.::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?

Related posts

• 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 (3)
• Terminally ill Montana man busted for medical marijuana (0)
• Stash for Wed, Mar 11, 2009 (0)