Prosecutor drops medical pot challenge

4 free views left!

Prosecutor drops medical pot challenge

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

EAST WENATCHEE — A city court misdemeanor charging a motorist with marijuana possession, despite his medical authorization for the drug, has been dropped.

Saúl Ramos Sanchez

Marijuana charge dropped

Saúl Ramos Sanchez, 19, of Rock Island paid $250 in costs Wednesday in East Wenatchee Municipal Court. In return, city prosecutor Devin Poulson dropped the sole charge against Ramos of possession of less than 40 grams of marijuana.

Ramos’s case escalated last year from a simple traffic stop to a court challenge to his status as a medical marijuana user, with Poulson demanding his doctor’s records and arguing Ramos couldn’t invoke his patient status as a defense at trial.

Ramos’s public defense attorney, Kambra Mellergaard, said the deal leaves Ramos with a clean record. The case was due to go to trial before Municipal Court Judge Chancey Crowell on Friday.

Crowell had initially granted Poulson’s early motion to deny Ramos’s medical defense, but reversed himself later on a challenge from Mellergaard.

“I was confident except for the fact we had decided a long time ago to have this heard before the judge, and the judge has already ruled against us,” Mellergaard said Wednesday. “Plus, if he can get a dismissal without going through all that, that’s for the best.”

Devin Poulson

East Wenatchee city attorney

Ramos, a nursery worker, suffered a back injury in March that he said was only relieved by a combination of cannabis-based muscle ointments and smoked marijuana. He was stopped June 22 by East Wenatchee police for turning into the inside lane of travel, rather than the outside, while pulling onto Valley Mall Parkway.

Ramos told Officer James Johnson he had a small baggie of cannabis in his glove box and showed his medical card, signed by East Wenatchee physician Dr. Robert Anderson. Johnson did not ticket him for the illegal turn, but confiscated the baggie and cited him for misdemeanor possession.

Washington law allows patients with “terminal or debilitating medical conditions” and written authorization from their doctors to possess up to 24 ounces of marijuana without fear of arrest. It also offers an “affirmative defense,” nullifying prosecution if a defendant meets all the requirements of the law.

If convicted, Ramos would have faced a maximum sentence of 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. The young Mexican immigrant had also worried that a conviction or guilty plea could affect his visa status.

Jefferson Robbins: 664-7123

robbins@wenatcheeworld.com

» Recommend this story.

» 11 comments on this story

Want to comment on this story? All Wenatchee World members are invited to comment on stories, by using the form below. Please know that we at wenatcheeworld.com hope our site is useful, entertaining and civil. So we'll delete comments that are obscene, abusive or way off topic. We appreciate it when readers use the "suggest removal" button to flag inappropriate comments. For more about interacting with the site, see our Use Policy.

amw 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Mr. Ramos never should have been charged. It was not a reasonable charge to begin with. It was a waste of money and time. Poulson should have to pay the $250 and get busy on other problems.

CJohn 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Totally agree! Mr. Poulson should not only have to reimburse Mr. Ramos' court costs, but should also pay a fine for wasting taxpayers' money on such a frivolous case. Hey, Mr. Poulson, profile much?

lonedog3 3 months, 2 weeks ago

wonder what the total cost of this frivolous case was to the taxpayers? All of the costs need to be reimbursed by Mr. poulson!

H 3 months, 2 weeks ago

I agree with you on that one lonedog3. All Poulson was doing was trying to make a name for himself at the taxpayers expense. Well he did make a name for himself but that name isn't publishable here.

1independent 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Fortunately for Saul Sanchez he is cleared of any wrondoing and rightfully so. If it says anything about our system of justice he had to buy his deserved dismissal for 250.00. That said the over 8 months and several court appearances with a public defender will not be covered by the 250.00, that unfortunately has a price tag to be born by the East Wenatchee tax payers.

1independent 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Citizens of a community expect our law enforcement and courts to prosecute real crimes that cause harm to our community and to others, to do the duty of exercising good jugement and prosecute to keep a community safe. When a victimless offense, charged based on a quite prejudicial personal belief rather than a dutiful and sincere attempt to make our community safer is the problem here. To pursue a case like this for over 8 months based on the personal goal of proving some personal opinion of whether a patient is qualified (something only a patients medical practioner is supposed to do) is not serving the best interest of our community, nor does it make it any safer. Mr. Sanchez is not a criminal, nor has he ever been a criminal, he is not a danger to our community, his prosecution only served one purpose to validate one prosecutors contention that any young person who does not look to him like he has a medical condition that could qualify him for cannabis is somehow a criminal that should be punished by the law. Fortunate for Mr. Sanchez also is that he has a good doctor who stands behind his patients and his reccomended treatment for them.

lonedog3 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Even the original reason for his stop was so bogus! show me one vehicle that pulls out of any store on valley mall parkway without using two lanes! those lanes are very narrow. Only sounds like he was targeted from the start. This is a total boondoggle and since the mayor is a lawyer one can only wonder why he didn't step in and say to stop pushing a case you cant win. Maybe now that pot is legal the police and Poulson will go after real criminals like jay walkers!

Norm 3 months, 2 weeks ago

I don't ever recall agreeing with you before, Joe, but you're spot on here.

1independent 3 months, 2 weeks ago

This case is an example along with thousands of others across the state, of prosecuting victimless crimes that are related to a very flawed and failed drug policy in our country. As we move closer and closer to more education of communities and their citizens about the failed policies and the truth concerning cannabis, its medical value, it safety and efficacy we are slowly winning this war of propaganda concerning cannabis. The much bigger picture nationally is prohibition itself and the proved failure that it is. As all Americans receive the truths about cannabis and hemp and its prohibition and the real reasons behind prohibition the more support there is for ending the failed policies. Most Americans just a decade ago did not even know or understand that cannabis prohibition was not done because of the flowering plant with medical and social value, but was a propagandist controlled campaign to prohibit most importantly for big corporate interests the natural resource of Hemp. Additionally to gain political power and elevate ones career (Anslinger) For over seventy years Americans have been jailed and families destroyed over one of the safest and most valuable plants on the planet that has been used for thousands of years before and after prohibition for all kinds of purposes. With a record of no harm to society accept for the harm caused by prohibition which in turn caused the criminal enterprise and black market to grow and control billions of dollars and gave power to violent people who capitalized on this. The everyday citizen who uses cannabis is not the criminal, the nonviolent peaceful users of cannabis are not the criminals, the medical professionals and the sick people who support cannabis as a medicine are not the criminals. The everyday American who grows a few plants for their own use are not the criminals. The drug lords and the gun toting gangs who depend on prohibition for their enterprise to exist are the criminals. In fact it is everyday Americans who have taken the cause of ending prohibition to the government and who have passed medical cannabis laws and who have worked together to safely grow and provide cannabis to ourselves have had the biggest impact on reducing the criminal element who feeds off prohibition. Yet ironically most prosecutions in this country are against those everyday people who in all other senses are not criminals at all. In fact they are citizens from all walks of life they are doctors, lawyers, business owners, white collar workers, blue collar workers, activists, patients, moms, dads, teachers, community leaders, I know someone from every faction listed here that uses and supports cannabis and they are not criminals. Until our government tells the truth and ends prohibition all of these people will continue to be unfairly prosecuted and families destroyed.

1independent 3 months, 2 weeks ago

The public record is very clear on how prohibition was started yet no Government official, elected body, State or Federal will talk about this record or acknowledge that it is there, WHY? If all Americans were to read this record testimony to congress in the late 1930's testimony fueled with racial bias, false statements by Harry J Anslinger head of the newly created Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Here is a link to Anslingers testimony and personal letters read it for yourself and decide if you can get your educated mind to buy into this fantasy http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/people/anslinger/index.htm (druglibrary.org) contains the most complete compilation of Harry J Anslinger's testimony to congress and his personal letters. The fact is if anything presented from the bureau of narcotics to congress was true in any way then why for the last 50 plus years have there been absolutely no similar patterns or proven behaviors claimed by the bureau ever in fact what has been proven over the last seventy years is exactly the opposite of what was used to prohibit cannabis and hemp in the first place!!! So why are we still arresting and prosecuting and tearing up families well it’s because as the war on drugs continued it became a business of its own in this country, new agencies like the DEA formed in 1973 under Richard Nixon and Marijuana became a chief component because of its widespread use and why is it so widespread and popular because it is a safe and effective social herb and has great medicinal value as well. As of today more than 75% of drug prosecutions and people in prison for drug related crime are nonviolent marijuana convicted people. Even sadder is the fact that an overwhelming disproportionate number of those people are of minority groups, people of color and people of poor backgrounds. Yet statistics will show that those groups are in no way the bigger users of marijuana Hmm go figure!! Please concerned citizens educate yourself and just say no to this failed war, these propagandist lies, and the big business of prosecuting our own citizens for their personal choice to use an all-natural substance such as cannabis. The discovery of the human bodies own endocannabinoid system has revealed much to scientists on how and why cannabis is so beneficial to humans and their health it is as if this plant was natures gift to our own bodies read about the endocannabinoid system in the human body here http://norml.org/library/item/introduction-to-the-endocannabinoid-system This information will enlighten you on many things about cannabis, and bring clarity as to why big pharmaceutical companies encourage its prohibition!!