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| Medical Marijuana Return Hailed |
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Posted by FoM on June 30, 2001 at 15:04:52 PT By Clark Mason Source: Press Democrat 
Medical marijuana advocates said Friday that the court-ordered return of five pounds of marijuana to a Healdsburg man signifies a new tolerance by Sonoma County prosecutors and may also be the largest such return of pot in the state. The Sonoma County District Attorney's office did not oppose the return of the marijuana after Richard Thiessen, 62, convinced them he had a doctor's recommendation to use it.Thiessen and his wife, Connie, were arrested in late April on suspicion of marijuana cultivation as a result of 70 plants that were uprooted at their Pine Flat Road home. Charges were dropped against Connie Thiessen, 45. Her husband agreed to plead no contest to misdemeanor possession of more than one ounce in exchange for felony charges being dropped against him. Defense attorney Steve Spiegelman said prosecutors agreed to the return of three pounds, although the amount that was returned in Judge Elliot Daum's courtroom this week was actually more -- five pounds of buds and plant material. Spiegelman and medical marijuana advocates said they are unaware of any larger returns of medical marijuana since voters passed Proposition 215 four years ago, allowing use with a doctor's recommendation. Ernest "Doc" Knapp, a spokesman for the Sonoma Alliance for Medical Marijuana, said Sonoma County prosecutors have recently dropped a number of cases they would have pursued in the past. "Three months ago, law enforcement would have tried to nail him to the wall," Knapp said of Thiessen's case. "It's a trend, absolutely a trend. There's several other cases they would have prosecuted. They dropped them after they came out with the guidelines." Sonoma County prosecutors in May agreed to guidelines that allow patients to have as many as 99 plants that produce three pounds. Most other California counties that specify an allowable quantity of marijuana limit it to smaller amounts. The three-pound limit was proposed by the Sonoma Alliance and approved by District Attorney Mike Mullins and the county law enforcement chiefs association. Medical marijuana proponents said the guidelines were overdue and a sign that authorities are open to possession of larger amounts following two high-profile prosecutions in Sonoma County that resulted in acquittals. In one trial that ended in January, a Santa Rosa medical marijuana user was found not guilty of cultivation in connection with more than 100 total plants seized on two occasions from his home. In a second case in April, two defendants were acquitted who were growing 899 plants in Petaluma -- along with an additional 15 pounds they possessed -- to supply a San Francisco marijuana buyers club. Knapp said he is generally pleased with the new guidelines and believes police and prosecutors are finally "moving toward the spirit and intent of Proposition 215," which allowed for the use of medical cannabis by ill people. Mullins could not be reached for comment Friday and the prosecutor who handled the Thiessen case also was unavailable. Spiegelman acknowledged that his client's first doctor gave "questionable approval" for Thiessen to use marijuana for pain he suffers as a result of operations to both shoulders and partial removal of a lung. He said once another doctor provided a written recommendation, the District Attorney's Office was very cooperative in allowing the pot to be returned. "This would have been unheard of a few months ago, when he didn't have the right approval and they still allowed him to get (the marijuana) back," Spiegelman said. Note: Court order over 5 pounds of pot seen as new sign of tolerance by Sonoma County prosecutors. You can reach Staff Writer Clark Mason at: cmason@pressdemocrat.com Source: Press Democrat, The (CA) Related Articles & Web Sites: Sonoma Alliance for Medical Marijuana Medicinal Cannabis Research Links CannabisNews Articles - Sonoma County Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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