POLICE MUST RETURN SEIZED MEDICAL MARIJUANA

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Police who seized a Mendocino County couple's medical
marijuana must obey a court order to give it back, despite a state lawyer's
claim that the order requires the officers to act as drug pushers.

That was the verdict Wednesday from the state Supreme Court, which
unanimously denied review of the officers' appeal.

Sheriff's deputies called to the scene of a domestic dispute at a Willits
home last year saw some seedlings and about a half pound of processed
marijuana, and returned with a search warrant to confiscate the drugs.

But charges of cultivation and possession for sale were dropped when the
couple, Christopher Brown and Dorlissa Perrine, produced doctors' notes
saying they needed marijuana for physical ailments. Medical marijuana was
legalized in California by a 1996 initiative, Proposition 215, although it
remains illegal under federal law.

Superior Court Judge Joseph Orr ordered the officers to return the
marijuana and was upheld by higher courts, despite objections from the
state attorney general's office.

In a state Supreme Court Appeal, Deputy Attorney General Michael O'Reilley
said the judge's order requires the officers -- who are not "caregivers"
under Proposition 215 -- to furnish a federally banned substance to private
citizens.

The order "commands law enforcement to commit a federal crime," O'Reilley
wrote.

Neither O'Reilley nor the couple's lawyer, Hannah Nelson, could be reached
for comment Wednesday.

The case is People vs. Superior Court (Brown), S072997.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski