Feds are still bored….

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1971

 Oregon State Police harass Federal medical marijuana patient Elvy Musikka

examiner.com 9/15

Still nothin better to do except harass patients…..-UA

Early Thursday morning, Oregon State Police detained Elvy Musikka, one of four remaining federal medical marijuana patients, along with other state medical marijuana registry cardholders following a town hall meeting on medical marijuana in the eastern Oregon / Idaho border town of Ontario.

According to Joey Nieves, clinic manager at 45th Parallel, a medical marijuana cardholders co-operative, a state trooper had staked out the co-op to harass cardholders as they left the building.  Members of the co-op were detained by the trooper who issued citations, including a $1,000 ticket for “residue” to a grower whose patient had left behind an empty pipe.

Musikka was in town as part of the 45th Parallel’s Town Hall Meeting, which took place at the Clarion Hotel earlier Wednesday evening.  (Full disclosure: this reporter was a speaker at the event.  I am also a registered Oregon cardholder and can verify that 45th Parallel vigorously checked my credentials before I was even allowed inside.  I had to give a copy of my OMMP card and Oregon ID and initial numerous statements indicating my understanding of Oregon law.)  At the hotel, an Oregon State Trooper sat parked just down the street from the public’s entrance to the Clarion’s parking lot, though I cannot verify (but strongly suspect) it was the same trooper.  Nieves reports Musikka was detained for over an hour in a squad car as the trooper did not believe Musikka’s federal paperwork entitling her to possess and use her federally-produced medical marijuana anywhere in the United States.

 

Early Thursday morning, Oregon State Police detained Elvy Musikka, one of four remaining federal medical marijuana patients, along with other state medical marijuana registry cardholders following a town hall meeting on medical marijuana in the eastern Oregon / Idaho border town of Ontario.

According to Joey Nieves, clinic manager at 45th Parallel, a medical marijuana cardholders co-operative, a state trooper had staked out the co-op to harass cardholders as they left the building.  Members of the co-op were detained by the trooper who issued citations, including a $1,000 ticket for “residue” to a grower whose patient had left behind an empty pipe.

Musikka was in town as part of the 45th Parallel’s Town Hall Meeting, which took place at the Clarion Hotel earlier Wednesday evening.  (Full disclosure: this reporter was a speaker at the event.  I am also a registered Oregon cardholder and can verify that 45th Parallel vigorously checked my credentials before I was even allowed inside.  I had to give a copy of my OMMP card and Oregon ID and initial numerous statements indicating my understanding of Oregon law.)  At the hotel, an Oregon State Trooper sat parked just down the street from the public’s entrance to the Clarion’s parking lot, though I cannot verify (but strongly suspect) it was the same trooper.  Nieves reports Musikka was detained for over an hour in a squad car as the trooper did not believe Musikka’s federal paperwork entitling her to possess and use her federally-produced medical marijuana anywhere in the United States.

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Patients on the scene recorded the encounter on video, which has been seized by the state police.  Nieves, a former Army counter-narcotics specialist, tells NORML Stash Blog that the trooper “got much more polite” once Nieves identified himself as a former soldier, but stonewalled when Nieves pointed to the actual law allowing the grower to be in possession of that pipe.  Nieves reports that the trooper also denied requests for the video and the state police are giving him the runaround regarding the paperwork needed to recover the video.

Tomorrow (Friday Sep 16) we will have Joey Nieves (and possibly Elvy Musikka) on live as our guest(s) and taking your calls on NORML SHOW LIVE at 1pm Pacific on The NORML Network on Ustream.

UPDATE:  I just spoke with Elvy Musikka who reports that the police took her ID and her prescription and summoned her to court on October 5th.  An AP reporter was already working on a story about Elvy and in the process of getting the return of Elvy’s prescription and ID, they learned that the state troopers were being ordered by the federal Department of Justice to engage in these seizures from state-legal patients.  We’re working on having Elvy, as well as Mike Mullins and Jennifer Valley from Stoney Girl Gardens, major sponsors of the Town Hall Meeting, live on tomorrow’s show as well.

 

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