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Medical marijuana advocate Jean Marlowe says recent marijuana charges against
Steve Marlowe will be fought and the fight will cost the taxpayers of this county
thousands of dollars.
Jean Marlowe wrote a letter to the editor saying that she is one of the patients
for whom Steve Marlowe grows marijuana. She questions the informant that the
Polk County Sheriff's Office used to execute warrants and says the county faces
potential lawsuits in the case for unnecessary destruction of one property and
abuse to another individual, who was hit with a gun, knocked out and had to
spend the night in the hospital.
Last Tuesday night, the Polk County Sheriff's Office executed search warrants
at the home of Steve Marlowe on Coopers Trace Road in Sunny View, where officers
seized about 60 marijuana plants being grown there, according to sheriff's office
reports. Steve Marlowe was charged with maintaining a vehicle/dwelling/place
for a controlled substance, manufacturing marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.
He appeared in Polk County District Court last Wednesday; the case was continued
until Dec. 12.
Although only Steve Marlowe was charged last Tuesday, Jean Marlowe says her
advocacy for the use of medical marijuana has resulted in her being arrested
and prosecuted in the past. She uses marijuana medicinally because she was born
with a defective liver, which makes her allergic to any type pain reliever.
Several of her cases in the past (in 1996 and 1998) have been dismissed by the
district attorney or reduced to a misdemeanor. Her most recent case in Bryson
City in May was also dismissed.
She says 14 states have now passed laws to protect patients and when this case
is over she will work for N.C. Legislation to protect patients and their caregivers
from prosecution. She says Congress has passed the "Right To Be Pain Free
Act," which provides some protection on a constitutional level.
In her letter, Jean Marlowe questions the tactics used to execute the warrants
against Steve and says the sheriff's office did not find large amounts of marijuana
and cash as the informant had advised.
But sheriff's officers say there were 60 plants with special lights and that
the growing operation was one of the biggest and most professional they'd seen.
Polk County Sheriff Chris Abril says the informant was local and his office
was simply trying to do its job and enforce the law.
"(Marijuana) is still illegal in North Carolina," Sheriff Abril said.
"All we are doing is trying to do our jobs and enforce the law."
Newshawk: Richard Lake
Pubdate: Tue, 20 Nov 2007
Source: Tryon Daily Bulletin, The (NC)
Copyright: 2007 Tryon Daily Bulletin
Contact: jbyrd@tryondailybulletin.com
Website: http://www.tryondailybulletin.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1973
Author: Leah Justice
Referenced: Jean Marlowe's letter
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1339.a04.html |
