After a series of warrantless raids on the homes of medical marijuana patients under a voter-approved ordinance in Lake County, a federal judge has called a halt, saying officers need court approval before entering private property and seizing pot plants.
The patients are likely to succeed in showing that the searches violated their constitutional rights and were not justified by any emergency, U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson of San Francisco said Tuesday in an injunction that bars further raids without a warrant.
Denying an injunction “would leave numerous medical marijuana patients in Lake County vulnerable to future warrantless seizures of their medicine, which could lead to significant pain and suffering,” Henderson said.
The raids followed county voters’ approval in June of restrictions on medical marijuana cultivation. The rules, effective July 11, prohibit growing marijuana plants on vacant land or on privately owned outdoor parcels of 1 acre or less. They also limit growth on larger parcels to six mature or 12 immature plants, and in indoor growing areas to 100 square feet.
The patients’ lawsuit said sheriff’s officers, accompanied at times by state Fish and Game agents, conducted at least seven searches of their properties without warrants in August, prying locks off several gates, lifting one gate off its hinges, and seizing marijuana plants. Henderson refused to stop the raids in September, finding no evidence that they would be repeated, but said Tuesday the patients have now shown a likelihood of future searches once they plant more crops.
Defending the searches, lawyers for the county cited language in the ordinance that declared illegal marijuana cultivation “an immediate threat” to public health and safety. They also said pot plants consume large amounts of water during a time of drought.
But Henderson said officers easily could have obtained a search warrant from a judge, or followed the new ordinance’s timetable of a five-day waiting period before removing illegal plants. “The mere declaration of an immediate threat does not make it so,” the judge said, noting that other plants also use water and that the county had failed to explain why cultivating more than six mature marijuana plants poses an imminent danger.
Other legal disputes are pending over restrictions on marijuana cultivation in Northern and Central California counties. Officers have used helicopters to raid pot farms in Mendocino County, targeting large plots of land that do not require the same search warrants as the private homes and small tracts in Lake County. Fresno County is being sued over a ban on all marijuana cultivation.
“This ruling should send a clear message to law enforcement that they are not above the law,” said Joe Elford, a lawyer for the Lake County plaintiffs. The county’s lawyer was unavailable for comment.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Judge-halts-warrantless-raids-on-homes-of-medical-5825112.php
The patients are likely to succeed in showing that the searches violated their constitutional rights and were not justified by any emergency, U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson of San Francisco said Tuesday in an injunction that bars further raids without a warrant.
Denying an injunction “would leave numerous medical marijuana patients in Lake County vulnerable to future warrantless seizures of their medicine, which could lead to significant pain and suffering,” Henderson said.
The raids followed county voters’ approval in June of restrictions on medical marijuana cultivation. The rules, effective July 11, prohibit growing marijuana plants on vacant land or on privately owned outdoor parcels of 1 acre or less. They also limit growth on larger parcels to six mature or 12 immature plants, and in indoor growing areas to 100 square feet.
The patients’ lawsuit said sheriff’s officers, accompanied at times by state Fish and Game agents, conducted at least seven searches of their properties without warrants in August, prying locks off several gates, lifting one gate off its hinges, and seizing marijuana plants. Henderson refused to stop the raids in September, finding no evidence that they would be repeated, but said Tuesday the patients have now shown a likelihood of future searches once they plant more crops.
Defending the searches, lawyers for the county cited language in the ordinance that declared illegal marijuana cultivation “an immediate threat” to public health and safety. They also said pot plants consume large amounts of water during a time of drought.
But Henderson said officers easily could have obtained a search warrant from a judge, or followed the new ordinance’s timetable of a five-day waiting period before removing illegal plants. “The mere declaration of an immediate threat does not make it so,” the judge said, noting that other plants also use water and that the county had failed to explain why cultivating more than six mature marijuana plants poses an imminent danger.
Other legal disputes are pending over restrictions on marijuana cultivation in Northern and Central California counties. Officers have used helicopters to raid pot farms in Mendocino County, targeting large plots of land that do not require the same search warrants as the private homes and small tracts in Lake County. Fresno County is being sued over a ban on all marijuana cultivation.
“This ruling should send a clear message to law enforcement that they are not above the law,” said Joe Elford, a lawyer for the Lake County plaintiffs. The county’s lawyer was unavailable for comment.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Judge-halts-warrantless-raids-on-homes-of-medical-5825112.php
