ARRESTED MEDICAL MARIJUANA USERS SUE POLICE

HILO (AP) -- Three Kona residents arrested for investigation of marijuana
possession despite holding state permits for medical use of marijuana have
sued police for false arrest.

Attorney Jack Schweigert filed the suit in Kona Circuit Court this week on
behalf of Kealoha Wells and John and Rhonda Robison.

Police arrested the three on July 8 at their residence in North Kona. They
were released without charges after being held for eight hours, but police
said charges are still possible.

Police are seen on a videotape made by Rhonda Robison saying the medical
supplies of the three must be ''definitively separated'' from each other.
But state officials later said there is no legal requirement for separation
of medical-marijuana supplies.

The lawsuit said the arrests were made ''without probable cause.'' It names
Kona police officer Mark Farias and several other unnamed offices, but does
not name Hawaii County or the Police Department.

During the arrests, police seized 1.5 ounces of dried marijuana and 20
marijuana plants. Police later returned the dried marijuana but not the
plants, saying 11 of the plants were mature, two more than allowed for the
three people under the medical marijuana law.

John Robison and Wells have leukemia and Rhonda Robison has a form of
muscular dystrophy.

A Puna man who has a state-issued permit allowing him to grow and possess
marijuana for an ailment said he is also unfairly being targeted.

Guy Shepard said police arrived at his Leilani Estates home south of Hilo by
helicopter last week. He said they seized two of his seven plants and
destroyed a third.

Shepard, 60, who was not arrested, said he uses the drug for intense back
pain.

Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii and the Drug Policy
Forum of Hawaii issued a joint statement protesting what they called
''unwarranted harassment'' of legally registered medical marijuana users.

''This intrusive behavior on the part of the Hawaii County police is an
unconscionable attack on sick people who have been certified by a physician
and are using marijuana legally to treat their ailments,'' said Donald
Topping, president of the forum.

ACLU Legal Director Brent White deplored the ''out-of-control'' behavior of
the police.