Pubdate: Wed, 06 Jul 2016
Source: Colorado Springs Independent (CO)
Column: CannaBiz
Copyright: 2016 Colorado Springs Independent
Contact:  http://www.csindy.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1536
Author: Nat Stein

WITH PLANT LIMIT IN EFFECT, PATIENTS SPEAK OUT AND BRACE FOR THE WORST

Crouse worries new local law will lead to another years-long legal battle.

Bob Crouse didn't think he'd still be fighting. Standing outside the 
City Administration Building downtown with a cardboard sign and a 
cadre of medical marijuana supporters on Wednesday, June 29, he 
remembers this exact day four years ago. It was 4:20 p.m., he says, 
that a jury decided he was not guilty on charges of felony possession 
with intent to distribute.

That moment of elation contrasted the nightmarish events leading up 
to it. Diagnosed with leukemia in 2007, Crouse says his prospects 
looked grim until he started medicating with homemade "phoenix tears" 
- - a concentrated oil extracted from cannabis flower. That regimen 
started killing his cancer cells, but in May 2011, local police cut 
down and confiscated his 55 marijuana plants and pounds of processed 
flower. After being acquitted, he sued to get his medicine back - 
some $300,000 worth - plants that ultimately were returned dead and unusable.

The Colorado Court of Appeals upheld the trial court's order that law 
enforcement officials return his property, a decision District 
Attorney Dan May appealed to the Colorado Supreme Court. In June, the 
high court announced it would hear the case. Now, as his legal and 
medical battle continues, Crouse has a sickening sense of deja vu.

"Those of us with medical necessity, we know more about this plant 
than anyone," he told the Indy. "But instead of asking us for help, 
they're coming after us again."

He's referring to a city ordinance enacted in mid-May restricting 
home grows to 12 plants tops, regardless of doctors' recommendations. 
Since that took effect May 23, patients and caregivers who grow more 
have been bracing for the worst.

Recent statements by Mayor John Suthers fueled anxiety. He told the 
Gazette that similar to Pueblo in recent months, this city will see a 
string of raids against large-scale residential grow operations this 
summer. And if Suthers had his way, home grows of any size would be 
forbidden here.

Reportedly, shutting down interstate trafficking operations is top 
priority. Agent Tim Scott of the Drug Enforcement Agency told Council 
that 186 home grows of that type are on his office's radar in the 
Pikes Peak region. That was in April, before the 12-plant limit, when 
growing hundreds of plants for out-of-state black markets was just as 
illegal as today.

But now, under the new local limit, Bob Crouse and others have been 
lumped in with the criminal syndicates. Will the hammer come down on them, too?

Despite law enforcement officials' urgency in advocating for the 
ordinance, Lt. Mark Comte of CSPD's Metro Vice, Narcotics and 
Intelligence Division says there've been "very few if any" cases 
since it went into effect over a month ago. "It's only one aspect of 
all that we do, so it's not a primary focus," he told the Indy. 
Neighbor complaints are the foremost way the authorities get tipped 
off, but Comte says utilities records - especially overboard 
electricity draws - are "a tool that's available to us." The plant 
limit will be enforced whether the violator is a patient with 
documented medical need or not, though he emphasizes that the 
department prefers voluntary compliance to criminal penalty (a fine 
no more than $2,500 and jail time no longer than 198 days). Because 
enforcement duties straddle CSPD and the city's land use and zoning 
department, the nuances are still getting teased out according to Comte.

So for the time being, the tense situation continues.

Back outside the City Admin Building, Crouse gestured to the gathered 
patients, many of them vets and children.

"If our medicine gets taken away, someone will die," he said. "These 
unconstitutional policies are killing us."

Later that afternoon after the protest, the city's new marijuana 
working group convened for the first time. Member Rebecca Lockwood, 
who makes cannabis oil for several sick kids, said during that 
meeting it became instantly clear that legislative relief is totally 
off the table. She plans to leave the working group and sue the city 
as soon as she raises enough funds for a lawyer.

"I am not a criminal," Lockwood said. "I'm doing what any parent 
would do in this situation."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom