Spokane7
49°
August 31, 2009 in City
SpoCannabis founder pleads not guilty to drug charges
A legal showdown over Washington’s medical marijuana law is taking shape in Spokane.
At issue is a provision in the voter-approved law that allows caretakers to supply up to 1 1/2 pounds of marijuana at a time to those with state-issued medical marijuana cards.
Some medical marijuana advocates believe that allows them to lawfully supply one patient at a time. Spokane County prosecutors argue the provision limits each caretaker to just one patient – period.
The case of a medical marijuana advocate charged with seven drug-related felonies could spur debate about a law prosecutors and pot advocates say is confusing.
Police raided Darren J. McCrea’s home last year after a months-long investigation triggered by a tip that McCrea, the founder of the medical marijuana support group SpoCannabis, was “selling marijuana to anyone with a medical permit,” according to a probable cause affidavit.
On Monday, nearly a year and a half after detectives found 5 pounds of marijuana and $32,000 in a safe in his north Spokane home, McCrea, 41, pleaded not guilty in Spokane County Superior Court to five counts of delivery of a controlled substance, and single counts of possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver and manufacture of a controlled substance.
The five people he’s accused of selling marijuana to have Washington medical marijuana cards just like McCrea. At issue is how the law defines caretakers permitted to provide marijuana to patients.
“It’s created a great deal of confusion and more questions than answers,” said Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor John Grasso. “Unfortunately, I think we’re going to have to sort through the confusion and questions with prosecution.”
Grasso said the law allows caretakers to provide marijuana to one person and one person only. McCrea’s lawyer, David Miller, noted in court that the statute technically states a caretaker can provide to one person “at a time.”
Owners of medical marijuana dispensaries use that interpretation to justify their businesses; Grasso has said he thinks businesses such as Change, on Northwest Boulevard, are illegal. The state Department of Health Web site says the dispensaries are illegal, too, saying the law allows a supplier to give to just one person.
Change co-owner Scott Shupe is facing felony drug charges in Oregon after police found four pounds of marijuana during a traffic stop two weeks ago. Shupe considers himself a caretaker for the more than 1,000 people who have bought marijuana at Change, which should allow him to have a pound and a half of marijuana per customer, he says. Even so, Oregon doesn’t recognize Washington medical marijuana licenses.
While the two cases illustrate the dichotomy between law enforcement and the medical marijuana movement, McCrea bristles when compared to for-profit businesses such as Change. SpoCannabis is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping medical marijuana patients safely obtain their medicine, he said.
But prosecutors don’t go after all medical marijuana patients, Grasso said. He’s seen many cases involving one person growing or supplying marijuana to one medical patient.
“We’re not filing against those people,” Grasso said. “Our interpretation is if you are selling marijuana to more than one patient you are not in compliance.”
Friends and SpoCannabis volunteers attended McCrea’s arraignment Monday to show support for a man they described as a hero.
“Darren provides support and education for people like me,” said Steven Delgado, a cancer patient. “I almost feel like I’m on trial.”
Moose head smashes through Cadillac driven by boy, 14 
steven on August 31 at 10:49 p.m.
Would Mr. Grasso please explain how medical marijuana patients are supposed to go to obtain their medicine. I,m soon going to be out of anything for him not to prosecute me for.
lewis8457 on August 31 at 11:11 p.m.
same question if i get a medical card where am i supposed to buy my medicine? It will take 3 months to grow some, and that is if i can buy seeds.
steven on August 31 at 11:37 p.m.
lewis when you get your card you contact me. i will do my best to help you as others have helped me. if you don’t know how to get your card, i can help with that as well. God bless.
brentandrews on September 01 at 8:48 p.m.
Mr. Grasso is suggesting Spokane needs 1,000 marijuana growers to supply the local need - so everyone get started.
Is that the way the authorities want it? Every other home a grow house? Or might it be better for all concerned to allow good professional growers and marijuana providers to supply the patients, “one at a time,” with their medicine?
Also, this statement seems very, very sad:
“Unfortunately, I think we’re going to have to sort through the confusion and questions with prosecution.”
No, the confusion and questions might just as easily be sorted through with compassion.
But medical marijuana is worth fighting for and it isn’t going away, not in the Obama administration or any other. In Sonoma County, California, the pot docs and the dispensaries are joining the mainstream business community, complete with billboard advertising on the highways.
In 2006 the NORML Foundation’s Paul Armentano published the booklet “Emerging Clinical Applications for Cannabis and Cannabinoids: A Review of the Recent Scientific Literature,” a very enlightening document Mr. Grasso should pick up.
Armentano’s booklet outlines marijuana studies involving Alzheimer’s, fibromyalgia, dystonia, hepatitis C, diabetes, pruritis, osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis, ALS, Tourette’s syndrome, hypertension, sleep apnea, gastro-intestinal disorders, incontinence, and rheumatoid arthritis. There is a reason people have been using it for thousands of years!
And now, to the dismay of those who have become dependent on marijuana money to run government offices, which have become fat with drug money in lieu of honest property taxes, medical marijuana changes the whole picture. Suddenly those assets are out of reach of the prosecutor - all that money, all that marijuana, cash, cars, homes, land, lawnmowers, furniture - the prosecutor’s days as an auctioneer of marijuana assets are coming to an end.
Naturally some of them are going to fight progress tooth and nail. Their only other choice is getting their funding honestly, through property taxes, a more just but less politically expedient method of funding government.
But they’re not going to win. The time has come; the very law the prosecutor surely holds dear to his heart, says so. Medical marijuana is legal and it’s going to be a huge industry. There’s going to be so much money new millionaires are going to be made, and they’re going to pay their taxes. Their assets will be out of reach of prosecutors.
Meanwhile, for the medical marijuana community in Spokane, the title of a classic High Times magazine grow video comes to mind:
“Ready, Steady, Grow.”
They’re persecuting your suppliers.
Believe, folks. And grow, grow, grow! ##
Marksman on September 02 at 1:04 p.m.
Since the Dept of Health was supposed to provide an alternative supply for patients starting back in 1998, and they don’t agree with Darren McCrea or Change, maybe those recently seized 60,000 plants could be donated to medical patients to make use of?
Whether its through Change, Spocannabis or Darren McCrea, patients are being provided their legal medicine. (RCW 69.51A) The Government; still trying to figure out where to get it, and how to supply it to patients. Obamacare anyone?