(1) Legislative declaration. The general assembly hereby declares that it is necessary to implement rules to ensure that patients suffering from legitimate debilitating medical conditions are able to safely gain access to medical marijuana and to ensure that these patients… are not subject to criminal prosecution for their use of medical marijuana in accordance with Section 14 of Article XVIII of the state constitution, this section, and the rules of the state health agency…
— from the Colorado Revised Statutes, 25-1.5-106
We’re listening, below, to Archuleta County Emergency Operations manager Mike Le Roux, who was apparently involved in the recent destruction of 500 perfectly healthy marijuana plants.
He is wearing a handgun, (as I recall), and he’s addressing the Board of County Commissioners at their Tuesday, December 7, work session. Seated next to Mr. Le Roux is Undersheriff Derek Woodman and County Development Director Pam Flowers.
Mr. Le Roux:
“I don’t know if you’ve had much of a chance to read through the [report] at this point; it’s a long read, so I’ll just summarize why we wanted to get it in front of you guys.
“Mid- to end of September, we received some information about some marijuana-related cultivation out in the county, and through surveillance and some investigation, it was revealed that we have a large amount of illegal marijuana cultivation in the unincorporated parts of the county…”
The unincorporated parts of the county, meaning, the more rural 1,350 square miles outside the three square miles of the incorporated Town of Pagosa Springs, where some people apparently think they can grow whatever they want to grow.
“Through that [surveillance], the Sheriff’s Office was able to conduct about 12 search warrants, and we seized over 500 plants, and property related to other crimes, associated with illegal stuff. We estimate approximately $1.5 million worth of product was destroyed…
“We got the information pretty late in the year. By the end of September, most of that stuff has been harvested. We had a pretty good growing year.”
He mentioned that, “through some aerial imagery” — Google maps? — the Sheriff’s Office believes there are additional illegal grows operating in the county.
“At least another 25 properties, that we count now, but multiple other properties that look to be not in compliance with the current state regulations.”
We can pause here to review those current regulations, because it has been perfectly legal to grow marijuana for medical use, here in Colorado, since 2000… and for recreational use since 2012. The right to cultivate and use marijuana is in fact safeguarded by the Colorado Constitution. According to Article XVIII — created by voter approval of Amendment 64 in 2012 — a person 21 years of age or older is allowed to grow up to six plants for personal use. These plants are not necessarily the type we used to grow in a window box, back in the 1970s. A single well-tended marijuana plant can easily grow to over 12 feet tall, and spread to the size of a VW Bug.
But life can get complicated for our local law enforcement, because the legalization of marijuana in Colorado began with Amendment 20, approved by 54% of Colorado voters in 2000, which gave the green light for medical use of cannabis. Amendment 20 created a system whereby a “caregiver” is allowed to grow marijuana plants on behalf of up to five Medical Marijuana patients — patients suffering from a range of treatable diseases and holding an official Medical Marijuana card. That means, a caregiver can grow up to 30 plants on behalf of his/her patients, plus six plants for his/her personal use.
So then, 36 plants.
In Colorado, cannabis plants must be hidden from public view, so they are often grown indoors using powerful grow lights. (Putting a sizable drain on LPEA’s electrical system, of course.)
We can imagine, perhaps, a property with 36 VW Bugs stored inside a metal building, and we can also imagine how large such a warehouse might be, if each pot plant were indeed the size of the plant shown in the photo above.. We might even be able to imagine the marijuana odor that might emanate from such a warehouse.
According to the statements we heard from Mr. Le Roux, each of the 500 plants ‘destroyed’ during the recent enforcement action had a street value of about $3,000.
We understand that many man-hours were involved in investigating the cultivation operations this past September, and in developing enough evidence of criminal activity to justify 12 search warrants, when — in fact — it’s perfectly legal for a Medical Marijuana caregiver to grow up to 36 plants.
How many man-hours, and what expense, was incurred in arresting a handful of county residents and destroying 500 perfectly healthy medicinal plants? I have no idea. I can only imagine.
But before we get too far into the solution proposed to the BOCC, to make it easier to enforce marijuana laws in the unincorporated county, let’s go back to 1937, when elements within the U.S. government conspired to spread lies and misinformation about the supposed “dangers” of the plant we know as cannabis.
The weed with its roots in hell.
As we can see in this poster from the 1930s, marijuana was commonly injected using a syringe, like heroin, leading up to weird orgies, wild parties, and unleashed passions.
The shame, horror and despair generated by marijuana use was directly related, it would seem, to uninhibited sex. Apparently, the administration of this drug by unscrupulous males caused normal, mild-mannered, upright American females to remove their clothes.
Not everyone fell for the lies. Nor did everyone swallow the theory, promoted by the head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry Anslinger, that the marijuana was a “Gateway Drug” that, all too often, led the addict to abuse even more dangerous drugs. Anslinger had spent the 1920s and early 1930s campaigning against booze during the Prohibition Era, and when the 21st amendment re-legalized alcohol use by adults, he turned his full attention to making marijuana illegal… using the media as a propaganda tool to spread the falsehood that cannabis was a dangerous drug that led people to commit violent and criminal acts…
…and engage in wild parties.
Fiorello La Guardia, mayor of New York City from 1934 to 1945, publicly opposed the propaganda of coming from Anslinger’s Federal Bureau of Narcotics. In 1938, he created a commission of inquiry made up of doctors, professors, and researchers to understand the true effects of cannabis on health. The study was released in 1944; it found no correlation between addiction and cannabis use, discredited any assumed relationship between cannabis consumption and episodes of violence and criminality, and showed no evidence that cannabis led to hard drug use.
Mr. Anslinger was not happy with the mayor. In fact, he sued Mayor La Guardia, the New York Academy of Medicine, and the members who took part in the study, and halted all cannabis research.
Over the next 60 years, millions of people served prison sentences for using one of the most harmless recreational drugs known to mankind. Then, finally, in 1996, the people of California approved Proposition 215, legalizing medical use of marijuana. Colorado followed suit in 2000.
Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can’t seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.