MEDICAL POT USER SETTLES WITH CITY

Springfield Agrees to Pay Him $7,500 After He Was Cited on a Possession Charge

SPRINGFIELD - A medical marijuana user who threatened to sue the city
of Springfield after police ticketed him for carrying the drug into
the Springfield Justice Center has instead accepted a $7,500
settlement that allows the city to deny any alleged wrongdoing in the incident.

By settling the case, Paul McClain gave up his right to file a
lawsuit accusing Springfield police of violating his civil rights in
February 2010, when they issued him a citation charging him with
marijuana possession.

A Springfield Municipal Court judge dismissed the citation after
McClain, who has state approval to use medical marijuana, vowed to
dispute the charge at a trial.

McClain, 41, declined to comment on the settlement agreement when
contacted by telephone by The Register-Guard.

City spokesman Niel Laudati said the agreement came about as a result
of discussions between McClain and the city's insurance provider.

"It was solely done to avoid litigation costs, and the city has no
admission of wrongdoing," Laudati said.

McClain, who lives in Springfield, filed a tort claim notice with the
city last August. In the two-page document that he appears to have
written himself, McClain alleged that police violated the due process
clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution when they
"failed to provide fair warning that possessing marijuana in a public
place is unlawful."

But when he accepted the $7,500 to settle the case, McClain agreed
that he is not to be considered a prevailing party in a civil rights complaint.

McClain's allegations centered on a Feb. 11, 2010, incident that
began when he walked into the city justice center to speak to a judge
about unpaid traffic fines. A court worker advised him of the court's
policy to search all bags before allowing someone into a courtroom,
and McClain complied. That's when a court bailiff discovered a small
amount of marijuana in his backpack.

Two Springfield officers came to the scene. After confirming
McClain's status as a state-registered medical marijuana patient,
they ordered him to take his pot out of the building.

McClain left, and then hid his marijuana before walking back toward
the justice center. Two police officers stopped him and issued him a
ticket for pot possession - even though he did not have the marijuana
with him at the time.

Police said officer Brian Antone wrote the ticket because he
interpreted Oregon's medical marijuana law as saying that
state-registered patients are prohibited from carrying the drug in a
public place.

McClain's case prompted state Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, to
advise Springfield Municipal Court Judge James Strickland in writing
that the law's intent is to prohibit people from smoking or growing
pot in public and "not the simple act of carrying their medicine on
their person or in their belongings when in a public place."

Prozanski told Strickland that McClain's case identified an
"ambiguity" in the law that would need to be addressed during this
year's legislative session.

As of Jan. 1, 38,269 people in Oregon - including 4,194 in Lane
County - possessed state-issued cards allowing them to use medical
marijuana. McClain said he gained a doctor's recommendation to use
the drug after he injured his back in a traffic accident.