Posted on 10/14/2005 5:22:59 AM PDT by FerdieMurphy
SEATTLE (AP) - An Army veteran who fled to Canada to avoid prosecution for growing marijuana to treat his chronic pain was yanked from a hospital by Canadian authorities, driven to the border with a catheter still attached, and turned over to U.S. officials, his lawyer says.
He then went five days with no medical treatment and only ibuprofen for the pain, attorney Douglas Hiatt said.
Steven W. Tuck, 38, was still fitted with the urinary catheter when he shuffled into federal court for a detention hearing Wednesday, Hiatt said.
"This is totally inhumane. He's been tortured for days for no reason," Hiatt said.
U.S. Magistrate Judge James P. Donohue ordered Tuck temporarily released so he could be taken to a hospital for treatment.
However, by the time Donohoe issued his order, King County Jail officials had received a detainment request from Humboldt County, Calif., so Tuck was not released Wednesday, Hiatt said.
"I can't believe we've run into another snag here," the lawyer said.
Tuck suffered debilitating injuries in the 1980s when his parachute failed to open during a jump, and those injuries were exacerbated by a car crash in 1990, Hiatt said. He said Tuck was using marijuana to treat his chronic pain.
In 2001, while he was living in McKinleyville, Calif., his marijuana operation was raided for the second time. He fled to British Columbia to avoid prosecution but asylum was denied.
Last Friday, he checked himself into a Vancouver hospital for prostate problems, and it was there that he was arrested.
Richard Cowan, a friend who runs the Web site marijuananews.com, said in a telephone interview from Canada that he was with Tuck at the hospital when Canadian authorities arrested him.
"I would not believe it unless I had seen it," Cowan said. "They sent people in to arrest him while he was on a gurney. They took him out of the hospital in handcuffs, put him in an SUV, and drove him to the border."
He was turned over to Whatcom County Jail officials, who called federal marshals. The marshals took him to the King County Jail in Seattle.
Though Tuck has taken morphine - as prescribed by doctors - for about 16 years to help with his pain, he was given no painkiller or treatment at the jail other than ibuprofen, Hiatt said. Tuck appeared emaciated in court, and Hiatt said he had been sick from morphine withdrawal.
A message left with representatives of the King County Jail was not immediately returned Wednesday. A spokesman with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Vancouver said he could not immediately comment on the case.
Tuck is charged federally with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. Donohue agreed to release him on the condition that he face the charge in the Northern District of California upon his release from the hospital.
The Supreme Court ruled in June that people who smoke marijuana because their doctors recommend it to ease pain can be prosecuted for violating federal drug laws, even in states like California that have laws permitting medical marijuana use.
Many of us have suffered from chronic, severe pain but have found legal medications that allieviate it.
Socialist Canada wants healthy immigrants.
Lawyers and liberals sure do have a broad definition of "torture" these days.
And what's the moral difference between using a legal pain reliever and an illegal pain reliever?
WHATEVER THE GOVERNMENT SAYS!
..and many have found that marijuana does a better job of treating THEIR symptoms, and pain. But, I guess you're a doctor, and know how they feel...
Awwwww....
Light up and enjoy! I feel your pain.
Bingo! how perceptive.
One must take the legal drugs such as vioxx or face the wrath of the drug companys, one just can not be allowed to grow their own just think of the lost profits. So man pay up accept the side effects and die quietly.
Why can't a THC pill or an inhaler be produced for those who cannot keep pills down?
Facts are facts. I have more sympathy for a soldier injured in training than I do a draft dodger trying to make a tee time.
Surely you could feed along the bottom a little longer to find a quip better than that one. -fm
Actually, Rush had a problem with ILLEGAL drugs. He did not obtain all of them from the pharmacy. He, also, went to multiple legal sources, allegedly violating the laws, to score enough to feed his habits.
Why do you think Roy Black has not been able to stop the legal processes? Rush probably broke the law... but, it was for his back pain. so, since he's Rush, it's all right, huh?
Vet???? That tag could be attached to a lot of us if we are in trouble with the law.
People don't usually become addicted to morphine when they take it for chronic pain. And if he was taking morphine, what did he need all the marijuana for?
Seems like something was left out of this article.
Hey, to most FReepers... drinking beer is ok but smoking pot is E-V-I-L! Why?? Because the GOVERNMENT TELLS THEM SO!
While I have sympathy for him, he's got a lot of problems.
Maybe a Dr. who really cares will help him manage his pain more effectively than the ones who got him addicted to morphine.
The main problem is law forbids a patent being granted on a natural occuring plant. Britain has implemented a work around to give Bayer and GW pharmaceuticals exclusive rights by allowing a license on a extract of the whole plant. About like giving Tropicana a patent on orange juice and outlawing the personal growth of oranges.
You see, once the proper people are assured the profits from the stuff the PTB don't seem to object as much.
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