Pubdate: Sun, 27 Mar 2016
Source: Garden City Telegram (KS)
Copyright: 2016 The Garden City Telegram
Contact:  http://www.gctelegram.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1476
Author: Amy Renee Leiker, The Wichita Eagle

MEDICINAL MARIJUANA ADVOCATE SHONA BANDA SUES OVER SON'S REMOVAL FROM HOME

WICHITA (TNS) - The Garden City mother who has become a face of the 
medicinal marijuana legalization movement in Kansas is suing the 
state of Kansas and some of the agencies involved in questioning and 
removing her then 11-year-old son from her home last spring after he 
spoke up about her cannabis use at school.

Shona Banda claims in the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, that 
the state and the agencies are depriving her of her civil rights to 
treat a debilitating condition she suffers from and to parent her 
child. She also claims employees at her son's school, Bernadine Sitts 
Intermediate Center, and the Garden City Police Department violated 
her constitutional rights when they questioned her son without 
parental permission and searched her property without a warrant.

The 20-page suit names the state, Gov. Sam Brownback; Kansas 
Department for Children and Families Secretary Phyllis Gilmore; the 
GCPD and its former chief, James R. Hawkins; and Garden City USD 457 
and one of its former counselors, Tyler Stubenhoffer, as defendants.

Banda is demanding payment of an unspecified amount of money for 
injuries and what she calls ongoing pain and suffering. She asked for 
a jury to hear the case in Wichita.

Banda filed the lawsuit Thursday, on the one-year anniversary of the 
police raid of her home. She was not immediately available for 
comment Friday afternoon.

Asked for comment on the lawsuit, DCF spokeswoman Theresa Freed 
pointed to the agency's mission to "protect children, promote healthy 
families and encourage personal responsibility." She said DCF 
recommends children be removed from their homes when serious safety 
issues exist but not solely for marijuana use.

"The court has final say regarding placement of children," Freed said 
in an e-mailed statement. "Marijuana is an illegal substance in the 
state of Kansas. It can have both direct and indirect detrimental 
consequences on families."

Spokespeople for Garden City public schools and Brownback's office 
said they do not comment on pending litigation. The GCPD did not 
return a phone call seeking comment about the lawsuit.

Banda, 38, is a marijuana advocate and author of "Live Free or Die: 
Reclaim Your Life ... Reclaim Your Country." The book recounts her 
use of cannabis oil to treat Crohn's disease, an inflammatory bowel 
disease that can lead to life-threatening complications.

The story of her son's removal from her home last year sparked 
national and international attention and calls to decriminalize 
medical marijuana use in Kansas.

She is acting as her own attorney in the federal case, according to 
court records.

Banda's son was removed from her custody after he made comments about 
her using cannabis during a drug education program at his school. A 
subsequent search of her property by Garden City police on March 24, 
2015, yielded 1.25 pounds of marijuana, cannabis oil and other 
drug-related items.

Authorities, in a police affidavit released last year, said the boy 
told school officials his mother and other adults in the house were 
avid drug users, including his older brother and the brother's 
live-in girlfriend. The boy also knew in great detail how to turn 
marijuana into cannabis oil and said the drugs were within his reach, 
the affidavit says.

Banda's federal lawsuit says her children were aware that she uses 
cannabis to treat Crohn's disease and that she educated them about 
the substance, as well as "cautioned her 11-year-old that it is a 
medication." At no time did she allow her younger son to use it, the 
lawsuit says.

Banda has been charged in Finney County District Court with three 
felonies and two misdemeanors connected to her marijuana use: 
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, possession of drug paraphernalia and child endangerment.

A pre-trial hearing in her criminal case has been scheduled for July 
27 through 29 in Finney County District Court. She is then scheduled 
to be arraigned July 29.

She faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.

The lawsuit claims that "emerging awareness" of the medicinal uses of 
cannabis and its perceived benefits, as well as pending and enacted 
legislation in most states, has given patients a fundamental right to 
use it to "alleviate excruciating pain and discomfort" from medical conditions.

"Subjecting her (Banda) to up to thirty ... years in prison for using 
a plant that has been shown in studies to significantly reduce the 
symptoms and pain associated with Crohn's Disease when no other 
prescription drug or remedy has been effective in doing so 
objectively shocks the conscience of any reasonable person," the lawsuit says.

The Telegram contributed to this report.
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