cannabisnews.com: Woman Running Medical Pot Club Busted Woman Running Medical Pot Club Busted Posted by FoM on December 12, 2001 at 14:15:42 PT By Jim Pfiffer, Star-Gazette Source: Star-Gazette A 65-year-old Elmira grandmother faces criminal charges after police raided her apartment and confiscated three pounds of pot she was planning to distribute through her medical marijuana buyers club.Sherrie D. Wilkie, who suffers chronic pain from arthritis and other ailments, said she started the buyers club in 1998 and began making regular trips to New York City to buy pot for about a dozen other Twin Tiers residents who use marijuana as medicine. But that routine changed last week when Elmira police raided her apartment and confiscated nearly three pounds of high-grade marijuana and 40 grams of hashish, investigators said. The drugs were worth $10,000 to $15,000, investigators said.Wilkie, who lives at Edward Flannery Apartments, a high-rise complex for senior citizens on the city's Southside, now faces a felony charge of second-degree criminal possession of marijuana. If convicted, she could be sentenced to seven years in prison.Wilkie said her health is failing and she is in constant pain because she has no marijuana to smoke."They took it all, every last bit of it," said Wilkie, a retired secretary who has been living on Social Security disability since 1974.She said she tried more conventional medications, but they didn't relieve the pain. Now, she said, she is in such intense pain that she intends to kill herself if she is prevented from smoking the illegal drug in the future. "I don't fear death as much as I fear the pain," Wilkie said from her home Tuesday.Wilkie's case highlights the politically sensitive issue of medical marijuana use. Possession and sale of marijuana remains illegal in New York and Pennsylvania. But efforts to legalize the drug for medical use have increased nationwide. At least eight states -- Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon, Maine, Nevada and Washington -- allow the use of medical marijuana.Wilkie said she doesn't sell the drug for profit, but reinvests the money to buy more marijuana for club members, some of whom have cancer, AIDS and chronic back pain. She also uses the money to cover the cost of her own personal supply -- about one-half ounce a week.While she has no known criminal record, police said Wilkie has broken the law, and that's what brought them with a search warrant to her apartment."She's violating the law and our job is the enforce the law, especially in a case like this, where we had numerous complaints about her," said Chemung County Assistant District Attorney Charles Metcalfe.The police aren't at fault, it's the law that needs to be changed, said Nicholas Eyle, executive director of Reconsider, a Syracuse-based nonprofit organization working to educate the public about drug laws."I understand the dilemma the police are in," Eyle said. "What we're trying to do is get (Wilkie) an attorney and focus some press attention on her so the public can better understand the issue, and we can show them that these laws need to be changed."The drugs were packed in about 50 bags of various sizes, and were found all over Wilkie's apartment, police said. Wilkie said she labeled one bag "Oh My God," referring to its high potency."That was the highest quality pot I ever had," she said. "In New York City, they sell it to the Wall Street crowd -- the rich people from Long Island -- for $60 to $90 a gram."Most commercial-grade marijuana sells for $3 to $10 a gram, police said.Wilkie said she needs the high-quality pot for her pain. She takes 11 prescription medications for coronary heart disease (she has a pacemaker), high blood pressure, thyroid gland problems, high cholesterol and scores of allergies.She said a liver condition prevents doctors from prescribing pain killers that work as well as the marijuana. She said she tried prescribed morphine, but it made her sick.The Star-Gazette published a story in May 1998 about Wilkie, shortly after she organized the medical marijuana club. She was given an alias in the story to protect her identity. At the time, local law enforcement officials said it was unlikely they would investigate the club, unless someone complained.That's exactly what happened, Metcalfe said. The first of several complaints began in July when Wilkie lived alone in a small apartment on Hoffman Street, Metcalfe said.She moved to Flannery Apartments in November.Police raided her apartment after a confidential police informant bought marijuana from Wilkie sometime during the six-month investigation, Metcalfe said.Police knew exactly where she kept her drugs -- in a blue Champion sports bag in the living room of her small, neatly kept apartment. The color of the bag was spelled out in the search warrant issued by Elmira City Court Judge Thomas E. Ramich, who is scheduled to arraign Wilkie on Thursday, when she will be formally charged.In the meantime, friends and pro-marijuana groups are coming to her aid, trying to find an attorney to handle her case for free because she has little money.Police confiscated nearly $1,000 in the raid. About $200 of it was from the $620 she gets each month from Social Security, Wilkie said.It's unlikely that Wilkie will be sent to the Chemung County Jail because of her medical conditions and because she poses no real threat to anyone, Metcalfe said. She'll probably be released on her own recognizance."We didn't arrest her and put her in jail when we searched her apartment and confiscated the drugs, because, at the time, we didn't know how much marijuana she had," Metcalfe said. "They had to sort it all out before deciding what to charge her with."Police also confiscated several marijuana pipes, a bag of marijuana seeds and stalks, and a set of triple-beam scales that Wilkie said she used to weigh the drugs.Wilkie hasn't been charged with sale of a controlled substance, and probably won't be, Metcalfe added.Wilkie said she doesn't believe what she is doing is wrong."Marijuana is a plant that God put on this earth to help people," she said. "It works best in its natural form. It's a member of the herb family and it's the only thing I've found that gets rid of my pain. Unfortunately, the government has made it illegal."Note: Cops raid grandmother's home; push renewed for legal drug use. Source: Star-Gazette (NY)Author: Jim Pfiffer, Star-GazettePublished: December 12, 2001Copyright: 2001 Star-GazetteContact: opinion stargazette.comWebsite: http://www.stargazette.com/Medical Marijuana Information Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/medical.htmCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #6 posted by st1r_dude on December 13, 2001 at 09:49:28 PT: elmira woman evicted http://www.stargazette.com/headlines/Thlocal1.htmlwhat a shame...we have such a compassionate government.ksp [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by FoM on December 12, 2001 at 20:16:44 PT Rainbow I am so sorry to read that you lost your Father. I really am. My parents and son are gone too. I hope you are doing ok. Please don't apologize for anything. You sure haven't offended me. Hang in there and take one day at a time. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by jtree on December 12, 2001 at 18:50:45 PT Where do they come up with this stuff? "That was the highest quality pot I ever had," she said. "In New York City, they sell it to the Wall Street crowd -- the rich people from Long Island -- for $60 to $90 a gram."Did the old lady say this, the quote isnt sourced? Her lack of medicine must really be getting to her.I cannot believe that they printed that, really I dont know if I have heard a more ridiculous claim. Yes ganja is more expensive in NYC. But we also get the best in the world. As a friend once said, "It doesnt matter where the best pot comes from, many will claim it is from their region, but if IT is the best it WILL be in NYC." It is just a case of economics, but 90 dollars a gram my god. Regardless this is yet another example of the evil that we call the drug war. We can only hope that each of these stories builds up to crumble our opposition.Peace Jtree [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Rainbow on December 12, 2001 at 18:42:37 PT Dear Antis Dear antis reading this. My dad died recently as a Military hero with full military honors yes that is a 21 gun salute at barancas cemetary in Pensacola florida.before he died he went through 3 grueling weeks of radiation treatment for a recurrence of cancer in his spine. It hurt him to move. But he lost his appetite.I pleaded with him to take some marijuana but he refused because it is illegal. He fell many times and once broke his hip. he died after an operation to fix that hip on November 17, 2001.Well antis I now spit on you. You are scum for allowing my dad to suffer needlessly. He supported the MMJ movement but would not take it. I spit on you and all you politicians who are too wimpy to do anything.he suffered and now you are making more suffer.You scum bags I spit and piss on you.Cheers Tom P.S. FoM I apologize for the naughty words but it is the way I feel. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by FoM on December 12, 2001 at 15:43:13 PT Sam Here it is. I only noticed once I had the article posted that Reconsider was mentioned. My slow connection isn't helping my concentration and I'm really sorry I missed it.http://www.reconsider.org/ [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Sam Adams on December 12, 2001 at 15:32:55 PT They turned her in... People love a good witch hunt. Her elderly, shut-in neighbors probably gossiped for weeks about the evil cannabis smoke coming from Sherrie's unit. Then someone called the police. Maybe they can get together and present her with a nice Scarlet Letter to wear from now on.Who was the cop who knew she kept the stash in a blue bag? Give the guy a medal, what brilliant investigative work. Dick Tracy's got nothin' on this fine officer.All the old people are probably on at least a half-dozen prescription drugs, many with powerful psycho-active effects no doubt.I would urge everyone reading this to send a few bucks to this lady, not only for her defense, but to help get her started back up again. How shameful that we can't show a little compassion for the elders of our society. Maybe someone can track down the website for Reconsider.... [ Post Comment ] Post Comment