Posted on 11/26/2005 5:10:56 AM PST by JTN
The federal war on medi-pot patients hit a new low last month when Royal Canadian Mounted Police nabbed 38-year-old Steven W. Tuck from his Vancouver, B.C., hospital bed, whisked him to the border, and relinquished him to the custody of U.S. officials, who wanted him on charges related to a 2001 marijuana bust in California. Tuck, an Army vet, uses marijuana to help treat chronic pain associated with injuries he received in a parachuting accident back in the 1980s (reportedly his parachute failed to open during a jump). In 2001, after his marijuana-growing operation in California was busted, Tuck fled to Canada in an effort to avoid prosecution, reports The Washington Post. For four years, he had been navigating the Canadian system, seeking asylum, but was abruptly, and surprisingly, denied that safe harbor last month, says Allen St. Pierre, executive director of NORML.
Police arrested Tuck on Oct. 7 after he checked himself into a Vancouver hospital seeking treatment for prostate problems. According to friend Richard Cowan, Tuck was on a gurney, fitted with a catheter, when RCMP nabbed him, cuffed him, and put him in an SUV bound for the border. "I would not believe it unless I had seen it," Cowan told the Post.
Tuck was turned over to authorities and thrown in jail, where he remained for five days with the catheter in place and with only ibuprofen for his pain pain for which he'd been prescribed morphine and Oxycontin, among other narcotic drugs, says St. Pierre. He was finally taken to court on Oct. 12. "This is totally inhumane," Tuck's lawyer Douglas Hiatt told the Post. "He's been tortured for days for no reason." U.S. Magistrate James P. Donohue re-leased Tuck, at least temporarily, so that he could be taken to a hospital. Tuck's trip to the hospital was waylaid, however, by law enforcement officials who immediately picked him up on a detainer issued by Humboldt Co., Calif., officials in connection with state drug charges related to his growing medi-pot for him-self and others. (Although Tuck is a California state-registered medi-pot patient meaning he's authorized under state law to possess and grow marijuana for medical purposes he was also growing for others. At the time, California law enforcers were working under a patchwork of local regulations that defined who could grow for dispensary purposes and exactly how much each person could grow. Tuck had been busted in two different California jurisdictions for growing more than the local law allowed.)
After a flurry of phone calls, Tuck was taken to the hospital, and since then his attorneys have negotiated his release from jail with the promise that he'll make his various California state court appearances. Sources tell "Weed Watch" that given Tuck's medical condition and the current state of California's medi-pot laws, his supporters are cautiously optimistic that the state charges against him will be dropped. If that happens, whether Tuck will face any prosecution will be left solely up to the feds, who want him on one count of unlawful flight to Canada to avoid the California charges. Whether the federal narcos will exercise their right to bully the sick remains to be seen.
Libertarian Ping
Yeah, life's a bitch when you commit a major felony and then flee the United States to avoid paying for your massively criminal behavior--behavior that contributes to the death or stupidification (through the well-known 'burn-out' syndrome) of your customers.
There is no medical use of mary j. There are only crooks with a publicity firm.
I for one would like to see MJ leagalized for recreational use, but the article you posted, is no poster child for the cause... This guy fled and they caught up with him. If anything, this goes against what your trying to do...
Marijuana causes death?
If he really believed he was within the law he wouldn't have left the country. Be running he made things far worse. Now he gets to pay the price.
If stupidification were a crime half the world would be in prison..
The major felony of trying to relieve his own pain? Oh yeah, strap this guy in the chair.
You're aware, aren't you, that once this guy's in prison, hell be getting pain medication that's more dangerous and addictive than marijuana, right? And you'll be paying for it.
BTW, I forgot to ask - what was the "major felony?"
I'm with you on this one. Legalize it but don't use junk science and false justifications.
In early 1967, I was drenched by the South China Sea washing over the side of our Destroyer, while UnRep fueling. I was told to go down to the infirmary, and get a little bottle of brandy...
In 1967, I was on a summer cruise to San Francisco. After attending a midshipman's ball, I went with some friends to Haight Street, and bought a little matchbox full of mary j. I smoked it in a cigarette, emptyed of tobacco. I liked it.
In 1994, I was bitten by a tick, and contracted Lyme disease. I almost died. I smoke "mary j." now, to relieve some of the symptoms. I still get high, sure, but it has definitely helped relieve the symptoms of the Lyme disease. My doctor recommended it.
You have no idea what you are talking about!!
By lead poisoning. Small led pellets injected at high speed in the back of the skull, when the skull is owned by someone who didn't pay the organization as much as the organization thought it had coming. Or when the skull is a Mexican policeman or a Columbian prosecutor.
It's not a crime to be stupid; it's a crime to make someone even stupider than they already are. I have high school classmates from the 70s who are still paying for getting high every day.
The major felony of trying to relieve his own pain? Oh yeah, strap this guy in the chair. >>>
He's not trying to relieve his own pain. He's trying part fools from their money.
You're aware, aren't you, that once this guy's in prison, hell be getting pain medication that's more dangerous and addictive than marijuana, right? And you'll be paying for it.>>
And I'd be glad to pay every dime. He's a drug dealer. Lock the barstid up.
Theme song here: I fought the law and the law won!
Too bad, try a legal drug next time.
What "organization" is that?
Anecdotal...And just as many of us know of same people who are hugely successful in life's endeavors...
Tell that to people with severe glaucoma (among other nasty and painful diseases). If some one has a terrible diseases and it helps them have a better quality of life, I'm not going to stand in their way.>>>
But MJ doesn't help a glaucoma victim's quality of life, it only helps the quality of life of the scum that sells it, by giving him a mansion to live in.
I'm a Californian, a Republican and I voted to legalize MJ for people who's doctor says it provides relief.>>
Well, you are good to be a Republican, good to be a Californian, and ... er ... misguided to vote to legalize MJ. You didn't vote to help sick people; you voted (whether you knew it or not) to make drug thugs rich and teenagers into burnouts.
I also don't appreciate the Fed stepping in and trampling states rights and the will of the state's voters.>>
If your state flies the US flag, it follows the flag's laws. End of story.
The three who are pushing up daisies (car accidents while high) are not anecdotes. They left grieving friends and families.
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