GROUP TO FILE SUIT OVER POT SEIZURE

LEBANON - A medical marijuana advocacy group has said it will file suit in
federal court to force the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to return
12 marijuana plants to three Lebanon men.

Paul Stanford, executive director of The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation, a
pro-marijuana group based in Portland, said his organization will file the
suit in federal court on behalf of Leroy Stubblefield of Lebanon within the
next two weeks.

In addition, the group will also file a lawsuit in an Oregon court to
prohibit federal agents from taking part in state drug investigations. The
two lawsuits stem from a search Sept. 23 by the Valley Interagency
Narcotics Team (VALIANT) at Stubblefield's home on Mountain Home Drive
between Lebanon and Sweet Home.

Stubblefield, 54, and his two caregivers, Scott Russell, 46, and Clarence
Vandehay, 48, all have medical marijuana cards issued by the state that
allow them to have up to seven plants each.

The cards are issued to people with medical conditions whom doctors certify
can be helped by the use of marijuana.

Stubblefield, a Vietnam veteran who has been a quadriplegic since a car
accident in 1969, said he smokes marijuana to relieve pain and
post-traumatic stress disorder and to curb sleep apnea.

Lt. Will McAnulty, who heads up VALIANT, said the team went to investigate
a report that Stubblefield and his two caregivers were growing more plants
than they were legally entitled to.

While the team was preparing to go to Stubblefield's home to check out the
tip, DEA agent Michael Spasaro, who was in the office at the time, asked if
he could go along.

The VALIANT officers and Spasaro arrived at the house shortly after noon.
They did not serve a search warrant, but were given permission to search
the house by the occupants.

Stubblefield said at a press conference at his home Wednesday that he and
his caregivers were mislead when they gave permission to search their home.

"He never identified himself as a federal agent until he said he was
seizing the plants," Stubblefield said Spasaro. "We thought he was part of
VALIANT."

While state law allows people with the medical cards to cultivate and
possess marijuana, federal law does not.

Spasaro seized the 12 plants growing in the basement garden under federal law.

Stanford, the marijuana advocate and a card holder himself, said he
believes this is the first time that the federal government has overstepped
Oregon law.

Stubblefield says he's angry.

"I felt we were left unprotected by our county," he said of the seizure. "I
feel let down."

McAnulty said as long as Stubblefield and his helpers were within the legal
limits on the number of plants they were growing, VALIANT would not have
seized them. But it was there place to override Spasaro's decision.

"We are not in a position to stop him from enforcing his federal statutes,"
McAnulty said of the agents actions.

Stanford doesn't want to see this happen again.

His organization will ask the Oregon courts to issue an injunction to
prevent state and local law enforcement agencies from working federal
agents on all marijuana investigations so that there are no conflicts of laws.

In federal court, the group will ask that the 12 plants be returned to
Stubblefield and that he be compensated for pain and mental anguish.

Stanford's group has supplied Stubblefield's household with seven new plants.

He said it will probably take another 2+ months before the plants are ready
to harvest. In the mean time he also provided each of them with an ounce of
cultivated marijuana to get them by.