POLICE CAUGHT IN MIDDLE ON MARIJUANA DELIVERIES

The conflict between state and federal laws over the legality of
medical marijuana is forcing some law enforcement officers to take on
the unwelcome duty of delivering pot that caregivers attempt to ship
through a parcel service.

Over the past year, the Billings Police Department has received an
increasing number of calls from FedEx and UPS workers who discover
packages containing what appears to be legal medical marijuana. A
police investigator must then pick up the package, make phone calls to
determine whether it is a Montana-legal product produced by a
"caregiver" who is registered with the state and notify the
distributor to retrieve the pot.

All that can add up to several hours of police time. Then, the
caregiver may not pick up their product, saddling the cops with
returning the marijuana to them personally.

"We don't want to be in the middle as a broker," said Billings Police
Chief Rich St. John. "We're wasting a lot of time investigating and
looking into legitimate businesses."

Montana's medical marijuana law allows "caregivers" to possess six
plants or 1 ounce of marijuana for every "patient." Both patients and
caregivers must register with the state Department of Public Health
and Human Services, and patients must identify who is their caregiver.

Despite this limited legalization of marijuana for some medical uses,
the parcel services refuse to transport the drug, even if it stays
within the state's borders.

"Although we understand Montana has passed a law and citizens are
permitted to ship it and use it under state law, federal law
criminalizes the possession of marijuana, so as a result, FedEx is not
going to take the risk of criminal prosecution by accepting such
shipments," said Sally Davenport, FedEx spokeswoman.

The resulting predicament is extremely frustrating for narcotics
detectives, especially when there is a risk that the marijuana
providers involved may not be fully complying with the state's law.

"If everything turns out fine, we've just wasted our detective for
several hours," said Sgt. Brian Korell, who leads the department's
City-County Special Investigations Unit. "I'm paying a guy to
investigate a legal business when I should be paying him to
investigate true criminals."

But in one recent worst-case scenario, police were notified by federal
agents that they had identified a detective returning pot to a home
under video surveillance.

Tom Daubert, who heads the medical marijuana advocacy group Patients
and Families United, said tax dollars should not be spent paying
officers to reunite caregivers with their products when they are
ignoring the parcel services' shipping rules.

"Caregivers shouldn't ship cannabis in that way at all, and if they
choose to take that risk, they shouldn't expect the delivery to be
made," Daubert said.

Nevertheless, Korell said, the marijuana has a rightful owner and it
cannot be destroyed without creating a legal liability for the department.

"We are in a very, very difficult situation with this, and we are
trying to do the best we can for all parties," Korell said.