.::The Montana Standard::.
A judge has ruled that a Beaverhead County woman charged with growing and selling marijuana was not protected by Montana’s medical marijuana law because she did not have the required permit when charged with the drug crimes.

District Judge Loren Tucker said in court records that Summer Sutton Day, who was charged early this year with production, possession and intent to sell marijuana, did not have a medical marijuana registry identification card at the time she was arrested. Therefore, the evidence from a search and seizure of her home outside of Dillon could be used against her in the case.

Tucker was ruling on a motion to dismiss or suppress the evidence because Sutton Day received a permit shortly after the raid on her home. Tucker ruled after Sutton Day’s arrest that she could possess and use marijuana because she had the permit.

But he said in the more recent decision that without the permit at the time of the raid, Sutton Day has no protection under the medical marijuana law. Sutton Day was charged with the crimes along with Scott Day, who died last month at the age of 34 after battling a debilitating disease all his life. Both were issued the medical marijuana cards to help treat numerous symptoms, including severe pain.

Scott Day was obviously a medical marijuana user. His wife was obviously his caregiver. They didn’t have official government papers recognizing those roles, but any human being with a conscience would recognize that’s what they were. They had many marijuana plants, more than even a registered Montana patient should have, let alone an unregistered patient.

But what is the spirit of the Montana law? To end the arrest and incarceration of sick people using cannabis as medicine! What good does it do the State of Montana to lock up this woman? If she’s found to have broken the letter of the law, at worst let her be fined or given probation or community service, but does anyone feel any good is being done by placing her in a penitentiary with real criminals?  She just lost her husband after caring for him through years of pain, at just 34 years old!  How much more should she suffer for tending a garden?

Download the NORML Daily Audio Stash for 2008-09-11

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A dozen years ago a kind stranger took this photo of me standing on an incredible building called “2 WTC” – or World Trade Center Tower 2 in Manhattan, New York.  The skies were incredibly clear and from my vantage point 110 floors up – almost a quarter-mile! – I could see into three states and just marvel at the sheer mass of humanity and concrete stretching out in all directions.

Seven years ago, this kind of photo became impossible to take.

As we reflect on the events of September 11, 2001, let’s take a minute to step away from the War on Drugs and understand that the control over humanity, limitation of freedoms, and intolerance of others’ views are the real underlying issues that tie it all together, from the Drug War to the PATRIOT ACT.

We don’t fight against the Drug War because we like to get high.  Certainly, liking to get high does give you a special focus on ending the Drug War.  But self-interest isn’t the overriding factor; in fact, self-preservation would dictate keeping quiet about the Drug War.

No, we fight against the Drug War because we know it is a war of tyranny over people’s bodies, minds, health, and spirit!  We know, to paraphrase the words of the famous Pastor Neimöller poem, first they come for the “stoners”, but eventually they’ll find a way to come for you.  We know that the Drug War has killed more people just this year than died during September 11th.  We know that long before the War on Terror was used as an excuse to shred the Bill of Rights, the War on Drugs had left it a tattered and torn.

The Drug War and September 11th are two American tragedies, but they are as different as smoking cigarettes is to a gunshot to the head.  If someone shoots you in the head, the effect is sudden and shocking, like September 11th.  But smoking cigarettes, like the Drug War, is year after year of slow, self-inflicted harm.   Both have been used by tough-talking politicians as political props, and nothing much has been done to address the damage from either.

Seven years later there is still a big hole in Manhattan and Osama bin Laden is running free.  In that time we’ve spent $12.7 billion on the Drug War and arrested over 3.6 million pot smokers for nothing more than simple personal possession.  We declared a War on Drugs; there are more cheaper, purer, available drugs than ever.  We declared a War on Terror; there have been more documented incidents of terrorism than ever.

On a sadder note, we speak in our second interview with Tom Daubert of Montana Patients and Families United about the tragic death of Scott Day, a severely disabled Montana man who needed $40,000 worth of medical care per month just to live, yet faced prosecution from a county DA for growing medical marijuana to help ease his pain.  The case goes on against Scott’s widow, and Tom needs your help to pressure the DA to drop charges.

Scott Day Spent His Final Few Months of Life in Fear and Anxiety Thanks to the Drug War – Please Help Spare His Wife from Prosecution | I Love Bonnie.net

Reeling from the news that Scott Day, a beloved member of its statewide family of patients, died unexpectedly yesterday, Montana’s medical marijuana public education and patient support group today blamed prosecutors and the local drug task force for contributing to his death – and called on Beaverhead County to drop the charges it has brought against Scott Day and his wife, Summer.

“Those of us who knew and loved him are well aware that Scott Day’s health has plummeted steadily ever since Beaverhead County began prosecuting him. His final six months of life were plagued with constant fear and anxiety thanks to the government’s unwillingness to show compassion and to comprehend the nuances of Montana’s medical marijuana law,” said Tom Daubert, founder and director of Patients & Families United.

“Scott Day suffered egregiously at the hands of his health condition, and the last thing he needed was the added, stressful burden of being a defendant facing the possible loss of his vitally needed healthcare insurance coverage. But this functional death sentence is precisely the draconian outcome that Beaverhead County prosecutors actually sought, using taxpayer dollars every step of the way on a witch hunt right out of the Dark Ages,” Daubert said.

“There is no question but that this totally unwarranted prosecution contributed mightily to Scott Day’s untimely death,” he emphasized. “Now that Scott has died, we call on the county attorney to drop his charges against Summer Day and recognize that all ongoing persecution of medical marijuana patients must cease in this state,” he said.

Join us on today’s NORML Daily Audio Stash – I’m interviewing Tom Daubert from Montana Patients and Families United, a local medical marijuana group that is calling for the county prosecuting attorney to now drop the charges filed against Scott Day’s widow, Summer.  The attorney’s name is Jed Fitch and you can politely email him at jfitch@co.beaverhead.mt.us, and ask him why he continued a line of prosecution against a medical marijuana patient so obviously gravely ill when he would’ve succeeded with an affirmative defense, and why he continues the prosecution against the man’s widow?