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39 °F Forecast | Road Cams Sunday, November 28, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend November 28, 2004 Medical pot fields among those seized By JACK MORAN Mail Tribune About one-third of all marijuana gardens seized by Jackson County Narcotics Enforcement Team agents during the 2004 outdoor growing season belonged to people with state-issued medical marijuana cards, statistics show. JACNET confiscated 41 outdoor gardens containing 381 plants. Thirteen of those gardens were so-called "medical" grows. The owners were authorized to grow medical marijuana but did not follow state guidelines concerning the amount of pot they can possess, said JACNET commander Dewey Patten. Patten said he believes the state’s 6-year-old medical marijuana law has enabled many growers to become bolder than ever with their gardening practices. "People who have medical cards make no attempt to hide it," he said. Advertisement Oregon law allows licensed growers to have three mature plants and four immature plants for each patient with a medical marijuana card. It does not limit how many patients they can grow for. JACNET strictly enforces the law, Patten explained, because marijuana grown for medicinal purposes is often sold to people who cannot legally possess or smoke it. "A lot of it ends up on the street," he said. Drug agents in Southern Oregon are seeing a sharp increase in small, backyard gardens and fewer large-scale operations on public forestland, Patten said. The vast majority of outdoor gardens are identified by JACNET spotters who take to the skies every year from mid-August through October, when crops are harvested. Besides the 13 seized medical marijuana grows, agents confiscated 27 gardens on federally managed forestland. JACNET also has seized 13 indoor marijuana gardens with 329 plants so far in 2004. The total number of confiscated plants is down from 2003, when JACNET seized nearly 2,000 plants. The bulk of the 2003 crop was seized during a single raid that netted about 1,750 plants from a large, outdoor garden on remote property off Highway 140, Patten said. Patten said Jackson County drug agents have pulled fewer marijuana plants in recent years than in decades past. "We don’t seize as many plants as we used to," he said. "People either are just not doing it anymore, or they’ve gone indoors, or they have medical cards." The number of Jackson County residents with state-issued medical marijuana cards has more than doubled since mid-2003. A total of 789 county residents have a medical condition that Oregon health officials believe can be relieved with the use of marijuana, up from 335 enrolled in the state program in August 2003, according to Department of Human Services statistics. While Patten believes many medical marijuana growers are taking advantage of the law to the point of abusing it, he acknowledges the drug has medical benefits for some. "People who have to go through chemo, or have glaucoma, they probably do get relief from smoking it," he said. When drug agents discover an illegal medical marijuana garden, they rarely make on-the-spot arrests, Patten said. JACNET forwards its investigative reports to the Jackson County District Attorney’s Office, which generally declines to prosecute authorized growers if it appears they do not understand the law or are not obviously ignoring it by growing far more plants than are allowed. "Frankly, the law is confusing and hard to enforce," said District Attorney Mark Huddleston. "But there is no automatic exemption for first-time offenders. It’s a case-by-case decision, based on how far out of compliance a person is." If a person was caught more than once violating state guidelines, they likely would face charges because pleading ignorance would no longer be a legitimate excuse, Huddleston said. Patten said most medical marijuana growers are cooperative when JACNET agents request to inspect their gardens. "Most are pretty good with us," he said. "Others just say they’ve got a card and tell (agents) to leave. They’re getting bolder, just because they can." Reach reporter Jack Moran at 776-4459, or e-mail [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities