Prominent Mendocino County medical cannabis proponent Pebbles Trippett will be guest on Richard Johnsons's KMEC 105.1 FM Radio show today, July 27, at 5:15-5:35pm, with a few words on her own litigation experience and reporting on other cases.  KMEC also streams on the internet at http://www.kmec.org

The 4-person collective Shel Sutherland case, dismissed on Friday by Judge Brown on illegal search and seizure grounds, granting a defense motion to suppress the evidence, as in the Laura Hamburg case, where Judge Luther rebuked sheriff's deputies for "intentional omission of material fact". Even with the Sheriff's one-day how-to-write-warrants training that followed the Hamburg embarrassment, deputies are still not getting it right; this is according to two Mendocino County judges in separate rulings: Hamburg in '08 (Judge Luther) and Sutherland in '09 (Judge Brown) on virtually identical grounds: that is, the legal medical purposes of the marijuana were withheld from the judge in making a decision as to whether or not to issue a criminal warrant.

From Sutherlin to Sutherland, the trend toward victories for collectives is unmistakable; that is, medical cannabis associations that are collectively or cooperatively organized for the common good as an alternative to individual profit are entitled to extra legal protections of sales and distribution and are therefore becoming the norm for how to organize cultivation of medical cannabis:

* Sutherlin, 2007. 4-person medical marijuana collective. Jury trial acquittal. Defense attorney Ed Denson.

* Hamburg 2008. 4-person family collective. Dismissal of all charges due to illegal search and seizure, based on 'intentional omission of  
material fact'.  Defense Attorney:  Keith Faulder.

* Strauss-Maligno April 3 '09. Collective membership association with two Redwood Valley patients growing 400 pounds for West
Hollywood Center for Compassionate Healing, a storefront dispensary providing medicine to 1000+ patients. Hung jury 7-5 in favor
of acquittal, based on the conclusion of the majority of jurors that defendants were following the Attorney General Guidelines on
collectives under state law. Charges were not refiled. This watershed case shows a Mendo jury will not convict based on quantity
alone, without also knowing how many patients are being provided the medicine. Defense attorneys: Edie Lerman and David Nick.

* David and Cara Lampach, April 30 '09. Collective membership association growing 50 pounds in Willits for a storefront dispensary,
Harborside Collective, in Oakland. After two offers of rejected plea bargains, all charges were dismissed by the DA the same day.
Defense atty: Ann Cole-Wilson

* Shel Sutherland July 24 '09. 4-person collective, all considered in compliance with state and local law. Dismissed at prelim based on  
illegal search and seizure due to omission of medical purposes in request for warrant.

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