FEDS TAKEOVER PROSECUTION OF DUSTIN COSTA

Dustin Costa, leader of the Merced Patients Group, was arrested at his
residence on Wednesday, Aug. 10. He is being held at a federal
detention facility in Fresno. According to Tom O'Connell, MD, federal
prosecutors are taking control (from the Stanislaus County district
attorney) of a case based on the seizure in February 2004 of some 900
plants from Costa's greenouse.

In a federal trial the jury will not be allowed to weigh Costa's claim
that the plants were all destined for medical-mariuana users and
dispensaries.

Costa is a Vietnam-era Marine Corps vet who has experience as a union
organizer. Instead of retreating after getting busted, he devoted
himself to building the Merced Patients Group. It's a co-operative for
which attorney Bill McPike wrote the by-laws in conformance with state
law (created by Prop 215 and SB-420) and precedent cases. McPike
advised that the patients group could assign (hire) members to grow
marijuana for those who were unable to do so for themselves. "DC was
very confident that they were establishing a legal model that would be
applicable throughout the state," says O'Connell. "His group was
really picking up momentum."

Willingness to do political work is one of the explicit conditions for
membership in Costa's group.

Last month he led eight MPG members to the office of Congressman
Dennis Cardoza to protest his "no" vote on an amendment that would
have stopped the DEA from raiding growers and distributors in states
with medical-marijuana laws. Cardoza was the only California Democrat
to oppose the measure.

Costa and crew arrived at his office dressed in black t-shirts
emblazoned front and back with a bright marijuana leaf and blunt
slogans: "Safer than aspirin" on one side, "More effective than
Ritalian" on the other.

MPG members also had gone in their distinctive attire to public
hearings in Modesto and Stockton (where their input helped block
extension of the local moratorium on cannabis dispensaries). They
attended court proceedings in San Joaquin County for Aaron Paradiso, a
quadriplegic facing cultivation charges.

They launched a graffiti abatement project that was written up
favorably in the Merced Sun-Star. The group was there en masse when
Costa appeared in Superior Court in Merced and got a continuance of
his trial till October -over objections from the D.A. Ebullient after
this small victory, Costa's friends distributed t-shirts to courthouse
employees. Was it this pattern of activism that led to the re-arrest
on a federal warrant?

A third-hand account of the August 10 bust: "Six or seven officers
came with guns drawn -Winton police, CHP, sheriff's deputies.

No feds, although they had a federal arrest warrant.

They handcuffed Dustin but were relatively pleasant.

When they started to search the apartment Dustin asked them to see a
warrant and that seemed to throw them into disarray.

They tried to call the DEA. After an hour they left, saying that they
weren't going to conduct a search at that time."

The looming question is: at whose initiative did the feds take over
the prosecution? Most of the explanations are ominous (and not
mutually exclusive). Congressman Cardoza could have expressed his
displeasure with Costa. A sheriff who had it in for Costa might have
asked a federal colleague, as a personal favor, to take him down. The
Stanislaus County D.A. could have asked them, knowing that Costa was
going to mount a vigorous medical marijuana defense in Superior Court
(and the Central Valley media). Or the feds on their own could have
moved against Costa after identifying Costa as the leader of a
political movement they are determined to stamp out. DEA Administrator
Karen Tandy issued a revealing statement July 29 on the arrest of
Canadian seed salesman Marc Emery. "Today's arrest of Mark (sic) Scott
Emery, publisher of Cannabis Culture magazine and the founder of a
marijuana legalization group, is a significant blow not only to the
marijuana trafficking trade in the U.S. and Canada, but also to the
marijuana legalization movement.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars of Emery's illicit profits are known
to have been channeled to marijuana legalization groups active in the
United States and Canada. Drug legalization lobbyists now have one
less pot of money to rely on."

If the DEA is applying political criteria in deciding who to take down
in California, Costa would have been a prime candidate.

He was the leading activist in the Southern Division of the Eastern
District. "He was our ace and he was trumped," says O'Connell.
Undoubtedly the DEA and federal prosecutors will claim that they had
no ulterior motives and that Costa is being prosecuted based on the
number of plants he had under cultivation.

Size Matters Under New Oregon Law

The Oregon legislature has passed a bill that, when signed into law by
the Governor, will change the rules under which medical marijuana is
grown and possessed.

It increases to 24 ounces (from three) the amount of cannabis a
patient can possess.

It increases the number of plants allowable per patient from seven
(four "immature," three "mature") to 24, (18 smaller than one foot,
six larger). The new law allows an unlicensed caregiver to grow
cannabis for up to four documented medical users, and a licensed
caregiver to grow for an unlimited number of users.

The measure passed the state senate unanimously in July and was
approved last week by the House. State Senator Bill Morissette, a
liberal Democrat from Eugene, was the prime mover amongst the pols and
Madeline Martinez of Oregon NORML helped mobilize the masses.

Portland defense specialist Lee Berger opposed the measure -and law
enforcement gave its support-because it takes away the affirmative
"medical-use" defense away from anyone charged with cultivating or
possessing marijuana in quantities over the legal limits.

Those growing or possessing marijuana in allowable quantities will be
able to claim "medical use" in court even if they don't have the
proper paperwork. "Law enforcement wanted a hard-and-fast number,"
says a source in Salem.