Pubdate: Thu, 23 Jul 2015 Source: Wichita Eagle (KS) Copyright: 2015 The Wichita Eagle Contact: http://www.kansas.com/604 Website: http://www.kansas.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/680 Author: Gabriella Dunn ARREST AFFIDAVIT OFFERS LOOK AT CASE AGAINST GARDEN CITY MOTHER Marijuana advocates say the state unfairly targeted one Garden City mom for using weed to treat her medical condition. Her arrest affidavit paints a slightly different picture. Shona Banda, 38, faces five charges related to marijuana use and child endangerment after her 11-year-old son talked about her drug use during an anti-drug program at school. The boy said "my mom smokes ... a lot!" during the drug program and "appeared to have too much information related to the drug," even citing various strains of marijuana, according to Banda's arrest affidavit. The comments made four months ago sparked an investigation, house raid and an ongoing criminal case and child-in-need-of-care case. Banda's arrest affidavit provides some insight into the state's case against her. The Finney County District Attorney's Office has, for the most part, kept quiet about the case. Sarah Swain, Banda's attorney, would not comment about the case Wednesday. But in a June interview with The Eagle, Swain said she thought the state illegally interviewed Banda's son without the mother's permission. Swain also said Banda shouldn't be sanctioned for using weed, given its medicinal value to treat her Crohn's disease, an inflammatory bowel condition. Swain said Banda makes cannabis oil, which she ingests for her condition. The 11-year-old boy told detectives about the cannabis oil. But he also said that his mom smoked weed every day with her 18-year-old son, Joshua Banda, and his live-in girlfriend, Tequila Mader, 18. They smoked in the basement using a tie-dye colored glass pipe, according to the affidavit, and would leave the pipe on a basement table next to a clear Ziploc bag of pot. Drawing a picture Much of the affidavit's information comes from interviews of Banda's son with Garden City police officers and social workers from the Kansas Department of Children and Families on March 24. In an interview with Clint Brock, a detective for Finney County Law Enforcement, the 11-year-old said he had last seen the marijuana the previous evening. The week before, he said, his mom had gone to Colorado for a few days and returned with a bag of marijuana that was four inches in diameter. According to the affidavit, the boy had "unusual and specific knowledge regarding marijuana and its use." The boy even knew in great detail how to turn marijuana into cannabis oil. He drew for Brock a picture of the vaporizer his mom used to extract cannabis oil. The picture was kept as evidence. In the affidavit, Brock said the picture included a base with an electrical cord and a dome on top with a device in the center. The 11-year-old said Banda kept three vaporizers in their kitchen and described how she would use a spatula to remove residue from inside the dome. She would then place the residue in a syringe to inject the residue into gelatin caplets. The boy said Banda kept weed extract in the kitchen freezer in a container for Ovaltine, a chocolate powder drink mix, or in a hidden closet behind their washing machine in the basement. Banda and the search Banda arrived at the Finney County Law Enforcement Center while officers interviewed her son, and she was escorted to an interview room where Brock, the detective, interviewed her. During the interview, Banda denied officers permission to go in her house. According to the affidavit, Banda showed Brock a YouTube video of herself with a vaporizer. The video showed Banda placing what looks like marijuana into the vaporizer. The dome then filled with smoke and after a while she used a spatula to scrape the cannabis oil out of the dome. According to the affidavit, the vaporizer in the video closely matched the boy's drawing. Banda said she ingests cannabis to help her cope with Crohn's disease and without it would be unable to function and would be bed-ridden, according to the affidavit. A judge granted a search warrant for Banda's home in Garden City, the same day of the interviews. During the search, according to the affidavit, officers collected 500.9 grams of marijuana, multiple smoking pipes, three vaporizers that were actively manufacturing cannabis oil and multiple other items related to weed packaging and use. The items were within easy reach of the boy and most were on the kitchen counter, kitchen table and basement common area, according to the arrest affidavit. Those items tested positive for THC and were sent to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation for further testing, according to the document. The Eagle obtained the affidavit through an open records request. About one page of the application for the search warrant was redacted. After the search, Banda's son was taken into protective custody and released to his father, Manuel Banda, who also lives in Garden City. At some point, Manuel Banda returned the 11-year-old boy to his mother. It's unclear who currently has custody of him. 'Flawed policy' Banda turned herself in to Finney County Jail on June 15, bailed herself out that same day, and first appeared in court June 16. She's set for a second appearance Aug. 24, when a preliminary hearing date would likely be set. Marijuana advocacy groups have called her case an example of "the nation's flawed policy on medical marijuana." The Finney County District Attorney's office has not discussed the case. "The affidavit speaks to the underlying basis for the charges filed," said William Votypka, assistant Finney County attorney. "At this point, I don't think we have anything else we want to talk about publicly." A campaign for Banda's case on GoFundMe, a crowdfunding site, showed donations for her case had risen to nearly $49,000 as of Wednesday evening. A Care2 petition against the Finney County District Attorney and Department of Children and Families boasted 153,102 signatures toward its 160,000 goal urging the state to reinstate Banda's custody over her son. "This isn't justice," the site reads. "It's a cruel relic of the nation's failed drug war." [sidebar] Banda's charges Three felonies: Possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of school property Unlawful manufacture of a controlled substance Possession of drug paraphernalia to cultivate less than five plants Two misdemeanors: Endangering a child Possession of drug paraphernalia Source: Finney County Jail inmate booking and release report - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom