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  Judge Releases Patient Arrested in B.C. Hospital
Posted by CN Staff on October 12, 2005 at 19:43:00 PT
By Gene Johnson, Associated Press 
Source: Associated Press 

medical Seattle, WA -- A U.S. Army veteran who fled to Canada to avoid prosecution because he grew marijuana to help control chronic pain was yanked from a hospital by Canadian authorities, driven to the U.S. border with a catheter still attached, and turned over to U.S. officials – who provided him with no medical treatment for five days, his lawyer said.

Steven William Tuck, 38, was still fitted with the urinary catheter when he shuffled into U.S. District Court for a detention hearing Wednesday, said his lawyer, Douglas Hiatt.

U.S. Magistrate Judge James P. Donohue ordered Tuck temporarily released so that Hiatt and Sunil Aggarwal, the president of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, could take him to Harborview Medical Center for treatment.

"The guy comes into the jail with a catheter ..., you'd think they'd do something about it!" Hiatt said, launching into a profanity-laced tirade after the hearing. "This is totally inhumane. He's been tortured for days for no reason."

Tuck is a veteran who said he suffered debilitating injuries in the late 1980s, when his parachute failed to open during a jump. He spent a year at Walter Reed Army Medical Center undergoing operations to fuse discs in his back, Hiatt said. His injuries were exacerbated in a car crash that killed his brother-in-law in 1990; over the years, he has had more than a dozen surgeries, his friends said.

In 2001, he was living in McKinleyville, Calif., when his marijuana growing operation was raided for the second time. He fled to British Columbia to avoid prosecution, and sought asylum status, which was recently denied.

Last Friday, he checked himself in to St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia, because he had a cyst on his prostate and was having difficulty urinating, Hiatt said.

In a phone interview from Vancouver, Richard Cowan, a friend of Tuck's who runs the Web site marijuananews.com, said he was with Tuck at the hospital when Canadian authorities arrived and arrested Tuck on a departure order.

"I would not believe it unless I had seen it," Cowan said. "They sent people in to arrest him while he was on a gurney. They took him out of the hospital in handcuffs, put him in an SUV, and drove him to the border."

He was turned over to Whatcom County Jail officials, who, after being flooded with phone calls from activists, called federal marshals from Seattle to pick him up. The marshals brought him to the King County Jail in downtown Seattle.

Though Tuck had taken morphine – as prescribed by doctors – for about 16 years to help with his pain, he was given no painkiller or treatment at the jail other than ibuprofen, Hiatt said. Tuck, who appeared emaciated as he cried in court Wednesday, has been sick from the morphine withdrawal, Hiatt said.

A message left with the public relations officers at the King County Jail was not immediately returned Wednesday, and a spokesman with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Vancouver said he could not immediately comment on the case.

Tuck is charged federally with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. Donohue released him on the condition that he face the charge in the Northern District of California upon his release from the hospital. The U.S. attorney's office in Seattle did not oppose his release.

Complete Title: Judge Releases Medical Marijuana Patient Arrested in B.C. Hospital

Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Author: Gene Johnson, Associated Press
Published: October 12, 2005
Copyright: 2005 The Associated Press

Related Articles & Web Site:

Marijuana News
http://www.marijuananews.com/

Pot Refugee On Way To U.S. After Hopes Dashed
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21172.shtml

Ill Americans Seek Marijuana's Relief in Canada
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14035.shtml

California Men Face Hearing in Canada
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12562.shtml


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Comment #31 posted by FoM on October 14, 2005 at 07:34:35 PT
runderwo
I hope your friend makes it thru without harm coming to him. When a young person has a hard time finding a job besides maybe pumping gas somewhere the armed services seems appealing. We have a friend who son's friend was home on leave because he got a couple of his fingers blown off but he now is on his way back to Iraq.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #30 posted by afterburner on October 14, 2005 at 06:12:45 PT
Sam Adams
"Our movement is like the civil rights era of the 60's, except that it's happening and no one cares. No one in the media, no one in the Republican or Democratic parties, no one in the rich upper classes."

"But we have no friends in a high society" --We and Them http://www.bobmarley.com/songs/songs.cgi?wethem by Bob Marley, 1980, Uprising "But someone will have to pay For the innocent blood That they shed ever day, oh children mark my word It's what the bible say Yeah! Yeah!"

"It's like 700,000 people are being arrested every year and it's all in someone's imagination. The masses aren't even aware of people like Steve, Brian Epis, etc. The 1984ish brainwashing is so complete that government and ruling elite has succeeded in virtually wiping them out from reality."

The corporate-controlled media blockade against medical cannabis, cannabis cafes, environmentalism, and anti-war and anti-globalization protests is so effective that many young cannabis smokers do not even know who Marc Emery is (a man who certainly does not hide from the public eye), let alone Steve Tuck.

We need some yippie-like attention-getting devices, like throwing money off the balconey at the New York Stock Exchange.

"Pray for Peace" -- postmark on a Vietnam-era letter from the draft board

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #29 posted by runderwo on October 14, 2005 at 02:43:20 PT
FoM
One of my friends just enlisted in the Navy as a bomb technician so we will see how that turns out. He is 25 years old with a GED, no education, a broken car, and nearly no possessions. I think he saw it as a last resort to getting his life back on track. I hope everything turns out well for him but with our currently leadership I can't help but bite my nails a little bit.

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Comment #28 posted by FoM on October 13, 2005 at 21:14:12 PT
runderwo
I believe most of the young men that sign up do it because they are poor. They want desperately to get away from where they live and the service is a way to see the world. My husband enlisted and he just wanted to get away from home. I don't believe most young men have the knowledge about war to judge it fairly. Most are poor, not well educated and just want somewhere to fit. It takes years to find out that it might not have been a good decision.

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Comment #27 posted by runderwo on October 13, 2005 at 20:54:36 PT
FoM
Exactly. A lot of people confuse these stupid police actions with a national defence and as a result take out their frustration on all soldiers. Well, not all soldiers volunteered for duty, so those who didn't can't possibly be deserving of the blame. And defense against aggression is very important to preserving our freedom. The murky area is these "preemptive" attacks based on some vague threat. These actions are undermining people's faith in leadership and trust in the military and the brave men who put their lives on the line. You might be able to blame a soldier who knew full well that he was signing up to fight in an illegitimate war. I can not blame soldiers in any way who are conscripted, or who are fighting against a clear and immediate threat, or who enlist and then are turned against the values they were supposedly sworn to protect by a power mad leadership.

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Comment #26 posted by goneposthole on October 13, 2005 at 18:21:08 PT
This is how the ill people are treated?
Terry Schiavo was starved to death. She wasn't allowed to even have water. She was 'doctored' to death by those who are to do no harm. You had better hope that nothing like that ever happens to you.

Now, Canadian authorities are complicit in the inhumane treatment of another human being.

Christ was treated better when he hung on the cross. At least one Roman soldier showed some compassion.

A thousand battalions of Roman soldiers would have drawn battle lines and annihilated the DEA goons; such are their actions so repulsive.

This is how the US government treats people who are in need medical attention?

Trust your government at all? Not at all!

I'm wretching on the very thought of such idiocy.

Get to work and pay more taxes. The US government needs the money to oppress you.



[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #25 posted by FoM on October 13, 2005 at 17:57:49 PT
runderwo
If we didn't have a military we wouldn't be safe from a possible invading country. I am a pacifist but I am not so much so that I feel we don't need the military to protect us. Years ago people would say the army will straighten him out. If you're thin they'll fatten you up. If you're heavy they'll slim you down. Soldiers learn to take orders and stand with their fellow soldiers. I don't like what Bush has done but it isn't the soldiers fault so I will support them. My husband came home from Vietnam to being called a baby killer and he didn't kill any babies. I won't ever forget that and I won't repeat it to another generation.

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Comment #24 posted by runderwo on October 13, 2005 at 17:56:50 PT
Sam
It's a symptom of overwhelming federal power and control. You see far more 3rd party and independent politicians at the state level. Federal politics is expensive so the big names are the ones who buy themselves the most air time. Plus, the presidential debates are rigged because the RNC and DNC run them and do not allow 3rd parties into the debates as they did back when the League of Women Voters ran the debates. Unfortunately, federal politicians are also the least accountable due to their remote location, so when power hungry folks go in, they tend to do a lot of damage.

For this reason I support small government idelogues at the federal level, and issues like education, the environment etc I don't believe should be the role of the federal gvoernment. In other words, I believe that the less the federal government does outside of its obvious intent (defense, immigration, currency, general welfare and regulation of interstate matters for example), the better off we all are. Then all of our issues like the environment and drug policy can instead have policy that is set at the state level.

If you live in a state with a bad policy or one that you feel is not compassionate enough, it is easy to either 1) move to another state, or 2) change the policy because the capital is only a few hours drive away. I think federal policies are more often wrong-headed, wasteful, and out of touch than they ever get anything right, even when the core intent may have been good. And they are impossible for the average citizen to make a difference in.

A remote, unaccountable government having control over your local affairs is exactly the situation the founders escaped, and yet here we are welcoming it back with open arms by continuing to elect big government federal politicians.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #23 posted by runderwo on October 13, 2005 at 17:42:06 PT
pain
I actually know a fellow who insists pain is a mind-over-matter thing, and that medication is a crutch and is the sign of a weak individual. Of course, he has never experienced chronic pain. It is just an example of the bigotry that these people have to deal with. Someone else gets to say whether or not they are allowed to relieve their pain. Meanwhile, the seconds of their life are ticking away, and every second spent in pain is one less fully lived.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #22 posted by OverwhelmSam on October 13, 2005 at 17:40:24 PT
I Feel Bad About Steve
I hope the community where Steve is tried writes prolific letters to the editors and places billboard, radio and television ads telling the citizens in the are not to convict Steve Tuck regardless of the evidence, facts or judges instructions. Nullify the law!

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #21 posted by runderwo on October 13, 2005 at 17:38:27 PT
FoM
I totally agree. I simply can't believe how we treat and regard veterans in this country. Some resent veterans that fought in police actions such as those in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, etc. Even if one might disagree with police actions, people forget so quickly that Vietnam involved a draft. These people were sent to die for a political goal that they may not have wanted anything to do with! We owe them for, in many cases, taking their lives away, but in the least, sending them on a course they did not choose and frequently wanted nothing to do with. That's why I am irate about how this fellow has been treated. If anything, he ought to have extra license to treat his pain, not subject to the same arbitrary and unscientific status quo that the average person has to deal with.

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Comment #20 posted by Sam Adams on October 13, 2005 at 13:46:45 PT
Just a note
here are the German election results I mentioned.....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4252382.stm

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #19 posted by dongenero on October 13, 2005 at 13:21:13 PT
great comment Hope!
"Joyce, Calvina, and all the others, you are perfect examples of how evil springs from self righteousness. Self righteousness doesn't mean you are good or righteous...it just means you think you are."

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #18 posted by FoM on October 13, 2005 at 11:52:36 PT
Sam
I understand what you are saying. I'm just not into politics but more into human issues that I feel are important.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #17 posted by Sam Adams on October 13, 2005 at 11:33:56 PT
3rd parties
FOM, I think the issue really isn't what the Green or LP or other 3rd parties want to don't want, or who is in them.

The issue is that our electoral system and government is set up to ensure that there will never be any 3rd party participation.

Has everyone been reading up on what's happening in Germany? In their national elections, everyone votes for candidates from the party they like. At the end, each party has a representative sample of politicians elected into the government - i.e., if Greens get 5% of the vote, they get 5% of the government.

Then, the newly elected government must negotiate back & forth to forge a power-sharing agreement to govern the country. What happened there is very similar to here: 2 parties got the vast majority of the vote. But they were just about tied, so it then fell to negotiating with the small parties to be able to take control. Therefore, 3rd party issues become very important bargaining chips.

I believe that this system not only makes Germany more progressive, but it also increases the overall performance of the government. I believe what we now have in the US is an almost completely "closed" system, similar to the Communist Soviet Union, Saddam's Iraq, etc, etc. The Democrats & Republicans move closer and closer together every election cycle. And on most issues, they're pretty much the same already.

I think when you try to answer the question, why is MJ still illegal, this is a large part of the answer.

Of course, Democrats and/or Republicans could have also made electoral reform a big issue, but they declined too, even after many polls in 2001 showed electoral reform was the #1 issue on people's minds.



[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #16 posted by FoM on October 13, 2005 at 10:15:23 PT
Sam
We are like the civil rights movement of the 60s but we aren't big enough yet. We're getting there but we need more time I think. The main reason I have no interest in the LP is because they don't ever talk about enviornmental issues or social issues except the drug war. I look at issues outside of our issue and would be a Green before any other fringe party. I guess I think that the majority of people in the LP are men. That leaves half of the voting people out of it. Most women care more about issues I care about I believe.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #15 posted by Sam Adams on October 13, 2005 at 10:08:29 PT
Politics
This really shows what America is all about, doesn't it? A wounded veteran? Medical marijuana political activist? Horrible. Absolutely horrible and shameful.

I ask again, why don't the Democrats seize upon this issue? Where is the Green Party? Only the Libertarians try to make medical MJ a central political issue.

Right now the Dems appear to be occupied with deciding whether to run Kerry or Hilary in 2008. How disgraceful. They used to be the party of civil liberties. This incident, along with many others, should be trumpeted on the front page of every newspaper in the US.

Our movement is like the civil rights era of the 60's, except that it's happening and no one cares. No one in the media, no one in the Republican or Democratic parties, no one in the rich upper classes.

It's like 700,000 people are being arrested every year and it's all in someone's imagination. The masses aren't even aware of people like Steve, Brian Epis, etc. The 1984ish brainwashing is so complete that government and ruling elite has succeeded in virtually wiping them out from reality.

It's happening in many other areas as well. They've got people scared silly of terrorism, when car crashes have killed over 200,000 of us since 9/11. But that's something Big Oil doesn't want you to think about. God forbid we start focusing on public transportation like those sissy Euros.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #14 posted by FoM on October 13, 2005 at 07:18:08 PT
The GCW
I do love living here in America. It is a country where if we work hard we can get ahead. We are divided though. We have people for some reason that think the Republicans are good for the country. Maybe if a person invests in weapons of mass destruction or oil or things that make a war work that would be true. Then there are people who worry about the poor and earth issues. That's why I feel we are so divided. Sometimes I think as odd as it might sound that some folks are still mad about the ancient Civil War because the North won. I hope I'm wrong because that would fuel a division. We aren't two countries split down the middle but one country that is divided amongst itself. We need to mend these problems and get on with building a strong and more fair country and then maybe we will see compassion and maybe the drug war will be looked at differently. It is up to each one of us to decide what is important and then live with the results.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #13 posted by FoM on October 13, 2005 at 06:26:42 PT
Updated Associated Press Article
Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Excerpt: However, by the time Donohoe issued his order releasing Tuck, King County Jail officials had received a detainment request from Humboldt County, Calif., officials, so he was not released Wednesday, Hiatt said.

"I can't believe we've run into another snag here," the lawyer added.

Tuck is charged federally with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution and Donohue ordered his release on the condition that he face the charge in the Northern District of California upon his release from the hospital. The U.S. attorney's office in Seattle did not oppose that release.

But he also faces prosecution in state court in Humboldt County.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_WA_Patient_Arrest.html

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #12 posted by FoM on October 13, 2005 at 06:12:48 PT
Update On Steve Tuck By Richard Cowan
Beyond belief!! The Seattle jail is refusing to release Steve because of a mix up in the paperwork. Kafka? Vogon? No, its just the drugwar in DEAland! Steve's attorney, Douglas Hiatt, is apoplectic. He is standing by to take Steve to the hospital, but now he is going to have to endure another night in a jail that has a "policy" against giving any "narcotics." Presumably, they also have a policy against medical ethics.

My apologies for the incorrect report but the Associated Press is also carrying the story with the correction. They had been told that Steve had been released. Will the media ignore this outrage? Demand that the Congress and the Parliament investigate the torture of Steve Tuck!

http://marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=857

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #11 posted by kaptinemo on October 13, 2005 at 04:32:14 PT:

The inhumanity of the DrugWar, laid bare
"Another Jonathan Magbie in the works" is all I could think of.

Who brutalizes those who disagree with them? Not us.

Who arrests the helpless and subjects them to horrors no better than Abu Ghraib? Not us.

Who does all that with the taxpayer's money? WHO GETS PAID TO PERFORM THE SAME ATROCITY WITNESSED HERE, LIKE REINCARNATIONS OF THE VERY PEOPLE OUR PARENTS FOUGHT A WAR AGAINST? Not us. Not us.

The DrugWarriors have, time and again, had their true face revealed for those with eye to see; once more the mask has been torn from the glue, and we see the snarl, the fangs, the drooling, the wild eyes. Proud of yourselves, aren't you, antis?

Sometimes, I am to-the-bone ashamed I am an American; this is one of those times...

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #10 posted by The GCW on October 13, 2005 at 03:18:31 PT
Gurneyed government.
Sure, the US has a lot of good people.

But

The government is on the gurney.

The pace of evil in government is hard for good people to overcome; people get hurt from the evil government, because it takes time for good people to do good.

Does this sick Bush inspired government see the urinary catheter as an opertunity for frequent urine THC tests?

THCU

Some sick dogs missed youthinasia.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #9 posted by FoM on October 12, 2005 at 22:40:11 PT
Harborview Medical Center
This is the web site of Harborview Medical Center where Steve should be treated.

http://www.uwmedicine.org/Facilities/Harborview/

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #8 posted by FoM on October 12, 2005 at 21:41:05 PT
Hope
I love our country. I feel it is a country full of good people. I also believe we are a divided country. We have lost the ability as a Nation to care in some areas. We were wonderful when they needed money for the hurricane victims. Musicians raised money. I have a NY friend that opened a place to help the displaced in Arizona. She said the one thing that really got to her was one man seeing someone had donated dental floss and he asked if he could have it and she said yes of course and he was so happy. We need to really solve this problem.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #7 posted by Hope on October 12, 2005 at 21:37:34 PT
Prohibition
There is a difference in this prohibition and that of alcohol. People actually NEED what is being prohibited. People are being hurt terribly and in even more ways...more cruelty...than the prohibition of alcohol.

Lord, and I keep thinking about that boy out there in California who was helped so much by marijuana...but it was taken away from him and as far as I know he is still institutionalized there in California. He could be living with his family and living a fairly normal life.

Joyce, Calvina, and all the others, you are perfect examples of how evil springs from self righteousness. Self righteousness doesn't mean you are good or righteous...it just means you think you are.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #6 posted by Hope on October 12, 2005 at 21:25:40 PT
He's not in jail now?
Is he at that Harborview Medical Center for now?

This is so horrible. So horrible.

My husband has had appendecitus, a broken leg and a broken arm since I've known him and the worst pain and the sickest and most worried he's ever been about anything that has happened to him was when he was having prostate trouble. It made him so sick and caused him so much pain.

Such anger...who exactly should it be focused on? There are many... so many who are responsible for this travesty and others like it.

It's pure stupid cruelty to treat anyone like this...even a mean bad person who had really done something bad. The "fruits of prohibition"...they are nasty and bitter.

It's an outrage. Cruel stupid people are the cause of this. They must be stopped. We know it. We've known it for a long time. We have to trying to make other people know it. It's time for prohibitionists to wake up and see what they have done and are doing and to be ashamed...very ashamed.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #5 posted by unkat27 on October 12, 2005 at 20:56:40 PT
DEA: Roots of Fascism in US democracy
The officers responsible for this abusive treatment of Tuck should be prosecuted for intentionally putting his life in danger. The fact that no judges have the power to authorize such a case is proof that the DEA is above the law and out of control.

Such actions and the lack of a government branch capable of restraining those actions is proof that fascist elements have taken root in the US government. Not a good sign of things to come. Fascism and tyranny are the worst enemies of democracy.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #4 posted by FoM on October 12, 2005 at 20:31:40 PT
My Outrage
I might not be for war of any kind but I am for soldiers and veterans. They do their job and they don't pick the wars. Some of the nicest men and most polite men I have ever met were at the VA Hospital when my husband had to go there for tests. Steve got hurt while serving our country. Now he needs morphine for pain. I can't speak for Steve but I believe the withdrawal he is going thru was his biggest fear. Our biggest fear usually happens I've learned. Now how will they deal with him? How will Steve adjust? Will he get good care? He deserves good care. It's time for change. It's really time for change.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #3 posted by E_Johnson on October 12, 2005 at 20:15:40 PT
What's the DEA going to accomplish?
Make even more federal judges mad at them.



[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #2 posted by Shishaldin on October 12, 2005 at 19:52:15 PT
Seething
Dirty rotten lowlife motherf***ers!

Let Justice and Peace be with you, Steven Tuck...

Peace and Strength to all(even though I'm not feeling very peaceful myself right now),

Shishaldin

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #1 posted by FoM on October 12, 2005 at 19:47:33 PT
Good Luck Steve
This is a beginning and hopefully he will be feeling better soon and maybe just maybe this nightmare might be over. I hope and pray that it will end soon.

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