Pubdate: Sun, 16 Dec 2012
Source: Mail Tribune, The (Medford, OR)
Copyright: 2012 The Mail Tribune
Contact:  http://www.mailtribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/642
Note: Only prints LTEs from within it's circulation area, 200 word count limit
Author: Mark Freeman

ABUSE OF THE SYSTEM?

As Authorities Try to Nip OMMP Abuse in the Bud, Those Impacted Say
They've Gone Too Far

A FedEx box containing $29,920 of cleverly disguised cash bore Sherry
Beveridge's name on the label, and she had an intriguing story to tell
the cops who wondered why it was there.

During a road trip to South Dakota, the Grants Pass woman told a
Medford police officer, she had an amazing run of luck at a string of
Indian casinos. She told police she cleared $40,000 by the time she
reached her destination in Sioux Falls.

Beveridge claims she didn't want to spend the money, so she asked her
cousin to ship it to her after she returned home. Hence, the box of
money, sent to her with her cousin's return address, was lawfully
hers, she told police.

But to investigators, the money smelled, both literally and
figuratively, like marijuana. So they took it, and they don't plan to
give it back - even though Beveridge wasn't arrested in the March
incident and likely won't ever be charged with a crime associated with
the money.

"I thought all along, 'How could they do that? How can they do that?'
" Beveridge says.

It's called the federal civil asset forfeiture process, and it has
become a popular tool for investigators targeting people they suspect
of illegally selling pot grown under the guise of the Oregon Medical
Marijuana Program.

Investigators say Oregon, and Southern Oregon in particular, is a
source of black-market marijuana grown by participants in the OMMP,
who ship it throughout the country and wait for their proceeds - as
much as $7,000 per pound - to reach them, often in boxes mailed or
shipped for overnight delivery.

Sometimes the marijuana is grown strictly for export to states such as
New York, Tennessee, Florida and Wisconsin, which don't have
medical-marijuana programs and where pot is in high demand, police
say. Sometimes it's excess marijuana grown legally under the program
by growers who cross the line from OMMP participants to drug
traffickers.

While some big growing operations uncovered by police have resulted in
criminal charges, prosecutors are increasingly using the federal civil
forfeiture process to take money they suspect came from illegal sales
of pot grown under the medical marijuana program.

Civil forfeiture allows police to seize money or property believed to
have been used in illegal activities without having to first convict -
or even charge - a person of a crime. Forfeiture is a handy tool for
taking the profit out of medical marijuana, police say, because the
burden of proof is lighter than in criminal cases, and the process
targets only the money, not the person.

"Sometimes we don't prove the criminal case, but we are disrupting
that operation," says Medford police Lt. Brett Johnson, who heads the
Medford Area Drug and Gang Enforcement task force, known as MADGE.

"They're using the medical marijuana program as a guise," Johnson
says. "It gives them limited liability while they're growing. (But)
it's not about the program. It's about drug dealers."

A review of federal court records by the Mail Tribune shows that
forfeiture cases involving medical marijuana growers are on the rise.
In 2011, the federal government filed 25 drug-related civil forfeiture
cases in U.S. District Court in Oregon. Twelve of those cases were
specifically related to medical-marijuana growers and
cardholders.

Through the first 11 months of 2012, 11 civil cases with specific ties
to medical marijuana were filed by federal prosecutors in Oregon.

By contrast, just one of the 18 drug-related civil forfeiture cases
filed in 2010 involved money investigators suspected was gained
through marijuana grown under OMMP. Federal prosecutors later dropped
that case.

Since Aug. 5, 2011, 21 of the 36 drug-related civil forfeiture cases
filed in federal court in Oregon have involved people who were part of
the OMMP, easily outstripping cases involving other drugs such as
methamphetamine and heroin.

In one 2011 case, police seized $120,420 in cash and $33,525 worth of
precious metals from a registered Grants Pass medical-marijuana grower
accused of shipping pot to the East Coast. In another, $6,600 in cash
was seized after it was mailed in March 2012 from Oklahoma to a
medical-marijuana grower in Eugene. The grower was seemingly in
compliance with OMMP grow rules, affidavits show, but he furnished
what police considered to be conflicting and hazy reasons for the
shipment of cash.

In some instances, the federal government is using forfeiture to take
land where medical marijuana has been grown. Forfeitures cases were
filed last month on two Applegate Valley farms raided by Drug
Enforcement Administration agents Sept. 18.

One, High Hopes Farm, was used to grow more marijuana than allowed
under OMMP, police say. In the other case, a neighbor of High Hopes
Farm may lose his property for renting a small portion of his 156-acre
ranch to High Hopes owner Jim Bowman to grow medical marijuana, court
documents state.

In the past 15 months in Oregon, the U.S. government has laid claim to
more than $255,000 in cash, six properties, two weapons and three
vehicles in cases where OMMP is specifically cited in court
affidavits. Another $314,184 and a vehicle seized in 2011 in Portland
were described as proceeds from pot grown in Northern California under
that state's medical-marijuana program.

"We'll certainly use every tool available to us, especially civil
forfeiture, and especially when we can trace it to medical marijuana,"
Medford police Chief Tim George says.

"Law enforcement has said from Day One that we're not opposed to sick
people getting their marijuana," George says. "Oregon needs to look at
OMMP and make some changes to make it reasonable. Right now, it's not
reasonable. Civil forfeiture is one of the ways we can take the profit
out of abusing it."

Eugene defense attorney Brian Michaels believes it's the investigators
doing the abusing.

Michaels, who defends accused OMMP abusers in civil forfeiture cases,
says he believes that police assume medical-marijuana growers are
traffickers.

"It's undeniable at this point that there's an extraordinary backlash
against medical marijuana, bordering on bigotry, in Oregon," Michaels
says.

"Just because someone has more plants than he or she is allowed
doesn't mean they're shipping it across state lines," Michaels says.

He says the use of the federal civil forfeiture law - without any
criminal charges being filed or evidence of criminal activity being
presented - violates due process rights.

"I think there's a deliberate effort to exploit the looseness of the
federal forfeiture process to pretty much steal money from people,"
Michaels says.

Many of the recent civil cases involving cash intercepted in the mail
are similar to the one that landed Beveridge in hot water. Her package
was first detected in March by a drug-sniffing dog at the FedEx
facility at the Medford airport. The package appeared to have been
sealed in a way that drug dealers use to conceal the residual smell of
marijuana on money, court documents state.

Medford police received a warrant to search the package and discovered
the cash, court affidavits state. When police went to Beveridge's
residence, they saw what appeared to be a harvested marijuana garden,
and a check of her OMMP status showed she had an expired card, records
show.

When police looked into Beveridge's casino story, it either didn't
match facts they unearthed or was unverifiable, an affidavit states.
She told police she grew a dozen plants during the 2011 growing season
under OMMP, but a spider mite infestation limited her to four plants,
the affidavit states.

She claimed an income of just $800 a month from binding rugs and
selling wooden roses at flea markets, and she had no checking or
savings accounts, the affidavit states. She also has past drug
convictions, the affidavit states.

Though no illegally sold marijuana was found or tied to Beveridge, and
no criminal charges have been filed against her, police filed a
forfeiture claim on the money because of "inconsistencies and
improbabilities" in her explanation of where it came from.

Beveridge is contesting the seizure.

Leslie Westphal, the assistant U.S. attorney who filed the civil
forfeiture case, calls Beveridge's casino story "ridiculous." But she
says investigators would have to exhaust extensive resources to pursue
her case criminally. Under civil forfeiture, however, they don't have
to prove Beveridge is a criminal. They just have to show it's more
likely than not that her story doesn't add up.

"Civil forfeiture is less expensive for the government and makes a
better statement," Westphal says. "It has a role, no question.

"I think that's the answer - take the profit away," Westphal says. "To
take the profit away is probably the best means to attack the problem."

Beveridge, who says she does not like having to fight the civil
forfeiture case, declined to discuss her case further.

"If there's a chance to get my money back, I don't want to ruin it,"
she says. 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jo-D