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.
BTW, THC can be extracted at least by three times the amount if you saute the pot first in oil before adding to your favorite recipe. (An old trick from a biochemist at MIT) Enjoy!
To answer the first question, they would look at that as "the camels nose, under the tent".
I see it as a "black and white" abuse of my personal rights. To uphold their artificial barrier to my personal pleasure, which seems no different, in law, than giving a faggots rights to buggery in Texas, they employ thugs and jbt's, along with corps of LEO's, court attendants, and best of all, a full time employment and enrichment program for lawyers (/s)...
It seems an unconstitutionsal intrusion into my privacy, to preclude me the use of marijuana, or heroin. I do see a right to control some things, which may bring harm to others (certain addicts turn into thugs, and thieves), but if alcohol and tobacco can be legal substances, there is no valid reason to deny the same status to marijuana. It's a big industry, on both sides, of the issue.
Your second idea has merit, though. Wish I had some to try it... LOL!
The only pot I have used lately, is lined with teflon...
Tylenol has been PROVEN to CAUSE damage, when combined with alcohol...
You're finally succeeding in making some of us sick. Yes I like Rush. Even though he is an "establishment" Republican he does exhibit cogent thought often, which is more than I can say for some others who are nothing more than bottom feeding carp!
What does slamming a great American have to do with Canada kicking a criminal out?
Get a Grip ~ Don't worry about Rush, he is doing great!
What does hosting a talking point talk show have to do with being a great American?
Yes, but it's also illegal to use more prescription drugs than the recommended dose.
And those legal medication have nasty effects, even severe addiction consequences.
See Rush Limbaugh.
So people in pain should be above the law?
Heaven forbid he use pot to help himself - but it's ok that he's been on morphine for so long that he's got a monkey the size of King Kong on his back.
Sucking on a burning noxious weed is a poor excuse for helping oneself.
It's plain to see from which side of the street you're canvassing. The excuse for the cultivation of and smoking this crap to reduce one's pain is utter babble and it comes from the left and from Libertarian quarters.
If this 38 year old is today a basket case that even Canada doesn't want him it is his own fault and not because he can't pollute his body with a joint.
I'd rather listen to him.
Dragging Rush into this case of a 38 year-old pot head is sophomoric.
I like Rush. You and the DemocRATs in Florida hate him and want to persecute him.
My wife was on morphine on 4 separate occasions and never had a problem. The literature on pain control says the same. Now if you've been on morphine for years at a time...
The dosage is decreased as the pain subsides. At some point other pain killers can be prescribed or no pain relief is necessary.
Due Process? What's that?
Here's a present for you -- your very own WOD Clock to help you tell time.
Stop embarrassing yourself with statements like the above.
>> References to the hundreds of billions wasted on the WOD, for starters.
>Here's a present for you -- your very own WOD Clock to help you tell time.
>Stop embarrassing yourself with statements like the above.
Well, now, lessee: according to that site, the total spent on the WOD is $40 billion THIS YEAR. Given that the WOD has been a decades-long excercise in wasting taxpayer dollars, I can see "hundreds of billions" being quite accurate. Adjusted for inflation, I'd bet "trillions" might even be accurate. Especially if you factor in Prohibition and the decades of added crime that produced via the mob.
I guess you've never had stomach cancer.
When you are prescribed opiates, you are not taken off them all at once, you are tapered off. The reason being is that if you stop all of a sudden, the physical withdrawl is pretty bad. That is the hallmark of being chemically dependent.
I am not being judgemental about it. It is just the nature of those drugs. While highly beneficial, they are almost 100% addicting. It does not always lead to addictive behavior.
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