MEDICAL MARIJUANA GIVING COPS A HEADACHE

The number of medical marijuana plants being grown in Curry County has
become a dilemma for law enforcement, say Brookings police officers. "This
medical marijuana is out of control," Brookings Police Detective Ron Plaster
said Thursday.

Plaster said there are nearly 300 grow sites - addresses where someone is
authorized to grow medical marijuana - in Brookings alone. "What that's
supposed to mean is one person per site with a card for seven plants," said
Plaster. "That's not the way it's happening."

Oregon's medical marijuana law lets a person with a prescription for the
plant - which can only be written for patients with debilitating or terminal
illnesses - grow up to seven plants.

Plaster said the problem is that the law doesn't limit the number of
cardholders another person, or caregiver, can grow the plant for.

"We have one house that has nine cards," said Plaster. "He's caregiver for
eight people, that's 63 plants - there's no way for us to interpret whether
they're being grown for sale or not."

In Curry County there are 372 grow sites authorized to grow marijuana, 292
in Brookings, 50 in Harbor and 30 in the rest of Curry County.

"And you can't tell me all those people have legitimate medical reasons for
growing," said Lt. John Bishop of the Brookings Police Department.

By comparison, Coos County, which is more populated than Curry, has 430 grow
sites, said Plaster.

"No one seems to be monitoring that, and it's set up to where the police
can't monitor it," said Curry County Sheriff Kent Owens.

"You'd think that just as we have health inspectors monitoring restaurants,
we'd have monitoring for people who are growing marijuana," said Owens.

"Once you've got that medical marijuana card, you're authorized to grow
marijuana, how do we know you grew it here or bought it in the valley?"

The problem for law enforcement is complicated, said Bishop, by the fact
that once someone has even applied for a medical marijuana card, it provides
them with a defense against prosecution for growing marijuana for sale.

"Most prosecutors don't want to go after that," said Plaster. "It's
difficult to show they're growing for sale."

If plants are seized from someone who has applied to be a cardholder, the
plants have to be taken care of in case they are returned.

"It could take 30 to 60 days for that paperwork to get processed, and in the
meantime, we have to maintain those plants," said Bishop.

"And if we return them, we've just broken federal law," continued Bishop.
"We're put in the position of breaking federal law to honor state law - so
we generally just don't seize it."