From Eugene Davidovich, himself an acquitted defendant in the crusade of San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis:

Jovan Jackson a US Navy Veteran and medical marijuana patient was denied a medical marijuana defense in State Court.

After the decision came this morning, Steve Walters, Dumanis’ #1, celebrated the Judge’s decision with high fives and congratulatory hugs to Linbergh and the other DA’s gathered in the courtroom to witness the Judge’s decision.

According to Judge Shore, all 1600 members of the Answerdam collective would have had to participate in the cultivation of marijuana. The Judge maintains that sales of marijuana are not legal and that dispensaries are not legal. The only thing legal according to the DA and Judge Shore, is a community garden, where all members associate only for the purposes of cultivation.

Lance Rogers, Jovan Jackson’s attorney said after the hearing that today’s decision will be appealed.

High fives and hugs?  They’re not celebrating hard work to put a dangerous criminal behind bars; they’re applauding a legal precedent that may allow them greater power to destroy Prop 215 in the courts.  Fourteen years later and we’re still having cases to decide whether medical sales are legal and what collective cultivation means.  Apparently Judge Shore believes that paralyzed folks wheeling into the dispensary are supposed to be on their hands and knees helping to plant seedlings.

Yet a tiny minority of Prop 215 supporters would vote against Prop 19′s explicit rights to buy and sell granted to cities and counties for fear they’d lose these vaguely defined and apparently unprotected dispensary / collective operations.  Somebody tell Jovan Jackson marijuana’s already legal in California!

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This week brings more harassment to collectives and patients in San Diego by our local law enforcement. There are now reports from patients that police officers are parking their squad cars outside of collectives to intimidate the members as they go inside to get their medication. This, just weeks after Pierre Tiberius Uggla (a.k.a. San Diego Green Rx Detective Mike Mendez) was caught trying to join two collectives in town and months after Jamie Conlan (a.k.a. San Diego Green Rx Detective Scott Henderson) went to a local doctor and lied to obtain a valid recommendation for medical cannabis then joined all the collectives he could reach listed on the CA NORML.

All this for Operation Green Rx; the intent to target and eliminate all medical cannabis related activity in San Diego as well as help overturn Proposition 215 voted in by the people of California. Operation Green Rx was organized by detectives from the San Diego Police Department’s Narcotics Task force in collaboration with the District Attorney’s office and has been ongoing under one name or another for years in order to thwart the will of the people.

In this operation, detectives go to local doctors, lie about their symptoms, conditions and identities to obtain recommendations for medical cannabis. With these recommendations in-hand, detectives join as many of the collectives and cooperatives they can. The operation usually includes the detectives phoning collectives, providing all pertinent information to prove their status as legitimate patients, and then requesting to join each individual collective. Keep in mind, these collective and their existence is legal under California law.

The undercover officers proceed to request deliveries, make contributions, or pick up medicine form the collectives themselves. Last November the Operation Green Rx team rented and occupied a house in Pacific Beach for this purpose, (I wonder how much that cost the taxpayers?), then three months later, raided over 15 houses, sticking true to their motto of “Let the courts sort it out” at more cost, I might add.

Please visit Eugene’s blog at http://www.operationgreenrx.blogspot.com to follow this case.  These rogue cops and DA’s must be forced to obey the will of the California voters who approved Prop 215 and who overwhelmingly support access to medical marijuana.

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The preliminary hearing in my case lasted today from 8:15 in the morning until almost 4:30 in the afternoon. After trying to navigate the “Serpentine Roadmap” that makes up our medical marijuana laws with my attorney in court, it appears to be more confusing then ever.

The day started with the prosecutor fighting tooth and nail to not allow the recommendation from my physician to be admitted into the court records proving that I am a qualified patient even though we had subpoenaed the documentation from the doctor’s office, and had a sworn affidavit to support that from the doctor’s custodian of record. My recommendation was admitted although it took a lot of effort from my attorney.

The expert witness Chris Conrad, did get to testify and testified that the collective and the way that it was operating was in fact legal and sanctioned under state law Even though the expert witness who was originally involved in an advisory and consulting capacity in drafting Prop 215 testified to what a collective is and that what I was doing did in fact fall under that definition as intended by the law, the judge did not agree he saw ‘no evidence of a collective” even though the detectives themselves said that I cultivated marijuana based on the equipment they found in my storage unit.

We also found out from Detective Conrado Decastro that this Operation Green Rx was in fact targeting Medical Marijuana Patients and the whole point with Operation Green Rx was to bring down everyone listing their collectives on NORML only later was the name changed to Operation Endless Summer. We also found out that Conrado Decastro is in charge and is the ‘mastermind’ behind “Operation Green Rx”.

On a side note: In February when I was arrested, Conrado Decastro interrogated me at the police station. During the interrogation he pulled out two large 3 inch black binders that had a large red cross and marijuana leaf on them. The two binders contained a large number of tabs with last names of people. As he pulled out the two binders, he told me that I was not alone, and that “we are gonna bring all you medical pot people down”.

Detective Scott Henderson (Jamie Conlan) today, conveniently ‘could not recall’ the details of the two phone conversations we had where I explained to him that this was a collective cultivation effort, and that he was not to divert the medicine to the illicit market. It was also very convenient that the detectives recorded everything except for the phone conversations even though he testified that the equipment for such recordings was readily available.

It was unbelievable to see this much resources from the practically bankrupt county of San Diego being spent on this effort. Today for example, there were at least 5 bailiffs in the courtroom, the DA had at least five other people from the DA’s office advising her on how to properly prosecute this case, and they brought out three detectives to testify. All this during a Preliminary Hearing for a case where both people are qualified medical cannabis patients.

It seems that the San Diego Narcotics Division TOP priority has been made to investigate and shut down medical cannabis collectives in San Diego.

I am still in shock after today and am now trying to figure out how to get funds together for my attorney to retain him further.

It seems that the DA is heavily invested into this ‘war’ and it seems that I just might end up being another ‘casualty’ as fighting this machine seems almost impossible, especially when they have unlimited disposal to their attorneys and ‘advisors’ and I have to rely on my self, a public defender, or somehow attempt to afford an attorney after loosing my employment and savings as a result of these charges.

In short, it went as expected. The bias shined bright in court today!

Thank you again to everyone who came and supported me in court today. It was truly inspiring to turn around and see a packed courtroom in the morning as well as to get to speak with a number of you.

As more collectives open here in San Diego, it is now more critical then ever for patients from the Medical Cannabis Community in San Diego to stand together against this continued attempt to overturn the will of the people, by a select bias driven few.

Thank You,
Eugene Davidovich

Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2009-07-10.mp3)

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• Eugene Davidovich, facing four felony counts in a San Diego courtroom on Monday, after a San Diego county cop lied to a doctor, presented a fake ID, and purchased from Davidovich’s legally-operated collective. Visit EugeneDavidovich.com to support and be at San Diego Superior Court Dept 11, 220 W. Broadway in San Diego on Monday at 8am if you can.

My name is Eugene Davidovich and I have been a resident of San Diego for over 20 years, honorably discharged from the US Navy, and having completed an MBA, I built a successful career in Software Development Project Management. I also am a medical cannabis patient and operated a non profit collective here in San Diego until last February when my house was raided and I arrested in ‘Operation Green Rx’ later announced by the District Attorney in a press conference as ‘Operation Endless Summer’.

In this operation a local San Diego Police Detective lied to his doctor about his identity and condition, obtained a valid recommendation for medical marijuana and joined the majority of the medical collectives and coops listed on the San Diego section of the CA NORML list.

The detective called me and joined the collective over the phone. Then after verifying his eligibility with his doctor I allowed him to join the collective. While pretending to be a sick patient, he requested that I deliver medical cannabis to him. Having seen him once and provided him with a ¼ ounce of medical cannabis, I am now facing 4 felony charges, $65,000 bail, and permanent profoundly traumatic damage to my professional and personal life.

Here in California it has been over a decade since the Compassionate Use Act. Several years since SB420, and almost a year since the California Attorney General’s guidelines. We even have had Congress urge the department of justice to clarify medical marijuana policy and stop the DEA raids.

However, here in San Diego we have the DA’s Office saying there is no such thing as a legal collective or cooperative, and that anyone who engages in an attempt to cultivate and distribute collectively is obviously in it for profit, “why else would they get in to this activity”.

There are many patients and collectives in San Diego who have gone above and beyond what is required in order to comply and stay within the law. Yet every attempt made to date by collectives and coops to follow the law in San Diego has resulted in long investigations, prosecutions, and collectives having to operate so deeply underground and under such intense daily fear and pressure, that the potential public benefit they could be bringing to the community and to patients is stifled by this environment of fear.

The DA has made it clear, San Diego is not a safe place for collectives, here patients are rounded up in drug sting operations, prosecuted, and forced into taking plea bargains.

Please visit my website which contains the actual footage of the undercover “delivery” of medicine to the detective, as well as many other details of my case. The Preliminary Hearing in my case is scheduled for 13 July, 2009 in Department 11 at 8:15am (220 W. Broadway, San Diego, CA 92101)
http://www.eugenedavidovich.com or http://sites.google.com/site/peoplevdavidovich/

Today’s Stash features a live report from the San Diego courthouse where activist “Henry Hemp” and others were protesting this action.  Degé Coutee from Patients Advocacy Network also weighs in on Operation Endless Summer.