For Immediate Release: Mountainside Patient CollectivePosted by Mickey Martin on July 12th, 2011
Medical Cannabis Collective Charged One Year after Dispensary Raids Forced to Defend Themselves against Vindictive and Selective Prosecution from Butte County DA Mike Ramsey’s Crusade to Eradicate Medical Cannabis in the Area
Oroville, CA – On July 14th, three staff members of Mountainside Patients Collective will appear in court to face several felony charges for providing cannabis medicines to patients in Butte County. The charges stem from a June 2010 raid of 8 dispensing collectives in which officers fraudulently falsified documents and used Confidential Informants who had a relationship with the staff to manipulate the organization into providing medicine to them under false and misleading circumstances. Officers forged valid documentation to gain access to the dispensaries and have wasted innumerable resources in this effort to paint the medical cannabis community as criminals.
“It is sad that in a time when libraries are only open two days a week and fire protection service budgets are being slashed that the county has the resources to send highly paid officers on a wild goose chase of trickery and deceit in an attempt to entrap and slander legitimate medical cannabis providers,” said Mickey Martin, a Bay Area cannabis activist familiar with the group of providers being charged. “These are good people being paraded around as some sort of criminal enterprise because DA Mike Ramsey and Deputy DA Helen Harberts have a personal vendetta against medical marijuana providers and have chosen to interpret CA State law to meet their ideology. These folks were in 100% compliance with the California Attorney General’s Guidelines for the Safety and Non-Diversion of Marijuana Grown for Medical Use and the DA and Sheriff’s office went to great lengths to defraud them in an effort to criminalize their actions.”
Both District Attorney Mike Ramsey and Deputy DA Helen Harberts have made very public statements against medical marijuana in an effort to undermine the growing acceptance of it and create false concerns in the community to gain support for their enforcement efforts. DA Mike Ramsey has threatened to prosecute the entire Chico City Council for choosing to regulate medical cannabis dispensing collectives as a land use in the city, stating “”I want to make the distinction that you cannot authorize that which is illegal, legal,” Ramsey said. “If that which is illegal is authorized as legal, you can expect to see every one of those city councilors in jail.” His theory is in direct conflict with former California State Attorney General, and now Governor, Jerry Brown whose guidelines clearly state, ““a properly organized and operated collective or cooperative that dispenses medical marijuana through a storefront may be lawful under California law.” But Ramsey’s personal quest to eradicate organizations based on his “all sales are illegal” theory has led him to continually waste resources on investigating, raiding, and prosecuting these lawful providers in an effort to prove his point. Now he is using his case against Mountainside Patients Collective and his threats of more charges to come against other collective organizations, in an attempt to prove his theory, costing the county a great deal of resources it does not have, and causing the defendants unnecessary pain, suffering, emotional distress, and legal expenses.
Deputy DA, Helen Harberts, who is the one prosecuting the Mountainside defendants has made very public statements condemning medical marijuana in general based on the fact that she personally takes offense at the intense odor of marijuana grown in her own Chico neighborhood. “I am somewhat intolerant of the way the law has gone here,” said Harberts, who claimed that there is no solid scientific evidence that marijuana is “medicine.” “California really didn’t get it right.”
Mountainside Patients organized in December of 2009, months before Butte County placed their moratorium on these facilities in February of 2010. They are organized as a non-profit Mutual Benefit Corporation with the State of California and have strict membership policies in place to ensure that the organization operates in a closed-loop fashion, as required by State law. The Director, Jason Anderson, suffers from a myriad of health issues, including chronic granulomatous disease, which manifests itself in severe joint pain and regularly occurring renal stones. This disease is also causing a bone infection in his rib cage that is of great concern and is causing him a great deal of discomfort, which he is set to have urgently biopsied this week. Mr. Anderson also suffers from diverticulosis, for which cannabis is also beneficial. He organized Mountainside Patients Collective in an effort to help the many patients in the Butte County area have a safe, clean and well-lit place to access this natural and effective medicine under quality assured conditions. The collective only operated for a little more than 5 months and were still in debt when raided in June of 2010. The organization worked to provide alternative care services, such as massage and chiropractor services, in addition to providing access to medical cannabis.
It is no coincidence that these charges were filed at the exact same time medical cannabis advocates filed a petition to block the very restrictive medical cannabis ordinance that DA Mike Ramsey championed in public. This clear vindictive use of his office shows that he will go to great lengths to demonize the medical cannabis community to gain further support for his efforts to eradicate medical cannabis in the county.
Deputy DA Helen Harberts claimed in the Chico News and Review, ““The law does not authorize sales of marijuana,” Harberts said. “We’re going to put it to a jury and see what they say.” This grand experiment to show that they are right in their interpretation of State law is dismaying considering that they are attempting to slander and distort the case against Mountainside in the press and using them as Guinea Pigs to test their theory against dispensing collectives and cooperatives.
Mountainside closed immediately after the raids and never reopened, and the operators have attempted to be compliant at every step. They allowed Butte County Deputy Sheriff Doug Patterson to tour their facility in January 2010 and submitted all of their membership, quality assurance, and patient education documentation to Deputy Patterson, who then submitted it to the Special Enforcement Unit for review. The SEU then used this information to organize their enforcement actions against the collective. In an email dated January 20th, 2010 from Deputy Patterson to the collective’s Director, Jason Anderson (attached), he thanks him and even goes as far as stating, “Maybe one day we can have a ‘brownie’ together.” This false sense of security mislead the organization into believing they were compliant and six months later the same Deputy Patterson is listed in the “Statement of Probable Cause” used to convince a Judge to issue a search warrant against the collective.
It is clear that the DA’s office has an agenda and has no issue wasting resources attempting to defraud and manipulate those who provide cannabis to patients in accordance with State law. Mountainside Patient Collective is not a criminal organization and in no way intended to break the law. They will face these charges and continue to fight for the rights of patents and providers to have access to the benefits of this safe, natural and effective medicine.
The following is information on the upcoming court appearance scheduled for Thursday, July 14th:
What: First appearance for the defendants of Mountainside Patients Collective stemming from the June 2010 raids of 8 medical cannabis dispensing collectives in Butte County.
When: Thursday, July 14th at 8:30 am
Where: Butte County Superior Court- 1 Court Street in Oroville, CA
Why: To defend themselves against several felony accounts filed by the Butte County DA for providing medicine.
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