"Not Guilty" in Medical Marijuana Trial..

[kentuck]

http://www.gazette.com/articles/jury-140056-verdict-guilty.html

<snip>
An El Paso County jury on Monday acquitted a corporate trainer turned-medical marijuana grower on drug cultivation charges, ending a weeklong trial that brought daily demonstrations by medical marijuana advocates.

Elisa Kappelmann, 52, embraced attorney Rob Corry of Denver after the jury's verdict was read in court. Her supporters rocked in their seats, shouted "thank you" to the departing jurors and in some cases wept.

...

Kappelmann, who left her job at Hewlett Packard in Colorado Springs to open a medical marijuana dispensary, had faced up to 12 years in prison on two felonies in connection with a May 2010 raid on a Colorado Springs warehouse where she leased an 800-square-foot suite as a temporary grow house.

Police said Kappelmann and her business partner were growing 99 marijuana plants without necessary documentation from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which maintains a medical marijuana registry. Authorities also seized just more than a pound of dried marijuana and some marijuana cigarettes.

...more

[alcibiades_mystery]

1. Pure jury nullification here

We need more and more of this.

People need to scoff at these insane cannabis laws at the jury level.

[villager]

3. Jury nullification, indeed. Especially since this administration lacks the spine to do the peoples'

...will, regarding this issue...

[RKP5637]

5. Exactly!!! "this administration lacks the spine to do the peoples' will," n/t

[RainDog]

9. I think it's more complicated than that

Last edited Tue Jun 12, 2012, 12:31 AM - Edit history (1)

There are big special interest groups that do not want their revenue streams interrupted.

The way to counter this, imo, is to note how racist the application of mj laws are across the nation - this case was not about stop and frisk policies, etc - though those policies wouldn't exist w/o the law as it is. Michelle Alexander has done a good job creating the case that these laws are The New Jim Crow. We already know, via the crack vs. coke sentencing issues, that racism is applied regularly regarding various drug laws. We need to appeal to the basic sense of justice that should exist, if it doesn't, among lawmakers - to see this policy in regard to its outcomes, not their fears.

They need to do a cost/benefit analysis about the outcomes for marijuana use vs. arrest and all the consequences that follow. I know one teenager whose life would've been forever changed if he had been busted in Hawaii for something so many others did, as well.

Taxpayers have to let the govt know that we do not want them to put tax money toward something that people view as a valid substitute or adjunct medicine for the treatment of things like epilepsy, MS, CP, side effects of chemotherapy and HIV drugs, migraines, neuropathy, rheumatoid arthritis... the self interests of Americans, in regard to their health, matters too.

But we live in a culture that has specific guidelines for medicines developed to do as little harm as possible. So that makes it possible to discard marijuana when it is already illegal. If it were not illegal and all these uses were known - it would be sold as an herb in a health food store and doctors could recommend it without the need for its categorization as "medicine."

We know various herbs are medicine - some aren't - sometimes ppl make outrageous claims - but some herbs do, in fact, have beneficial health effects and doctors can and do mention them to patients as an alternative - valerian root instead of valium, for instance.

...which gets to another special interest group that lobbies against change - those folks making the valium, not growing valerian in their yards, or stopping at the health good store for a cheaper, less overpowering version of something.

And then there's the alcoholic beverage industry. Medically, this one doesn't matter, but no doubt this group does not want to face legal competition for its product.

Powerful lobbying groups don't give up a fight easily.

In spite of that, however, public perception is changing - and some politicians are smart enough to make use of this - Cuomo recently, for instance - I think it's easier at the state level because state pols can gauge voter sentiment.

After enough state-level laws change - the federal govt just can't continue to justify its stance.

That's how prohibition ended, too.

[RKP5637]

10. Thanks for this very thoughtful reply. Very well said and I agree 100%! n/t

[truedelphi]

17. You make a few good points - but readers of

newspaper, "The Press Democrat" here in Northern Calif are being told not to worry if they need medical marijuana to help them in facing a challenge to their health.

Help will be provided - the Administration is seeing to it that anyone with a valid prescription for Med Marijuana can have it. They will simply have to sign up and have it be sent to them from a Pharmacy in Great Britain.

How nuts is that? The state is facing a huge reduction of services, and the Administration refuses to let us continue with a program that was helping sick people, expanding employment opportunities, making rentals out of empty store fronts, expanding local newspapers. Additionally, the medical marijuana cultivation and clinic services were bringing 125 millions of dollars into the state's revenues through taxation.

I am a terrible cynic, becoming more cynical each day. The evidence I see all around me has me coming to believe that most of those in power are deliberately designing our society so that the middle incomed class becomes extinct, and those of us too old for insurance die before we reach the age of Social Security and MediCare, and many other things.

[RainDog]

23. what administration?

Is this an advertisement where you are or what?

[truedelphi]

25. the detail about ordering Med M from UK

was inside a news article about how many clinics were being shut down, once the waves upon waves of DOJ and IRS agents started hassling the medical marijuana clinic.

[RainDog]

29. oh. I didn't understand at first

thanks for the explanation.

yeah, and the more states that legalize, the more pressure to not lose revenue from states that don't - we're not there yet, but we're getting there.

in the meantime - anytime there are social transitions - there's a lot of weirdness.

I can't imagine anyone would bother with the UK when they're in a legal state b/c then the laws would be something else entirely as far as federal v. state law.

[villager]

44. MMJ was perking up rentals of empty storefronts in my working class L.A. neighborhood, too

And L.A.'s crackdown on same -- let alone the Obama administration's -- makes, as you note, no good economic sense whatsoever.

[truedelphi]

47. You wanna know a really sad sad story?

This guy who had been living on the Lakota Sioux reservation at Pine Ridge in the Dakotas had decided to grow hemp.

He got the acreage. He stared growing. He got contracts from companies, including a big contract from up north in Canada. He started to employ the local people, as fast as they could apply for the jobs.

Then the George Bush Administration shut him down. The cease and desist order meant the acreage had to go back to the wild. He was facing charges that could have had him spend years in jail.

So he was hoping that when Obama became President, the nation would see a relaxing of the rules regarding hemp. After all, hemp cannot get a person high.

But no. That was not the case. <sigh> I do think he ended up getting out of the jail sentence, but the money he made growing hemp was used for his court defense. And all the reservation folks he was employing are now back to being unemployed.

So much for change and hope (or change and hemp!)

[villager]

48. Yup -- change and hope? Not so much. Alas.

I really wanted to be proven wrong about the Democrats this time, though.

[RainDog]

49. that is such an injustice

did you see this?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002784542

In a last minute addition to the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2012, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) has submitted an amendment that would legalize the production of industrial hemp, a potential new bumper crop for U.S. farmers.

“Industrial hemp is used in many healthy and sustainable consumer products. However, the federal prohibition on growing industrial hemp has forced companies to needlessly import raw materials from other countries,” Wyden said in prepared text. “My amendment to the Farm Bill will change federal policy to allow U.S. farmers to produce hemp for these safe and legitimate products right here, helping both producers and suppliers to grow and improve Oregon’s economy in the process.”

Allowing American farmers to produce industrial hemp, which is different from its more notorious cousin marijuana, would yield significant and immediate profits the first year, according to an analysis conducted in 1998 (PDF) by the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Kentucky.

Researchers found that farmers in the state of Kentucky alone could see between $220 to $605 in net profits per acre of hemp. Adjusted for inflation using the consumer price index, those 1998 dollars would actually be worth $310 and $854 today, although the study’s authors note that variables in supply and demand for hemp could change that valuation.

[truedelphi]

50. That is an excellent thing to hear about.

Alot of Oregon dems really rock.

Someone here on DU posted a photo of a set of clothes they had gotten at a thrift or antique store.

The clothes were from 1840 and due to hemp's natural resistance to pest like moths, they looked the way they did when first made. (Obviously very "period" and so nothing you could wear to anything but a costume party.)

But until that photo got posted, I never realized how intensely durable hemp was. No wonder the cotton industry wanted this substance to be banned. And of course the paper manufacturers agreed with the cotton folks.

Now, sailors face harm because nylon ropes and sails whip apart in the wind, sometimes dissolving within a month of being purchased and installed. While hemp ropes and hemp sails could withstand the salt water and the high winds for very long periods of time.

[MagickMuffin]

20. Great response, however, I do have to take issue with this statement

"But we live in a culture that has specific guidelines for medicines developed to do as little harm as possible."

We don't get a say so in this equation. Only the pharma corporations and the FDA get to set the standards. I did quite a lot of research on pharma drugs and let me tell you they are more dangerous than Cannabis. A lot more dangerous. Listen to some of the commercials airing over the airwaves. I would guesstimate those ads spend at least 15-20 seconds explaining the dangers or side effects.

Also pharma has an added bonus of having the medical community behind them. The Doctors prescribed these medications without the least bit of concern for their patients. My in-laws were constantly getting prescriptions filled, if those caused any side effects that threatened their health, the doctors would just write another script. Meanwhile the in-laws just spent a small fortune on pills that went to waste. This is how big pharma can buy our government, they can afford to lobby congress with the high prices they charge for their medications. Overcharging for the medications that might work, and if they don't no big deal they'll just peddle something else.

Big Pharma are the biggest dope pushers around. And they don't care if their products has all those side effects. Who cares? They don't.

[RainDog]

22. oh, no doubt.

I was just noting the reason it's so hard for some medical people to accept mj as something other than the drug scare propaganda... and why they are much more comfortable with Sativex, even tho it is the same thing as cannabis that anyone can grow - they quantify it in a way that allows people who live within that sort of world to feel comfortable.

it's sometimes a bias - but it comes with the territory and training about what constitutes something that a doc would prescribe.

but doctors can and do recommend.

I think that's where this mmj thing should go - as it is now done - as an herbal.

because mmj will not be able to pass the requirements demanded by drug schedules - which is why it doesn't belong on them in the first place.

[MagickMuffin]

24. Exactly correct people need reeducation about Cannabis

I think one way to overcome this paradox would be to stop referring to it as Marijuana. In '37 when the feds were making their case against Cannabis they were the ones to start referring to it as Marijuana. The AMA didn't know what they were up against as they had never heard it referred to that name.

If we used the history of Cannabis and how it was used in medicine before the 1937 witch-hunt and propaganda I think we would have a huge success in winning over a huge segment of the population.

I find it so ironic that the feds label Cannabis-Marijuana a drug, yet place it under schedule one which claims it has no medicinal value / use. Again

Congress that continues to legislate Cannabis-Marijuana should be placed under arrest for practicing medicine without a license

[RainDog]

30. I think the internet has made it possible to catapult the propaganda

the first mmj legislation came about at the same time that the internet spread to the general public.

since then, support for legalization has soared as people can read information for themselves who might not otherwise pay attention to this issue.

also - the positive outcomes for so many people who have used mmj during chemo just makes people not really care what the law says if they are provided a chance to live by breaking the law.

mmj saves lives that might be lost to wasting b/c of chemo. too many people have seen this or experienced it themselves.

[MagickMuffin]

39. Back in the 70's it was such a taboo about its effectiveness with cancer treatment

Doctors talking to their patients about it but ever so discretely. They had a lot to fear with losing their license if they got reported. I suppose in that regard we've come a long way baby!

I saw a segment on the Antique Roadshow where someone brought in an old herbal chest of medicines. There was a Cannabis bottle which to my surprise they actually talked and joked about it, as the brother of the guy took the contents of the jar. I was amazed they even mentioned it at all.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/archive/200007A45.html






A part of the transcript, more at the link above. There is also a video if you're interested in viewing.


APPRAISER: Well, let's just show our viewers at home that amazing medicine chest that your grandmother salvaged from being thrown out. This is a students' cabinet made by the Parke-Davis Company...


APPRAISER: ...who's still in business today, probably made around the turn of the century-- 1890, 1900-- and it is, going by the list here, little sample tins-and they're handsome little tins like that-- of various medical roots, medical herbs, and all kinds of natural remedies I would have thought. And then there are more in the drawers, correct?


APPRAISER: All in very good condition with a few exceptions. On the bottom you have, I'm going to assume that's a St. Louis address -- it doesn't say St. Louis -- but I know the address Grand and Market Street... if you look up the St.Louis directory from about 1900's you could probably find out. And they're mostly full, aren't they?

GUEST: Except for three.

APPRAISER: Except for three. What ones are missing? Do you remember?

GUEST: I don't know of the other two, but I know that one was Cannabis sativa which my older brother got to.

APPRAISER: Your brother got to the cannabis. We won't go there. We won't go there.

[HiPointDem]

36. little-known fact: big corporations were against prohibition, and had a big role in ending it.

ON March 19, 1928, eight years into the reign of constitutional Prohibition, Pierre S. du Pont wrote a letter to William P. Smith, one of the very few people he ever addressed by first name. Du Pont was among the wealthiest men in the world, chairman of both his family’s chemical colossus and the du Pont-controlled General Motors Corporation. Smith worked for a less well-known enterprise that Pierre du Pont also dominated: the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment.

“The object of the organization,” du Pont told his friend Bill, “is not merely the return of the use of alcoholic beverages in the United States.” He went on, “Another important factor is the tremendous loss of revenue to our government through the Prohibition laws” — the revenue once collected through taxes on liquor and beer. With the end of Prohibition, he wrote, “the revenue of the government would be increased sufficiently to warrant the abolition of the income tax and corporation tax.”

For today’s advocates of legalized, taxable marijuana — or new levies on, say, electricity use, baseball tickets or high-fructose corn syrup — it’s an appealing model. Some even believe that a tax on marijuana, which could be legalized by California voters this November, could lead to a reduction in the state’s income taxes. But the history of the intimate relationship between drinking and taxing suggests otherwise.... By 1910, as anti-alcohol forces were making a significant impact on American politics, the federal government was annually drawing more than 70 percent of its domestic revenue from the bottle and the keg. In those years before the advent of the income tax, only the tariff on foreign goods and materials provided a larger share.

The nation’s dependence on the alcohol tax created a vexing problem for the leaders of the Prohibition movement. As early as 1883, the editors of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union’s official newspaper coyly asked their readers, “How, then, will [we] support the government” if the sale of liquor is prohibited? The editors had a ready answer: an income tax, they wrote, was “the most just and equable arrangement ever made for the equalization of governmental burdens.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/opinion/13okrent.html?pagewanted=all

[RainDog]

38. Yes. DuPont was against prohibition b/c he feared it would raise his taxes

I think it's really interesting to study the shifts in alliances and changes in opinion regarding the prohibition movement.

The current mj legalization movement is made up of libertarians who don't want to spend the money on a victimless crime, patients' advocates who lived through the HIV/AIDs crisis and beyond, those who prefer cannabis over alcohol, and local and state legislatures who would like to be able to capture some of the money that is passed around by illegal trade.

Even if the price dropped because it was easy to produce, the state could levy taxes for recreational use that could capture some of the money that now supports cartels, etc. The trick is to find the tax rate that is low enough to prevent illegal trafficking.

Beyond that, businesses that operate cannabis or hemp related services would be providing jobs and paying into the local economy via licenses, etc.

[freshwest]

46. You win the thread. Thanks!

[RainDog]

7. 11 women, 1 man

the prosecution was no doubt going for females because polls indicate that women lag behind (along with the elderly and conservatives) regarding liberalization of marijuana policy.

Turns out that, at least on this jury, or the state - that didn't help them.

Her defense argued that Kappelmann had physicians' recommendations and caregiver forms for each of her 22 patients and was within her plant count even under the strictest interpretations of the laws. Under Colorado's medical marijuana amendment, growers are generally limited to six plants per patient, though the law recognizes that greater amounts are allowed if "medically necessary."

...During the trial, Corry (the defense attn.) scoffed that police used a $7 million Department of Homeland Security surveillance plane to check the building's heat signatures when the suite was registered as Southern Colorado Medical Marijuana LLC with both the Department of Revenue and the city of Colorado Springs.

Speaking with reporters after the verdict, Corry called the trial a failed "political test case" and urged the District Attorney's Office to revisit its interpretation of medical marijuana laws.

Hope this is an indication of voter sentiment for the 2012 initiative.

[joshcryer]

31. Yep, I wish I was on that jury.

I live in El Paso County, had jury duty in March.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. GREAT news!

And yes, it was purely jury nullification.

We need to get that word out and make it happen a whole lot more. It's legal, but judges and lawyers hate to hear about it.

[Politicalboi]

4. I hope she can sue them

We need more of these kinds of verdicts.

[roody]

6. Great news! El Paso jury rocks.

[bluestateguy]

8. Jury nullification is a wonderful thing

nt

[Woody Woodpecker]

11. Good. That should end Colorado's involvment in dealing against MMJ.

And should end the federal involvement as well as the USA needs to be sued to legalize MJ, truthfully.

Hemp is a great cash crop for ANY states needing revenue. And it is illegal to grow it in the US.

[Warren DeMontague]

12. Good.

Time for law enforcement to spend our tax dollars fighting actual crime, not cancer grannies and hippies smoking a relatively benign psychoactive plant.

[Warren DeMontague]

13. "police used a $7 million Department of Homeland Security surveillance plane"

to check the building's heat signatures when the suite was registered as Southern Colorado Medical Marijuana LLC with both the Department of Revenue and the city of Colorado Springs.

Your tax dollar$$$$$$$$$ at work, all aboard the DRUG WAR GRAVY TRAIN WOOOOO HOOOO $$$$$$$!



Fucking typical.

[truedelphi]

26. Meanwhile, schools are beig shut down. Free

clinics can't get funding, fire departments layoff people even as we approach a very tough fire season.

But hey, Homeland Security has as its mission keeping all of us safe!
If it has to use our very last tax dollar to build some surveillance drones, they will do what it take!

[Ashley96]

14. Spam deleted by gkhouston (MIR Team)

[girl gone mad]

15. Our incompetent police state at work:

During the trial, Corry scoffed that police used a $7 million Department of Homeland Security surveillance plane to check the building's heat signatures when the suite was registered as Southern Colorado Medical Marijuana LLC with both the Department of Revenue and the city of Colorado Springs.

Police had also documented soaring electricity and saw marijuana plants inside before requesting use of the Great Falls, Mont.-based plane, which had been on loan in Denver at the time.

[Woody Woodpecker]

16. That is why, we the taxpayers of Colorado, demand our money back

from the Department of Useless Stupidty and repaid by about $6,000 for each Coloradan that was inconvienced by the ham-fisted fascism of Colorado Springs.

I even said on the comment line that every Republicans that have been elected locally removed and replaced with progressives.

[truedelphi]

27. Go, Colorado taxpayers, Go! n/t

[joshcryer]

33. The DA should definitely be fired.

[kestrel91316]

18. + 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000

[YOHABLO]

19. Were they breaking the law?

"...without necessary documentation from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which maintains a medical marijuana registry."

So if they did not get the proper documentation .. shouldn't they be fined? Twelve years in prison is way to harsh. But, if the law requires them to have "documentation" then they should have complied. If we're going to have laws that protect marijuana growers, particularly for those medical needs, than they too have to register and be regulated just like any other industry. We need the tax dollars.

[truedelphi]

28. Regulated? Now there is a word that makes me laugh OL...

Every time I hear it.

Regulated - like Deepwater Horizon was regulated?

Regulated - like the fracking that is destroying our pristine water with the fracking fluids?

Regulated - like the drugs we are prescribed that used to need nine weeks of trials, then only six, and now in some cases, three weeks and it's on the pharmacy shelves. Yep, three weeks and you can prescribe some new drug that will only result in anal leakage, chronic coughing, stroke-like events, and possible death as side effects.

Only when some 56 year old woman with MS wants and needs to light up a doobie is there a sudden need for regulation!

[Egalitarian Thug]

35. Thank you. +1. n/t

[RainDog]

21. new poll indicates Colorado likely to legalize this election cycle

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002798314

this jury decision would lead me to think that, too.

[joshcryer]

32. I live in El Paso Country. This is where Colorado Springs is. The Christian Mecca of the USA.

Talk about an awesome result.

[kentuck]

34. Yep...

[RainDog]

37. Just say no to evangelical meth heads!

This is a GREAT result in that county considering the influence of evangelicals there.

[joshcryer]

40. Their influence is dwindling, imo. There are a lot of new age churches here as well as...

...dispensaries every couple of blocks (not an exaggeration).

According to this site there are 59!

If they really had the influence you'd think they would've never allowed the dispensaries in the first place. The fact that they were allowed just shows how insignificant they are. I personally think the only reason we have fundy congress people is that they're able to use outside state money to pay for the elections (generally the fundy advertising for a congressperson outnumbers the democrat / moderate-conservative 5-1).

[Meiko]

41. In the end the L/E will get what they want

They closed down her operation and confiscated all of her supplies and equipment, now she has to start all over at ground level and that probably won't be easy for her. If her landlord decides to be a pain they will refuse to lease to her, not to mention her legal fees. This is nothing more than harassment of tax paying americans by a government agency. Pardon me for saying so but the President should be ashamed. I support the President on everything I can but not on this.

[Woody Woodpecker]

42. You read it wrong.

Her business partner/BF is running the dispensary - in all, she lost nothing. Read the last part of the article.

She will be rejoining with her husband as long as she does so in legal and proper channels.

[Meiko]

51. Doooh!

Thanks. Let me go back and read it again.

[DiverDave]

45. Yes he SHOULD be ashamed, but he's not

he LIED when he said he would not allow this kind of thing to happen.
Wow, another politician lying to me, whodathunkit??

Now lets see if in his second term he does the same.

[Uncle Joe]

43. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kentuck.