read the Rocky article

Dropped charges in medical pot case called ‘huge victory’
By Julie Poppen, Rocky Mountain News
Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Chalk up another one for supporters of medical marijuana.

Two weeks after a judge in Fort Collins ordered that 39 pot plants seized from a couple be returned to them, an Aurora man is banking on the same outcome.

Felony drug charges against Kevin Dickes, 39, a state-certified medical marijuana user and Desert Storm veteran, were dropped Friday by 18th Judicial District Attorney Carol Chambers. He could have faced six years in prison.

“It was somewhat of a surprise for us,” Dickes’ attorney Robert Corry Jr. said. “This is a huge victory - a decisive victory. The times they are a-changin’. It’s time for police to figure out that medical marijuana is legal.”

On Monday, Dickes and his attorneys filed a motion in Arapahoe District Court to get the 71 plants seized April 27 from his Aurora basement returned. Police have said the plants are dead.

A constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2000 allows the use of marijuana to alleviate pain and symptoms of various illnesses. The law also stipulates that medical marijuana or plants seized from state-certified patients during criminal investigations be returned in good shape at the end of court cases.

“He was carefully and meticulously cultivating this. Mr. Dickes should get his medicine back,” Corry said.

Marijuana recently returned to state-registered medical marijuana patients James and Lisa Masters in Fort Collins was moldy, and only a small amount could be used for medicinal purposes. The couple plan to sue to recoup the value of the marijuana.

The Drug Enforcement Agency attaches a $5,200 price tag to each pound of pot. If that standard applies, Dickes’ confiscated stash is estimated at $369,200.

Dickes suffers from chronic vascular disease and pain from shrapnel injuries. The decorated Marine said pharmaceutical narcotics have made him sick.

Police - unaware of Dickes’ status as a registered user of medical marijuana - executed a search warrant in April and put him in handcuffs in his driveway.

“This means to people in my neighborhood I’m not a criminal,” Dickes said. “I’m a decent, law- abiding citizen.”

Aurora Detective Shannon Lucy said the episode could have been avoided if Dickes had told authorities he was licensed.

“We probably wouldn’t have taken him into custody and we wouldn’t have destroyed the plants,” Lucy said.

After he was taken to jail, his girlfriend alerted authorities to his status. Police left 4 ounces of marijuana and six plants in his home, as well as all his growing equipment, she said.

poppenj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5176

VIDEO: http://cbs4denver.com/local/Aurora.Colorado.Kevin.2.612142.html

Dec 17, 2007 7:00 am US/Mountain
Aurora Veteran Fights For Return Of Pot Plants
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (CBS4) ―
A former Marine from Aurora who argued that marijuana helps him deal with injuries suffered during Operation Desert Storm planned to ask for the return of his plants on Monday.

Criminal charges were dismissed against Kevin Dickes, 38, on Friday in Arapahoe County District Court. Dickes is a state-certified medical marijuana patient, and the district attorney dismissed marijuana cultivation charges against him following his not guilty plea.

Dickes was wounded by shrapnel from a grenade in 1991.

“It helps with my nervousness, it helps with the pain, with my mood swings,” Dickes told CBS4. “When I’m in pain, I kind of get upset, angry; it calms me down and it’s better than narcotics.”

Police seized 71 plants from Dickes’ home on April 27. A neighbor told police Dickes was growing the marijuana in his house, but Dickes’ attorney, Robert Corry Jr., says police were not told the pot was for pain and the DA said officers didn’t know he has a medical card allowing it.

Corry said state law requires the police to maintain the quality of whatever they confiscate.

“The police officers must maintain it, must cultivate it, they must water it, feed it, preserve it,” he said.

Dickes was set to file a motion for the marijuana plants’ return and said that if the plants are dead, he’ll be asking for hundreds of thousands of dollars ($2,500 per plant).

In a similar case in Fort Collins earlier this month, police returned 39 plants seized from another couple with a medical marijuana card. Those plants were dead and now the couple is suing the police department.

(© MMVII CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

http://www5.rockymountainnews.com/news/2007/dec/07/speakout-voters-want-medical-marijuana/

SPEAKOUT: Voters want medical marijuana accessible
By Robert J. Corry Jr.
Friday, December 7, 2007

Medical marijuana is legal in Colorado, but where do you get it? This is a question that Mabel (not her real name), a 64-year-old silver-haired grandmother, deals with every day. Mabel suffers from debilitating arthritis and chronic back pain. When her conditions flare up, she is barely able to turn the pages of a children’s book with her 4- and 2-year-old grandchildren sitting on her lap. After years of trying dozens of prescription medications, and screaming out in pain as she developed a tolerance to each of them, and vomiting up dozens of pills as her stomach, liver and kidneys were overtaxed, Mabel tried medical marijuana for the first time in her life at age 60.

It worked. It helped her pain. She had her life back. She consulted with her doctor, who agreed that medical marijuana benefited Mabel, and recommended that she use it. In the 2000 election, Colorado voters decided that Mabel and others should have a safe and legal source for medical marijuana.

For Mabel, access was far from easy. She couldn’t go to the corner pharmacy for it. She didn’t know any dealers. She has found herself alone, in bad neighborhoods, after dark, with wads of cash, trying to purchase low-quality street-grade marijuana.

She has no idea of even how to start growing it herself, and cannot afford the high cost of indoor cultivation equipment. She lives in an apartment, so has no yard for outdoor cultivation.

A year ago, Mabel found someone she calls her “lifesaver,” a medical marijuana grower who has a strong passion to help suffering people. Mabel’s caregiver consistently supplies her with high-quality medical-grade marijuana at a price below market rate.

In July 2007, Mabel’s “lifesaver” was helping more than five patients. In doing so, both he and Mabel risked arrest and prosecution because of a state health department policy arbitrarily limiting caregivers to five patients each.

The Rocky Mountain News got it right in its editorial of Nov. 26, “Regulating caregivers/State should closely monitor those who assist medical pot patients,” when it condemned this illegal backroom limitation, enacted in secret without any input from voters, scientists, physicians, experts, patients, caregivers and others.

Court testimony from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment established that the number “five” was picked randomly by federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents looming over the state agency. It’s not like Granny Mabel had lots of choices of caregivers. How many medical marijuana cultivators do you know personally? They aren’t exactly in the Yellow Pages, mainly because of the climate of fear created by prosecutors.

The state’s illegal DEA-spawned limit had a devastating effect on the health of sick people following their doctors’ advice. A government that operates in secret will inevitably do evil, and hurt innocent people for no legal or scientific reason. This is why, in response to a lawsuit brought by medical marijuana patients and caregivers, Chief Denver District Court Judge Larry Naves enjoined this damaging policy in July, and threw it out permanently in November.

The Rocky, however, missed the mark when it advocated increased government regulation of medical marijuana caregivers. The editorial ignored basic laws of logic, economics, science, and the Colorado Constitution itself. Patients should be allowed select their caregivers without government interference. If six patients select a particular caregiver, government should not stand in the way of this important relationship.

Caregivers with multiple patients can provide the best medicine at a lower cost and more efficiently. They can develop plants with superior genetics.

They benefit from economies of scale. Nobody advocates that the corner pharmacy - which carries far more addictive and dangerous substances than marijuana - be prohibited from providing medicine to more than five patients. And Colorado voters, in overwhelmingly legalizing medical marijuana, enacted no restrictions on the number of patients per caregiver, preferring patient choice.

The voters wanted sick people like Mabel to obtain the highest quality medicine in the most efficient, safest way possible, instead of banishing them to wander alone on dark and dangerous streets.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2007

*****MEDIA ADVISORY*****

DESERT STORM VET TO SEEK RETURN OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA

CENTENNIAL, COLORADO—Today the Arapahoe District Attorney dismissed criminal charges against Kevin Dickes, a State-certified medical marijuana patient and Desert Storm vet. The case had garnered widespread media attention. Monday, Mr. Dickes and his lawyer Robert J. Corry, Jr. will file a motion for return of medical marijuana after today’s dismissal of felony charges. The motion will be filed on December 17, 2007 at 11:00 a.m. in Arapahoe District Court. The Colorado Constitution provides an exception to criminal laws regarding marijuana for registered Medical Marijuana patients.

“This is a victory for compassion and for the voters of Colorado. We commend the District Attorney for doing the right thing and dismissing criminal charges, now Mr. Dickes needs his medicine back as the Colorado Constitution requires,” said Mr. Corry.

Dickes, who suffers from chronic vascular disease and extreme pain from combat injuries suffered during the first Gulf War in 1991, had a physician’s recommendation and a State-issued registry card for medical marijuana.

WHAT: Kevin Dickes and his attorney, Robert Corry, Jr., will file a motion for return of medical marijuana.

WHEN: 11:00 a.m., Monday, December 17, 2007.

WHERE: Arapahoe District Court, 7325 S. Potomac Street, Centennial, CO

CONTACT: Website www.RobCorry.com; Robert Corry, Jr., at 303-634-2244 (ofc), 720-629-7112 (cell) or Robert.Corry@comcast.net, for a copy of the motion filed in the case.

# # #

http://www.9news.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=82130

Couple gets marijuana back, but plants are dead

written by: Sara Reed, The Fort Collins Coloradoan, and posted by: Jeffrey Wolf , Web Producer
updated by: Ward Lucas , Anchor/Reporter created: 12/3/2007 3:22:03 PM
Last updated: 12/4/2007 4:01:24 PM
Couple waits to get marijuana back from police
Judge rules couple should get their marijuana back

Couple gets marijuana back, but plants are dead. 9NEWS at 6 p.m. 12/03/07

FORT COLLINS - After a prolonged legal battle, on Monday police finally returned medical marijuana seized from a couple in August 2006, but James and Lisa Masters say the plants were dead.

The Masters say they grow medical marijuana at home for themselves and for others who are allowed to legally use the drug. Their home-growing operation was raided by Fort Collins Police more than a year ago. The case was thrown out in June because of a defective search warrant. Last month, the same judge ordered police to return everything that was seized.

The Masters and their two attorneys showed up Monday morning to retrieve all that was taken. However, in the police department’s parking lot, they showed reporters how the seized drugs had fared while in police possession.

James Masters said he was “very, very happy to see this come to fruition,” but that he was sad to see the plants had not been maintained.

“This is how they preserved it. They shoved it into a plastic bag, and you can smell the mold,” he said.

Attorneys Brian Vicente and Robert Corry, who represented the couple, said the state medical marijuana law is clear.

“The Fort Collins Police absolutely did not obey the state law,” said Vicente, who’s also the director of Sensible Colorado, a legalized marijuana advocacy group. “If marijuana is seized in relation to the claimed use of medical marijuana, it should not be damaged in any form. And that comes directly out of the Colorado Constitution.”

The Masters, meanwhile, say they intend to go back into the business of growing and providing medical marijuana.

James Masters told reporters if police need any help with cultivation problems: “I would definitely give them advice.”

None of the plants seized, including about 15 that were nearly ready for harvest, survived. The Masters’ attorneys plan to go back to the judge later this month and request financial compensation for the destroyed plants, which could be valued at more than $100,000.

(Copyright The Fort Collins Coloradoan and KUSA*TV. All rights reserved.)

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2007/dec/04/couple-reclaim-marijuana/

Couple reclaim marijuana
Some see handover of 39 moldy pot plants as precedent-setting
By Julie Poppen, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Originally published 12:30 a.m., December 4, 2007
Updated 05:57 a.m., December 4, 2007

Ahmad Terry / The Rocky

James Masters shows destroyed marijuana property after he, his wife and their lawyers went to the Fort Collins police department Monday to retrieve the items after a judge ruled cops had seized them improperly.

James and Lisa Masters pulled a broken 2-foot glass bong, large sacks of moldy marijuana - a total of 39 dead plants - and a small, usable quantity of the drug from the back of a white minivan.

The public display of illicit drugs in the parking lot of the police department Monday morning marked a critical step in a 16-month saga that began with the Masters being busted for growing pot in their home.

Supporters view the return of the substantial amount of marijuana as a precedent for how law enforcement agencies comply with the state’s voter-backed medical marijuana laws.

“This is a historic day,” said Brian Vicente, one of the Masters’ attorneys and executive director of Sensible Colorado, a drug policy reform organization.

Vicente said this was the largest quantity of medicinal marijuana ever returned to a grower since voters backed the law in 2000. Attorney Robert Corry Jr. called the return of the pot “a victory for the voters of Colorado” and “a victory for compassion.”

“I’m hoping this sends a message to police departments around Colorado that the Constitution is the highest law of the state and voters put it in there for a reason,” Corry said.

Not everyone is convinced of the significance of Monday’s action, though.

Larimer County District Court Judge Larry Abrahamson said the city attorney filed a request Wednesday to have the ruling reconsidered, but it was shot down. City Attorney Steve Roy could not be reached for comment.

Abrahamson said he was hoping a higher court would offer clarification on how federal drug laws - which ban the cultivation and use of cannabis - intersect with the state’s implementation of medical marijuana laws.

Because the law was a constitutional amendment approved by voters, “we don’t have a way to fix the law through the legislature,” Abrahamson said, “only through a Supreme Court ruling.”

“We were anxious to see a ruling,” Abrahamson said.

Medical-use paperwork filed

The court-mandated return of the Masters’ marijuana is the most recent in a string of court cases related to medical marijuana.

Colorado is one of 14 states that allow the medical use of marijuana under strict regulations. After getting a doctor’s recommendation, patients can pay $110 to be listed on a confidential registry and receive an ID card saying they have permission to grow a small amount of marijuana or more, if medically necessary. Other states, such as Michigan, are considering similar laws.

“There is a lot of momentum,” Vicente said. “I think public sentiment is really behind us on this issue.”

Supporters estimate that as many as 1,800 people use medical marijuana in Colorado - at least 1,458 are on the state registry. Some 636 people are designated “caregivers” who may legally provide them with the drug.

Licensed patients are able to designate “caregivers” who legally can grow small amounts of marijuana and are immune from prosecution. The Masterses subsequently have completed all the paperwork and are licensed medical marijuana users and caregivers, their attorneys said.

Judge: Pair met requirements

The Masters case began in August 2006, when their home was raided by authorities. They spent a night in jail. Their two daughters, ages 6 and 7, were taken from them for eight weeks.

James Masters admitted that, at the time, neither he nor his wife was on the state’s medical marijuana registry, nor did they have the card required to grow medical marijuana. He said they didn’t have the money and his doctor’s recommendation had expired.

Masters, 30, said he was using the drug to alleviate chronic hip and knee pain and cyclic vomiting and nausea. His wife, Lisa, 32, uses the drug to alleviate symptoms of fibromyalgia, carpal tunnel syndrome and three herniated discs in her neck. The couple were also helping several other people licensed by the state by providing them with medical-grade marijuana.

Masters said he was open with the police, who accompanied social services workers on a child welfare visit to their home, thinking he was protected by the law. Later, police raided the home using the earlier visit as the basis for a search warrant. In June 2006, Larimer County District Court Judge James Hiatt ruled the search warrant was illegal.

Hiatt ruled Nov. 26 that the plants and growing equipment must be returned, saying that while the couple weren’t on the registry, they had fulfilled the definition of medical marijuana caregiver in the practical sense.

At the time, the law allowed caregivers to grow five cannabis plants per patient. Each caregiver could provide marijuana to six patients. In court, Vicente said he proved that the Masterses grew an amount that was medically necessary for their licensed patients. Four of their patients testified in court, describing how they were helped by the Masterses.

Fort Collins police spokeswoman Rita Davis disputed that the Masters home was raided. She said police accompanied social workers to the home and responded when they saw illegal activity.

“At the time the marijuana was confiscated they did not have any documentation that they were on a list or were registered,” Davis said. “It wasn’t until after the fact that they started to claim it was medical marijuana.”

Not every court challenge has gone well for the pro-medical marijuana supporters.

But Corry believes even the losses help draw out supporters.

“The harder prosecutors and police come down on people, they are only helping our cause,” he said.

What’s next

* The Masters’ case isn’t over. Attorneys plan to pursue compensation because most of the marijuana was destroyed. In a previous interview, the couple’s attorney put the value of the plants at $100,000.