POLICE RETURN POT TO PATIENT THREE YEARS LATER

'That's A Chunk of Hash,' Huntington Beach Man Says.

HUNTINGTON BEACH- It was like Christmas Day for Jim Spray. He giggled
with glee as he tore into brown paper bags as if they were presents.

These bags, however, were filled with jars of his medical marijuana
and other paraphernalia that had been stored for nearly three years
at the city's police department.

A court order today forced officials to give it back, marking the
second time in a year that Huntington Beach police have had to return
seized marijuana to a patient after court rulings stated that the
marijuana should not have been seized in the first place.

"That's a chunk of hash," said Spray, a 52-year-old trade show
decorator from Huntington Beach. A tall, stocky police official
watched as the medical marijuana patient inspected a tiny eye
shadow-sized container full of hashish.

"It's still good. I almost forgot about all this," said Spray, who
uses medical marijuana because of pain from a herniated disc.

It has been almost three years since Huntington Beach officers
confiscated Spray's estimated 4 ounces of marijuana and a $1,000
growing system, which included special lighting and a water-timing system.

While police had destroyed most of the growing equipment, officials
returned Spray's marijuana today after an order from Orange County
Superior Court Judge Thomas Borris.

The order came nearly nine months after the 4th District Court of
Appeal ruled that the city must return Spray's marijuana and
equipment taken from his home in Nov. 2005. Spray was represented by
attorneys with medical marijuana advocacy group, Americans for Safe Access.

The Huntington Beach Police Department doesn't have a policy
regarding medical marijuana, officials have said in the past.
Officers interpret the Compassionate Use Act as protecting medical
marijuana recipients from prosecution, not arrest.

The 1996 law allows people to use medical marijuana in California.
Federal law, however, outlaws all marijuana use.

On Aug. 25, state Attorney General Jerry Brown developed guidelines
for the first time since the passing of the act. The most notable
guideline upholds the legality of medical marijuana dispensaries that
operate as nonprofit cooperatives or collectives.

In addition, the new directive essentially tells law enforcement
officials that they cannot take marijuana from medical marijuana
patients in the first place and are not allowed to charge them if
they are carrying less than 8 ounces.

Agencies, such as Huntington Beach, however, are still trying to
figure out what to make of Brown's directive since it is opinion and
not law, officials said.

About six months ago, Dave Lucas of Huntington Beach also retrieved
his purple urkel a higher end marijuana and a couple of smoking pipes
officers confiscated from him more than a year ago.

Lucas retrieved his medical marijuana in April, after waiting for the
California Supreme Court to decline to review an appellate court
ruling, which ordered Garden Grove police to return seized medical
marijuana to Felix Kha.

In November, Kha won the right to get his medical marijuana returned
to him. A month later, the same court also ruled in Spray's favor.

"Hopefully they'll stop taking people's medicine away," Spray said
today out loud in the police lobby.

Spray said he plans to file a claim against Huntington Beach because
of his destroyed marijuana growing equipment. Medical marijuana
advocates Bill Britt and Marvin Chavez Sr., who were there for
support, helped Spray with the about half a dozen bags of once-seized pot.

"Do you know how much of a pleasure it is to take medicine from the
department?" Chavez, a medical marijuana patient and advocate, said.
"It's such a victory."