Pubdate: Thu, 15 Aug 2002
Source: Ventura County Star (CA)
Contact:  2002, The E.W. Scripps Co.
Website: http://www.staronline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/479
Author: Andrea Cavanaugh
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)

LOCKWOOD VALLEY COUPLE ARRESTED FOR GROWING POT

DEA Seizes 32 Marijuana Plants

A Lockwood Valley couple who used to supply a Los Angeles medical marijuana 
cooperative have been arrested for a second time on suspicion of 
cultivating the drug. Lynn and Judy Osburn were arrested during an early 
morning raid at their home Tuesday as Drug Enforcement Administration 
agents seized 32 marijuana plants, said Jose Martinez, a DEA spokesman.

Both appeared in federal court Wednesday afternoon on charges of 
manufacturing a controlled substance and maintaining a drug establishment, 
said Tom Mrozek, a spokesman with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los 
Angeles. Judy Osburn's bond was set at $120,000, and Lynn Osburn's bond 
hearing was delayed until Monday, Mrozek said. Both are in federal custody. 
A preliminary hearing is set for Aug. 28.

The seizure Tuesday was the third time the couples' property has been 
raided and pot plants seized by police since California voters six years 
ago passed Proposition 215, which legalized medical marijuana use. During a 
raid in August 2000, agents confiscated 342 marijuana plants. The couple 
was arrested but never prosecuted, Mrozek said. A raid in September 2001 
netted 273 plants and 76 pounds of pot. Neither Lynn nor Judy Osburn was 
arrested or prosecuted in connection with that seizure, Mrozek said.

Lynn Osburn was convicted of marijuana cultivation in 1988, court documents 
show. The marijuana plants seized Tuesday were solely for the Osburns' own 
medical use, said Morgan Lee, admissions and intake director for the Los 
Angeles Cannabis Resource Cooperative.

The Osburns supplied marijuana to the organization for three years until 
the co-op stopped distributing pot to hundreds of AIDS and cancer patients 
because it was also raided by federal agents in October, Lee said. "Most of 
us have had to go back to our old ways of growing it ourselves or buying it 
on the black market," Lee said. "What they've done is sent 1,000 patients 
out to grow their own. What they've got now is 1,000 gardens." Federal 
agencies have refused to recognize Proposition 215 and voter-backed laws in 
other states, saying the initiatives violate federal statutes. "Under 
federal law, marijuana is a controlled substance," Martinez said. "Until 
(the American Medical Association and the Food and Drug Administration) 
determine there is a medical use for marijuana, we will continue to enforce 
the laws of this country."

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has encouraged local governments 
to set standards for medical marijuana use because he "supports the will of 
the people," but can do nothing about federal intervention, spokeswoman 
Hallye Jordan said.

"They're enforcing federal law, we're enforcing state law, and there's a 
conflict," she said. "Until it gets resolved, we've got a problem." 2
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