Pubdate: Fri, 19 Nov 2010
Source: DrugSense Blog
Website: http://drugsense.org/blog/

LETTER OF THE WEEK

NO LEGAL AUTHORITY

By way of introduction, I had a 24-year career in federal law 
enforcement and then worked for the state judiciary and the 
enforcement branch of the Department of Land and Natural Resources 
for 13 years.  I am a strong supporter of law enforcement.  Even so, 
I was appalled by the piece in West Hawaii Today Oct.  31.  It 
appears a major travesty of justice is playing out here.

To see two medical marijuana patients improperly denied boarding on 
an aircraft and then detained by the Transportation Security 
Authority representatives for arrest by the local police is ludicrous 
if I can accept WHT's assurance that they were in full compliance 
with state law.  According to the article, a TSA spokesman stated 
their only mission is to keep explosives off planes ( something they 
have not done in nine years to the best of my knowledge ).  That 
amounts to tacit admission that TSA exceeded their statutory 
authority in this case.

The local police then "stole" their legally owned property and 
conducted what appears to be an illegal arrest.  Worse the prosecutor 
for whatever reason decided to levy criminal charges against the two 
individuals that seem to have been in full compliance with the law, 
and if so, they are victims and NOT criminals.  Lastly, the judge in 
the case failed to see the baselessness of this case and is pursuing it!

We all have to comply with various laws such as wear your seat belt, 
comply with speed limits, don't drive and use a cell phone, etc.  If 
we don't like the laws, we must work within the system to change them 
and follow them in the meantime.  Law enforcement has the same 
obligation and should be held to an even higher standard in this regard.

Yet in this case it appears we have the feds, the state and local 
authorities who don't agree with our medical marijuana laws, choose 
to violate them and harass law-abiding citizens and try to prosecute them.

My advice to the two victims that now find themselves defendants is 
to sue their butts off.  Enforcement and the courts are not above the law.

For the record, the only marijuana I ever touched was samples of 
evidence in a seizure case for illicit trafficking cases.  Some 
sanity needs to get interjected here, and if a cardiac patient is 
driving down the road with prescription drugs in his or her car and 
is stopped by police, would their medication be seized, that person 
get arrested and face criminal charges? I think not.

I'd love to have someone in law enforcement advise us why in hell 
people holding legal prescriptions are treated differently based upon 
the particular drug.

We'll get silence as none of the entities in this case have ANY legal 
authority for their actions, nor a leg to stand on.

Keith King

Kailua-Kona

Pubdate: Mon, 8 Nov 2010

Source: West Hawaii Today (HI)

Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n000/a055.html 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake