Pubdate: Fri, 19 Jan 2007
Source: Herald, The (Everett, WA)
Copyright: 2007 The Daily Herald Co.
Contact:  http://www.heraldnet.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/190
Author: Jim Haley, Herald Writer
Cited: Washington ACLU's Marijuana Education Project 
http://www.aclu-wa.org/issues/index.cfm?issue_id=11
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

MEDICAL MARIJUANA ADVOCATE FUMING OVER RAID ON HOME

An Everett medical marijuana advocate is outraged that drug agents 
served a search warrant on his home, confiscated hundreds of 
marijuana plants, and took computers and other records.

Steve Sarich said those records contained personal information of 
about 200 people associated with his organization CannaCare.

The raid was Friday at his north Everett home, where he runs the 
organization. He gives marijuana starter plants to people eligible to 
use medical marijuana under state law.

"We don't sell any pot," Sarich said. "What they were doing is 
harassing us to get patient names. It was a political assassination."

Sarich has openly promoted marijuana use for medical purposes under 
the 1998 state initiative. The law allows patients to get a doctor 
recommendation for marijuana to ease pain or to aid them for a 
variety of illnesses, such as glaucoma, cancer and multiple sclerosis.

Those patients are allowed to grow or possess a 60-day supply of 
marijuana, under the law.

The federal government doesn't recognize laws in 11 states that allow 
the use of medical marijuana.

Members of the Kitsap County-based West Sound Narcotics Enforcement 
Team and federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents Friday served 
a search warrant at Sarich's home.

Simultaneously, a second warrant was served at the Renton home of 
Sarich associate John Worthington.

West Sound Sgt. Carlos Rodriguez said officers confiscated more than 
1,500 marijuana plants, computers and plant-growing equipment from 
Sarich's residence. Six plants and some papers were taken from the 
Worthington home, according to search warrant documents.

Sarich said only a few ounces of marijuana were found at his home, 
and most of the items seized were cuttings and starter plants. Agents 
also took $1,020 that Sarich said was set aside to pay his Snohomish 
County PUD bill.

Worthington and Sarich accused the Kitsap County officers of 
retaliating for information that Worthington sent to the Legislature 
last week. Worthington has accused the Kitsap drug unit of 
circumventing the state medical marijuana law by turning marijuana 
cases over to federal authorities.

Kitsap officials wrote in court documents that they had a lead and a 
belief that they would find a large number of marijuana plants in the 
raids. Rodriguez said the case is still under investigation and he 
declined to comment further on it.

There have been no arrests, and no charges have been filed.

"Our intent is to disrupt mid- and upper-level marijuana 
manufacturers," Rodriguez said.

Pat Slack, commander of the Snohomish Regional Drug Task Force, said 
he was told in advance about the raid and Kitsap officials assured 
him they didn't need help.

Worthington said he was directly associated with Canna- Care for 
about a year but has ceased active participation. He was afraid that 
authorities would come after Sarich, and he tried to avoid becoming 
involved, he added.

Steve Newman, a Bothell man associated with CannaCare, said he 
doesn't like it that records were taken.

"I feel kind of threatened about it," said Newman, a multiple 
sclerosis patient who has a doctor's permission to use marijuana. 
"I'm not a dealer. I'm an MS patient trying to get relief for my MS."

He said he's working with Sarich on producing a medical card for 
people who use marijuana to help with health problems. He was afraid 
that he would become a target when he got involved with CannaCare so 
he stopped using marijuana.

Confiscation of records and possible dissemination of medical 
information is something that bothers the ACLU, said Alison Holcomb, 
director of the state ACLU Marijuana Education Project.

"We're interested in what kind of protection we can offer them on the 
medical records," Holcomb said. "We'll see if there's some way we can 
obtain a (court) protective order." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake