News shorts 5/12/11

Marijuana

Officers seized 82 marijuana plants from the home of Michael A. Assenberg, 51, last Wednesday, May 4, on suspicion he was manufacturing and delivering marijuana.

Assenberg, a medical marijuana patient, told the Gazette in subsequent interviews he has been openly operating a medical marijuana dispensary named Compassion 4 Patients and Adam’s Incredible Mededibles. His dispensary is registered with state authorities.

“I’m very up front with what I do,” he said from his home in south Colfax. “Everything I do is allowed by state law.”

Members of the Quad Cities Drug Task Force, Colfax officers and sheriff’s deputies conducted the raid Wednesday night, May 4, according to Undersheriff Ron Rockness.

In response, Assenberg said he has organized a protest that will take place outside the county courthouse May 23, and plans to speak to county commissioners about his arrest.

Officers seized 82 plants in various stages of growth. Assenberg contends under state law both he and his wife, Carla, who also has a medical marijuana prescription, can keep as many as 60 plants in various stages of growth.

Patients are allowed 15 plants each and are allowed to grow enough to provide to one other patient. Officers left behind 15 of the marijuana plants at Assenberg’s residence for his wife.

“But they took all my clones, so we have no way of reproducing the particular strain she uses,” he said.

Carla Assenberg said Tuesday officers also took her allowed supply of dried marijuana.

Sheriff Brett Myers said he believed Assenberg had been using his excess plants to sell to multiple patients, including informants used by the drug task force to make undercover purchases off Assenberg.

Assenberg said state law does not specify whether that means one person at a time, or one person only.

“It’s the letter of the law,” he said.

Tuesday, he said nine certified patients receive their marijuana from his business. He also provides medicinal food cooked with marijuana to dispensaries in Spokane.

Assenberg said he verifies every prescription brought to him by a potential patient by requiring they fill out a release form, checking with their physicians and then checking the physician’s license with the state Department of Health.

The release form includes an effective date and an expiration date for each prescription he fills. He contends this satisfies the state’s “one patient” provision.

Assenberg was released about 8 p.m. May 4 after being kept in a holding cell in the county jail. Formal charges had not yet been filed against him as of press time.

Assenberg said he looks forward to a trial so the one patient statute can be determined by the court system.

Correction:

EU ban only on organic lentils

The European Union is only tightening its monitoring for Round-up residue on lentils that are labeled organic, not on all lentils, as was reported in last week’s Gazette. Todd Scholz with the U.S. Pea and Lentil Council called the Gazette this week to stress the organic distinction. Also, the Gazette reversed its numbers in saying 85 percent of North America’s lentils were sold to Europe. Europe buys 85 percent of its lentils from North America, but imports a smaller percentage of the North American crop.