Weed Abatement

MEDICAL MARIJUANA PATIENT SPENDS 21 DAYS IN JAIL BEFORE HIS CASE IS DISMISSED

A little more than a year ago, Richard Steenken obtained a doctor's
recommendation for marijuana. He applied for and received a state
patient ID card in case, he said, police questioned him. He grew his
own marijuana plants. And then he was arrested for growing plants in
his home. Despite his card and prescription, he was held in jail for
21 days before his case was dismissed.

The SLO County Sheriff's Department, which executed a search warrant
on his home, said he was not complying with California law. Steenken
maintains that he was harassed by the Sheriff's Department.

It's not clear what kind of investigation was done before deputies
arrived, armed and dressed for SWAT operations, at Steenken's home,
and then his girlfriend's less than three hours later. What is evident
is that in the six days between the time a warrant was issued and
served, Sheriff's detectives didn't check with the county health
department to see if he had a patient card--recognized by the state as
the best form of documentation for medical marijuana patients. Sheriff
Sgt. Rick Neufeld said that step would generally be part of an
investigation. He couldn't say why it wasn't done in this case.

"That's what's so funny and also so infuriating," Steenken said in an
interview. "If they're doing this investigation, and they're spending
all this time and all this money, you'd think they would check with
the county to see if I had a county-issued card."

Medical marijuana is still a gray area in California law. Proposition
215 was passed by voters in 1996 to decriminalize marijuana use for
patients with a doctor's recommendation, but it left law enforcement
without a clear explanation of what to do with someone growing or
using marijuana medicinally. Senate Bill 420 was supposed to clear up
some of the confusion. It created the patient ID card, which allows a
person to grow, transport, and use marijuana without being subject to
arrest, under certain conditions. SLO County Sheriff Patrick Hedges'
department has a reputation for testing those conditions.

In August, following the conviction of local marijuana dispensary
owner Charles Lynch, Hedges handed out a new set of guidelines from
the Attorney General--the head of all law enforcement in
California--aimed at helping law enforcement deal with medical
marijuana. The guidelines are clear that a patient with a valid card,
if there's no other indication of illegal activity, should be released
from custody and their possessions should not be seized.

In late September, Steenken's landlord called the Sheriff to report
the marijuana crop and about three weeks later armed detectives
arrived with a search warrant. Steenken came home in the middle of the
raid on Oct. 15 and found a dozen deputies, armed with assault rifles,
rummaging through his belongings. According to a Sheriff's report
following the raid, Steenken had 43 marijuana plants, each smaller
than eight inches; 54 grams of dried marijuana; and some concentrated
marijuana--hash.

Steenken handed over his ID card and a doctor's recommendation to
deputies as soon as he got there. One of the detectives called a
number on the ID card to check its authenticity, but, according to the
report, there was no answer, so detectives couldn't verify it. (New
Times made several calls to the number and received no answerer and no
returned calls, just a voice recording.) Using a state web address,
also posted on the card, however, New Times was able to check the
card--in less time than it took to leave a phone message. The card was
good.

Steenken's doctor's note was a different story. Sheriff's deputies saw
that it was more than a year old, leading them to believe it was no
longer valid. Steenken's lawyer said that was a moot point.

Steenken was charged with growing marijuana and possessing
concentrated marijuana. Steenkin could not post bail, so he sat in
jail until his first pre-trial hearing. According to Deputy District
Attorney Charles Blair, as soon as the doctor confirmed Steenken's
patient status, the case was dropped.

"What's also infuriating," Steenken said, "is that no one followed up
to see if the card was good. Once I show it, don't you follow up on
it? And what about the whole time I was in jail?"

Steenken's lawyer, Ken Cirisan, went to Steenken's doctor while he was
jailed, and had the recommendation renewed. Why the card wasn't
checked before the raid, he said, is a mystery.

"I would think that you would check," Cirisan said, "before you take
away somebody's liberty."

The amount of plants and marijuana a patient can possess are gray
areas in the law. One state court ruled that limits imposed by SB 420
are not lawful, because they amend a more powerful piece of
legislation--voter approved Proposition 125. The Attorney General has
challenged that, and the matter will be reconsidered by an appellate
court soon.

Sgt. Neufeld said that, no matter his patient status, Steenken was
over the prescribed limit. The Attorney General's guidelines don't
help much. They offer that a patient should have no more than 14
plants, unless a doctor recommends more. Many patients believe that
they are allowed to have as many as 100 plants, especially if they are
growing for other patients. For his part, Blair said that the number
of plants Steenken had, and the quantity of marijuana, did not seem
excessive, given the doctor's recommendation. Blair said the medical
marijuana laws have a lot of built-in ambiguity. As a result, he said
he sees a lot of medical marijuana-related cases, and so do the higher
courts.

Steenken lost 21 days of his life, and he's still waiting to get his
property back: the hash, the dried marijuana, and 43 dead plants. It's
been a learning experience, but Steenken can't help but think that the
whole thing could have been avoided.