POT IS BACK TO MORRO OWNER

But Because Police Didn't Have To Tend It, It's No Use To Patients

Morro Bay police will return 75 pot plants to their rightful owner, but the
plants aren't as leafy and green as the last time Robert Marshall saw them.

Even though police confiscated Marshall's lights and other indoor growing
equipment, they didn't nurture the plants.

"We don't have money or facilities to take care of them," said Morro Bay
police Cmdr. Tim Olivas. "We end up pulling them (up) and waiting for trial."

When the trial date arrived five months later, a superior court judge
decided Marshall is a primary caregiver for two patients and was growing
the drug legally.

Because he didn't break the law, the judge ruled Friday that Marshall can
have his plants back -- not that it does him or his patients much good.

Altogether, the now-dried marijuana spent seven months unattended in the
evidence room and wasn't mature enough to be an effective drug when police
pulled the plants out of the potting soil.

"There really is no guideline that says police have to keep the plants
alive or tend to them," said Louis Koory, Marshall's attorney.

Caregivers often end up in court because there is no standardized paperwork
designating them as legal growers, said Dale Gieringer, California's
coordinator for the marijuana legalization group National Organization for
the Reform of Marijuana Laws. But, he added, it is not uncommon for police
to return seized plants.

Counties are supposed to set up registration systems for medical marijuana
users and growers. But San Luis Obispo County, like many others, hasn't
because the state Department of Health Services has not laid out guidelines
for how registration should work.

While the plants are dead, it could be a lot worse for Marshall's patients.

"It's not such a big setback because they were (grown) indoors," Gieringer
said.

It takes a lot less time to grow new plants to maturity that way and begin
harvesting them.