SONOMA COUNTY MAN FINALLY GETS HIS POT BACK

Ryan English left the Sonoma County courthouse a happy man Friday
after a judge returned five boxes of marijuana seized in a raid on
his Healdsburg home more than a year ago.

The 29-year-old brain tumor survivor had been charged with three
felonies including possession for sale, but two judges ruled there
was insufficient evidence that any crime had been committed.

It took months of legal wrangling to get the Sheriff's Office to
release his 81 plants and two pounds of processed pot, but English,
who now lives in Santa Rosa, finally prevailed. Using a dolly, he
wheeled the weed past the jail to his car, green buds showing out of
the sides of the boxes.

"Finally, 15 months later," English said. "I'm surprised it took as
long as it did."

It was an unusual sight in the Hall of Justice, in part because law
enforcement and prosecutors often won't accept that people with a
legitimate medical condition can legally possess and grow marijuana,
said Joe Rogoway, English's lawyer.

California voters in 1996 approved Prop. 215, allowing those with a
doctor's recommendation to have marijuana. Legislation in 2003
established possession limits and Sonoma County adopted its own
regulations, allowing three pounds per year per patient and
cultivation of up to 30 plants. People working in a cooperative, like
English, can grow more.

However, pot is still being seized and when charges are later
dismissed, and police are reluctant to return marijuana, often
destroying it instead.

In his client's case, Rogoway said prosecutors last year refiled
criminal charges when English asked for his pot back. The second
judge tossed the case after a preliminary hearing in April.

The "vindictive prosecution," as Rogoway described it, wasted tax
dollars at a time when the county can least afford it.

"They are prosecuting these cases as if there are no medical
marijuana laws," Rogoway said outside court. "They need a time
machine to travel back to 1995. That's where their understanding of
the law remains."

The district attorney's office did not return calls Friday seeking comment.

Assistant Sheriff Lorenzo Duenas said deputies respect local
guidelines and only seize marijuana or arrest people if they have
probable cause that a crime occurred.

Last year, Duenas said deputies seized more than 300,000 marijuana
plants - the largest haul in county history.

Because marijuana is still illegal under federal law, its return
requires a court order, even if criminal charges are dropped.

"We still have to uphold the Constitution," Duenas said. "If we
release it, we will be in violation of federal law."

He said deputies acted appropriately in the English case. The initial
charges were dismissed when a detective failed to make a court
hearing. Prosecutors re-filed because there was a suspicion English
was selling pot, he said.

"We still believe we acted in good faith," Duenas said.

However, English, who now lives in Santa Rosa, said he wasn't selling
pot. He was growing it for himself and two other people with medical
conditions, he said.

Without it, he suffers migraine headaches from the tumor he had
removed about 10 years ago.

"A doctor recommended it as an alternative to prescribed drugs," he
said. "It relieves the migraines."

English is one of the many medical cannabis users in the county who
have been thrust into the position of fighting for what is theirs,
Rogoway said.

Many have yet to be vindicated for doing something the law and their
doctors allow, he said.

"People shouldn't have to go through what Mr. English did," Rogoway
said. "It's something as a community we need to deal with."