Code in November 1996.

"There will be times when there are gray areas that need to be resolved,"
Hall said.

De Arkland left for Fair Oaks with a truck filled with grow lights and other
equipment, but still with no clear indication of how much pot he could grow
for his own personal use.

The Oct. 1 raid by a multijurisdictional team had netted 13 plants. While
the pot was stored in Placer County, the case was handled by Sacramento
County. In April, the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office declined
to prosecute, Hall said.

"I'm not going to grow any grass until I find out how much I can grow," De
Arkland said. "If you grow an excessive amount, what is an excessive
amount?"

De Arkland said he bought the plants at the Oakland Cannabis Cooperative
after securing a physician's approval for medicinal marijuana.

"If I had 10 (plants) in the bud stage and 10 in the growing stage, that
would be ample," he said.

While charges against De Arkland were dropped by Sacramento authorities, a
number of high-profile medical marijuana cases are still pending in Placer
County.

Placer County District Attorney's Office will decide by June 14 whether to
retry Rocklin dentist Michael Baldwin and his wife Georgia for possessing
marijuana for sale. A mistrial was declared May 12, when a jury deadlocked
6-6 for convicting Michael Baldwin and voted 7-5 to acquit Georgia Baldwin.

Earlier, Superior Court Judge James D. Garbolino dismissed cultivation
charges against the Baldwins, ruling that Proposition 215 protected the pair
from prosecution, since both had obtained a physician's recommendation.

And Olympic Valley resident Steve Kubby and his wife Michele await a July
trial on a number of cultivation charges, stemming from a January raid on
the residence of the former Libertarian candidate for governor.

Kubby was an outspoken proponent of medical marijuana during his political
campaign, and was a key supporter of Proposition 215.