Tuesday, September 29, 2009

This Could Get Ugly: Anti-Marijuana Machismo Is Latest California Cop Fad

We got their Zig Zags, too! (Photo: policeone.com)

By Steve Elliott in Chronic City


Pot-phobic law enforcement officers in California are trying out an unsettling new tactic. It's the latest iteration of their continued hissy fit about what should have been a settled issue for 13 years now (since Californians voted for Proposition 215, legalizing medical use of marijuana with a doctor's recommendation).

Many cops, still pissed off and in deep denial that medical pot is legal in the Golden State, are desperately clinging to the federal prohibition of marijuana for threadbare justification of their irrational hatred of pot and its users.

This particularly unattractive phenomenon of "let's ignore the voters" increasingly involves strutting, macho displays of contempt for the law -- incredibly enough, by the cops themselves.

​​Even as the Long Beach City Council tried to do something constructive by debating the regulation of businesses that provide medical marijuana to patients under the auspices of Prop 215 and SB 420 (the Medical Marijuana Program Act, passed by the Legislature six years ago to clarify and expand the intent of the law), City Prosecutor Tom Reeves wrote an op-ed piece "that essentially amounts to kicking in the door with the guns blazing," according to the Long Beach Post.

Read the rest at Chronic City in the SF Weekly blog, "The Snitch": Chronic City: This Could Get Ugly -- Anti-Marijuana Machismo Is Latest California Cop Fad | Digg story

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Let Them Grow Pot! CA Supreme Court Lets Collective Marijuana Cultivation Continue

Leave that weed alone, officer! (Photo: dea.gov)

By Steve Elliott in Chronic City


Rural sheriff's departments in California may have to find a new pastime to replace bullying medical marijuana growers. In a major victory for pot advocates, the California Supreme Court -- right around harvest time! -- has refused to review a landmark appellate court ruling protecting the right of medical marijuana patients and their caregivers to collectively grow weed.

The 2-1 ruling by California's Third Appellate District Court also affirmed patients' ability to take civil action when their right to collectively cultivate marijuana is violated by law enforcement. The case, County of Butte v. Superior Court, involved a private seven-patient medical marijuana collective in Paradise, California (oh! the delicious irony -- props to God or whomever is responsible).

Americans for Safe Access (ASA), a nationwide medical marijuana advocacy group, filed a May 2006 lawsuit on behalf David Williams, 56, and half a dozen other collective members after the Butte County Sheriff's Department conducted a warrantless search of Williams' home in 2005. The officers forced Williams to uproot more than two dozen plants, threatening him with arrest and prosecution if he didn't comply.

Read the rest at Chronic City in the SF Weekly blog, "The Snitch": Chronic City: Let Them Grow Pot -- California Supreme Court Lets Collective Marijuana Cultivation Continue | Digg story

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Darkness In San Diego: Attack On Medical Marijuana Moving Northward

San Diego medical marijuana patient Donna Lambert was arrested in Operation Green Rx as part of the "crackdown." (Photo courtesy of Donna Lambert)

By Steve Elliott in Chronic City


First, we heard from ambitious, headline-seeking San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis that there are "no such things" as legal medical marijuana dispensaries, despite state law. Now, even as a brutal crackdown on providers and patients is underway in San Diego County, officials from Los Angeles and other counties are being influenced by San Diego's anti-weed brigade to implement their hardline policies further north.

At a Long Beach City Council meeting yesterday, City Prosecutor Tom Reeves was still flushed with anti-ganja fervor as he told the council of attending a summit last week held by L.A. County DA Steve Cooley, where the message was that all dispensaries are illegal and will be prosecuted. What this means, he told the council, is that Long Beach can't or shouldn't try to regulate dispensaries.

​"Over-the-counter sales are illegal," Reeves flatly stated. "So you're not helping us any," Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga repied. "I'm helping you a great deal," Reeves snapped. "I just told you that you can't regulate illegal businesses."

So even as city governments in places like Long Beach honestly try to grapple with the real issues surrounding regulation and recognition of medical marijuana dispensaries -- including possibilities like taxation, on-site inspections and regulations similar to liquor stores or adult businesses -- their "legal experts" and law enforcement officials are giving them monumentally bad advice which seems to be in conflict with state law.

Read the rest at Chronic City in the SF Weekly blog, "The Snitch": Chronic City: Darkness In San Diego -- Attack On Medical Marijuana Moves Northward | Digg story

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

The Results Are In: Medical Marijuana Works

You can't argue with results. image: julianayrs.com

By Steve Elliott in Chronic City


​"There's no proof that medical marijuana works. It needs more study. There's only anecdotal evidence. It doesn't treat specific conditions. People just want to get high." Every cannabis advocate and medical marijuana patient has run into these arguments, threadbare as they may be in 2009. Even from professionals who should know better -- such as many medical doctors -- the same tired arguments come up again and again.

As baffling as it may be, just listening to the patients (what a concept!) isn't considered "proof" by the medical establishment, which considers such evidence interesting, but "merely" anecdotal.

But after a groundbreaking round-up of clinical evidence for the efficacy of medical pot, however, such misconceptions are going to be a lot easier to shoot down.

In the landmark article, published in the Journal of Opioid Management, University of Washington researcher Sunil Aggarwal and colleagues document no fewer than 33 controlled clinical trials -- published over a 38-year period from 1971 to 2009 -- confirming that marijuana is a safe, effective medicine for specific medical conditions.

Read the rest at Chronic City in the SF Weekly blog, "The Snitch": Chronic City: The Results Are In -- Medical Marijuana Works | Digg story

Monday, September 14, 2009

Marijuana Arrests Drop For First Time Since 2002

Drug War protester at Huntington Beach, Calif.
Photo: The November Coalition

By Steve Elliott in Chronic City


​Marijuana arrests in the United States declined in 2008 -- the first such drop since 2002 -- according to figures released by the FBI today.

According to the just-released Uniform Crime Reports, U.S. law enforcement made 847,863 arrests on marijuana charges, 89 percent of which were for simple possession, not sale or manufacture. More Americans were arrested for marijuana possession than for all violent crimes combined. During 2008, one American was arrested for marijuana every 37 seconds.

Marijuana arrests reached an all-time high at more than 872,000 in 2007. More than 12 million American citizens have been arrested on marijuana charges since 1965.

Read the rest at Chronic City in the SF Weekly blog, "The Snitch": Chronic City: Marijuana Arrests Drop For First Time Since 2002 | Digg story

Sunday, September 13, 2009

'Emperor of Hemp' Jack Herer Fighting For His Life After Heart Attack At Hempstalk

Jack Herer Photo courtesy americancannabis.org

Noted activist and author Jack Herer, "The Emperor of Hemp," is fighting for his life after giving an impassioned speech at the Portland (OR) HempStalk festival Saturday, Sept 12. Herer left the stage and collapsed with an apparently serious heart attack, according to fellow activist Chris Conrad, who was on the scene.

"He was taken from the site by ambulance and hospitalized and was undergoing a procedure and his condition was most recently reported to be stable," Conrad said. "His wife, Jeannie, was not with him at the time and has been in touch with the hospital by telephone." According to Contrad, the rest of the Hempstalk festival continued as scheduled.

"Ironically, I was on stage talking about my work with Jack and his special affection for Oregon and its activists while, unbeknownst to me, medical personnel were working backstage to save his life," Conrad said.

Salem-News.com reports that Jack was in critical condition when he was admitted to the hospital with his son at his side. Soon after that, they were told that he was the victim of a heart attack, a result of arterial blockage.

In July 2000, Herer suffered a minor heart attack and a major stroke, resulting in difficulties speaking and moving the right side of his body. He mostly recovered, and said in May 2004 that treatment with the psychoactive mushroom amanita muscaria was the secret.

Jack Herer
Photo: forum.sensiseeds.com


When Herer's seminal work The Emperor Wears No Clothes (which Jack generously made available in its entirety online) was published in 1985, the book reframed the debate about cannabis/hemp in the U.S. and worldwide. (You can buy a paper copy here.)

A former Goldwater Republican, Herer became a pro-marijuana and hemp activist. In addition to the aforementioned The Emperor Wears No Clothes, he wrote another book (in a collaboration with Al Emmanuel), G.R.A.S.S.: Great Revolutionary American Standard System, which proposed a 1-10 rating system for pot potency and quality of high. I bought this one at a headshop in Florence, Ala., back when I was about 20 and had no idea who Jack Herer was... I was just intrigued by the concept. Of course, when Jack got famous a few years later with Emperor, I knew his name sounded familiar.

The Emperor of Hemp a documentary film about his life, was released in 1999.

Herer says that the hemp plant should be legalized because it has been shown to be a renewable source of fuel, food, and medicine, and can be grown in virtually any part of the world. He further avers that the U.S. government deliberately hides the proof of hemp's usefulness, in collusion with certain chemical and paper financial interests.

Jack Herer buds Photo: jazminmillion

In a fitting tribute to this great man of ganja, Herer has a potent strain of marijuana named after him. The Jack Herer strain is a cross between Skunk #1, Northern Lights #5 and Haze. It was named this way in honor of Jack Herer by Ben Dronkers, founder of the Sensi Seed Bank. It has sativa dominant characteristics, flowering time up to 75 days. It is a very popular strain, winning the High Times Cannabis Cup several years running.

JackHerer.com: Jack's Home On The Web

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Taking The High Road: Attorneys Say DUI Laws Shouldn't Apply To Pot

Hey, watch where you're going!
(Image courtesy of Students for Sensible Drug Policy)

By Steve Elliott in Chronic City

Remember the first few times you drove high? You knew you were stoned, you knew it might be dangerous to operate a motor vehicle, and you drove like a little old lady.

This tendency of stoners to overcompensate for their impairment is one reason that marijuana-related car crashes aren't in the headlines every day. With estimates of current marijuana users in the United States varying between 20 and 40 million, you can bet that if weed really caused wrecks, it'd be a national tragedy on the level of drunk driving.

But you don't see those headlines, and you probably don't have anecdotes about "that time I was so high I couldn't even remember how my car got in the ditch." Seems all those stories have alcohol as a component instead. (That certainly goes for me, with 32 years of accident-free driving on pot. And, yes: There were a few alcohol-related crashes in my teens.)

Now, I'm not recommending you take a few bong rips and then hit the freeway. In fact, it'd probably be best for everyone if you'd stay your stoned ass home on the couch. There's a reason God invented pizza delivery.

Read the rest at Chronic City in the SF Weekly blog, "The Snitch": Chronic City: Taking The High Road -- Attorneys Say DUI Laws Shouldn't Apply To Pot | Digg story

Friday, September 4, 2009

The Expensive Farce Of Marijuana 'Eradication' In California

By Steve Elliott in Chronic City

Every year since 1983, the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) has engaged in a quixotic quest to "eradicate marijuana" in California. And every single year -- all 26 of them -- it has failed miserably as marijuana became more and more available.

The waste, arrogance and abuse associated with the program -- which has unfortunately become the largest law enforcement task force in the United States, with more than 100 agencies participating -- have become legendary. Ordinary families have been terrorized by paramilitary units, peaceful homeowners have been buzzed by low-flying helicopters, and community relations between citizens and law enforcement have suffered almost everywhere CAMP has laid its heavy hand.

Of course all this is done at taxpayer expense, to the tune of millions upon millions of dollars. Good thing the state treasury's in good shape, flush with all that extra cash. Oh, wait...

Read the rest at Chronic City in the SF Weekly blog, "The Snitch":
Chronic City: The Expensive Farce Of Marijuana 'Eradication' In California | Digg story

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Here's Progress: S.F. Firefighters Rescue Marijuana Grow-Op

By Steve Elliott in Chronic City

​Sometimes the biggest signs of epochal change in society are those that are casually mentioned, five paragraphs down in a story. Such was the case with Sunday's four-alarm warehouse fire in Bayview, where fire crews remained yesterday monitoring for flare-ups.

"Marijuana was found growing in one of the buildings," CBS 5 reported, "but police Sergeant Wilfred Williams said this morning that the narcotics unit investigation found that the marijuana is being grown legally, 'for medicinal purposes'."

Now, of course, that's a completely normal sentiment to youthful San Franciscans. But for a child of the 1960s, it is nonetheless a big, happy deal. Youngsters, I lived in a time when such an incident could could not have ended happily for the growers, who would have likely faced prison terms.

Read the rest at Chronic City in the SF Weekly blog, "The Snitch":
Chronic City: Here's Progress -- S.F. Firefighters Rescue Marijuana Grow-Op | Digg story

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Medical Marijuana Activist Darren McCrea Fights The Power In Spokane

After a raid last year, (covered here on Reality Catcher), medical marijuana advocate/caregiver Darren McCrea's legal troubles continue in Spokane, where the local police clearly aren't cutting him any slack at all in a program of harassment that has lasted for years.

On Monday McCrea, 41, pleaded not guilty to seven marijuana-related felonies in Spokane Superior Court, according to KXLY.com. Police raided his home 14 months ago after months of investigation triggered, cops say, by a tip that McCrea was "selling to anyone with a medical permit," according to a probable cause affidavit, Spokesman.com reports.

With a doctor's medical marijuana recommendation, it's legal in the state of Washington to possess up to 24 ounces (1.5 pounds) of marijuana and up to 15 plants. The five people to whom McCrea is accused of selling all have Washington medical marijuana cards. At issue in the case is how the law defines caretakers permitted to provide medical marijuana to patients.

“It’s created a great deal of confusion and more questions than answers,” Deputy Prosecutor John Grasso told the newspaper. “Unfortunately, I think we’re going to have to sort through the confusion and questions with prosecution.” Hmm... sounds a lot like a "Bust 'em all and let God sort 'em out" approach. Way to reach out to the community, prosecutor!

Prosecutors maintain it's illegal to sell marijuana to multiple customers and that's why McCrea, a prominent and vocal medical marijuana advocate, could now face prison time. SpoCannabis is a non profit organization dedicated to helping medical marijuana patients safely obtain their medicine, according to McCrea.

In 1998 Washington passed a law allowing people with "terminal or debilitating illnesses" to possess and grow marijuana. Former logger Steven Delgado has battled three different types of cancers and legally uses marijuana to treat his nausea and increase his appetite.

"I'm a big guy, I need to keep the weight on and it's helped me significantly to do that one simple thing. I don't understand all the fuss, medicine is medicine," Delgado told KXLY.

If Delgado was too ill or otherwise unable to buy or grow his own marijuana state law also allows a caregiver, like Darren McCrea, to find it for him.

However when Spokane police started watching McCrea they say they saw him selling to multiple patients instead of just one.

"The way the statute was written is vague, it says that you can only supply to one person at a time but it doesn't define what that is," McCrea's attorney David Miller said.

Spokane police say McCrea was selling to so many medical marijuana patients that they found $32,000 in cash and five pounds of pot in his home. However McCrea supporters insists he's more interested in ending pain and suffering than turning a profit.

Friends and SpoCannabis volunteers attended McCrea’s arraignment Monday to show support for a man they described as a hero. “Darren provides support and education for people like me,” said cancer patient Delgado. “I almost feel like I’m on trial. It upsets me that Darren's in the situation that he's in when he just wants to help people and I believe in what Darren does," Delgado said.

Members of Spocannabis and other supporters of safe access for patients say without caregivers like McCrea seriously ill patients will have to buy their marijuana off the streets. "It will force medical marijuana patients to seek to get their medical marijuana from unscrupulous sources," attorney David Miller said. "Is that that going to benefit Spokane? Is that something we need to have happen?"

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Newspaper Has Hard Time Taking Medical Marijuana Seriously. Here's My Response


The following is a response to a piece in the Contra Costa (CA) Times, in which columnist Tom Barnidge expresses his skepticism about medical marijuana, asks "What's up with this scam, anyway?" and says he "has a hard time taking the whole issue seriously."

By Steve Elliott, Reality Catcher

Tom -- or should I say Mr. Barnidge? -- it's fine having skepticism about the value of medical marijuana. Skepticism is a healthy trait, and it's certainly good journalism.

However, persisting in that skepticism even after being confronted with the evidence is not so good. And it's especially not good when you feel your skepticism gives you a license for mean-natured snickering, poking fun and implying that most medical marijuana patients are faking it just to get high.

It's true that there are always a few people who manage to work the system in their favor. But if the system, as it currently stands, allows one or two people who may not strictly need medical marijuana for every patient who obtains (in many cases life-saving of life-altering) relief, then what would you do? Would you deny relief to the one, just to deny the high to the other?

Barnidge: narrow-minded?

Considering the overall tone of your story and how you chose to both begin and end it, I believe it's fair to say that you are unconvinced. But whether or not you, yourself, choose to be convinced by the evidence, or whether you choose to believe in the value of medical marijuana to many patients, is irrelevant, really -- because it works.

Criticizing medical marijuana precisely because of its usefulness -- its efficacy in fighting the misery and discomfort produced by a variety of diseases -- seems particularly disingenuous. Would you feel better about medical marijuana if it treated only one condition? Well, here's the news flash, Mr. Journalist: There are hundreds of medical studies to show that pot is effective in treating every single one of the diseases Dr. Gieringer mentioned to you, and many more besides.

The pity is, that in your smirking sarcasm, you are going to be justifying, in many readers' minds, the narrow-minded prejudices they already have regarding the medical use of marijuana -- prejudices that have been inculcated in them, among other channels, through inaccurate media coverage. Well, like this piece for instance.

It would have been great if you could have fostered more understanding and dialogue between medical marijuana patients and the general public, rather than feeding the mistrust and the fear that many members of the public have about pot.

As a medical marijuana patient, let me say that if you don't trust the medical studies, and you don't trust the law, then maybe you can open your heart to trust the ill people to whom marijuana brings relief, when we tell you that, yes, it does work. If you believe you are in some sort of moral position to make judgments on those people and to disregard their testimony, then you are mistaken.

Maybe you enjoy laughing up your sleeve. Maybe you think it looks smart or cultured to adopt a debonair pose of having "a hard time taking the whole thing seriously." That's fine, if you like that sort of thing.

But for those of us who really are seriously ill, who really have conditions which can be effectively treated by medical marijuana, you should know that it makes you come off exactly like a thoughtless jerk, reveling in his own ignorance.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Fresno's Freakin' -- But Marijuana Dispensary To Stay Open


Medmar Clinic is under legal attack from the City of Fresno.

By Steve Elliott in Chronic City


​You've gotta pity the poor, put-upon city officials of Fresno. After all, they've only had 13 years to suss out Proposition 215, this newfangled medical marijuana law that's being forced upon their fair city by more progressive Californians. And, heck, it's only been a little over half a decade since the legislature amplified and clarified the intent of the law with SB 420, opening the door for medical marijuana dispensaries statewide.

So what have they been doing all that time? It's hard to say, actually. But one thing seems pretty clear: They didn't find much time to study the law.

The city of Fresno is trying to shut down Medmar Clinic, the first medical marijuana dispensary in town -- along with seven other city dispensaries -- via the monumentally lame move of filing a suit through its city attorneys. But on Thursday, a judge said Medmar did not appear to post an immediate threat to public safety.

Read the rest at Chronic City in the SF Weekly blog, "The Snitch":
Chronic City: Fresno's Freakin' -- But Marijuana Dispensary To Stay Open | Digg story

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Aptly Named 'Joint Resolution' Succeeds; California Senate Urges Change in Federal Medical Marijuana Rules


By Steve Elliott in Chronic City

​By a 23-15 vote, the California State Senate on Monday approved a "joint resolution" urging the federal government to stop Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) raids on medical marijuana patients and providers. The Sen. Mark Leno-authored resolution additionally calls for the nation to "create a comprehensive federal medical marijuana policy that ensures safe and legal access to any patient that would benefit from it."

Marijuana advocates say recent enforcement activity, including DEA arrests following a raid in Upper Lake, Calif. last week, underscore the need for Senate Joint Resolution (SJR) 14, introduced by Leno in June. Although both President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have signaled willingness to change federal policy on medical marijuana, the Administration hasn't come forward with an actual implementation plan.

"Patients and providers in California remain at risk of arrest and prosecution by federal law enforcement and legally established medical marijuana cooperatives continue to be the subject of federal raids," Leno said.

Read the rest at Chronic City in the S.F. Weekly blog, "The Snitch":

Chronic City: Aptly Named 'Joint Resolution' Succeeds; California Senate Urges Change in Federal Medical Marijuana Rules

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Vancouver PD Railroading Medical Marijuana Patient To Settle A Score?

Sidney Delaplaine at home in Vancouver, Washington, August 2009

Life in small town America has its perks, but things can get pretty damn iffy pretty damn quickly when you piss off the local cops.

Of course, that couldn't be the reason Sid Delaplaine is facing a long prison sentence, could it?

Could it?

Piling On The Charges For Medical Marijuana

In 2006, Vancouver, Washington medical marijuana patient Delaplaine grew 21 plants in his backyard (not in public view) for his annual supply of medicine. "I had already cut six of them; 15 were still growing," he told me. Then one day in October, the Vancouver Police Department raided his home and took all the plants, along with a couple of guns.

Delaplaine was charged with manufacturing and selling marijuana, with charges enhanced because of guns, even further enhanced because a school bus stop is in front of his house.

The harassment didn't stop with the raid. "They've been dogging me for three years," Delaplaine told me. "Every time the cops have had an opportunity to come to my house and roust me, they did."

Vengeance Is Mine, Sayeth The Cop

Sid Delaplaine's daughter used to be a dispatcher with the Vancouver, Washington Police Department. She loved her job. And it bothered her a lot when she noticed back in 2006 that calls for help from one of the officers, a native of India named Navin Sharma, somehow seemed to result in a certain lack of response from the other officers.

Surely such nasty racial prejudice wouldn't exist among members of the esteemed police force of Vancouver. But then, there it was. When Officer Sharma called in, sometimes the other officers just wouldn't respond at all.

Trying to do the right thing, Delaplaine's daughter reported what she'd observed to internal affairs. But her confidence was broken by one or more officers, and soon she found herself blackballed.

Despite becoming the victim of what looks a lot like a case of blaming the messenger by the Vancouver PD, Delaplaine's daughter's testimony helped Officer Sharma eventually win a settlement of $1.65 million in September 2008. Sharma said he faced discrimination and retaliation after he won an earlier settlement from the city. His attorneys said the city seized upon minor mistakes Sharma made on drunken driving reports as a pretext for firing him.

Not surprisingly, California consulting firm Matrix, recently hired (to the tune of $46,440) by the Vancouver PD, told them they have significant problems with poor morale, inadequate communication, organizational dysfunction and labor-management unrest. The consulting firm reached these conclusions after a four-month study of the department, focusing on its internal affairs and disciplinary processes.

In employee surveys conducted as part of the study, a miniscule 5 percent of respondents within the Vancouver PD said there was a "positive organizational culture" in the department.

Not surprisingly, lawsuits, arbitrator rulings and internal investigations have had a negative effect on the department, the consultants concluded. "Morale is poor," said Brown Taylor, a Matrix consultant and former police chief himself (Los Altos and Mountain View, CA). The scandal-plagued department has gone through nine police chiefs in the past 19 years.

Rather than accepting the obvious findings of the consultants, apologizing, and promising to do better, the police union reacted with suspicion and hostility. "With the current climate we have, without us trusting the administration, guild members aren't convinced that it would lead to a fairer process," said Ryan Martin, president of the Vancouver Police Officers Guild. "We can't trust they will make the appropriate decisions anyway. So why would we give up a right that protects our members?"

There now, that's a great, productive attitude to have, Officer Martin. Good to see you're more concerned with protecting misbehaving cops than, you know, being held accountable and stuff!

Chris Sutter, assistant chief for administration in Vancouver, said the department started a working group in 2008 to examine these issues, but quickly ran into opposition from the union. "They have been very reluctant to recommend any changes," Sutter told the Columbian newspaper. "In fact," added Police Chief Cliff Cook, "they won't put anything in writing."

.......

So there you have a brief summary of the Vancouver police officers' "constructive" reactions to criticism.

Now, just because one brave young dispatcher helped to expose racism, cronyism and corruption in the local police department, that wouldn't result in what looks a lot like vindictive, petty retaliatory actions from the cops themselves, would it?

Would it?

Douglas Hiatt (photo courtesy of NORML)

What You Can Do

Seattle activist attorney Douglas Hiatt is taking on Sid Delaplaine's case pro bono. But as the upcoming trial is in Vancouver, he and a couple more volunteer attorneys will have to spend the time (probably a week or more) in a hotel and will incur considerable expenses.

Hiatt needs our help in meeting and defraying those expenses; his goal is to raise $5,000 to ensure that Sid Delaplaine receives a fair trial with the best defense possible.

Please send what you can; anything helps:

Douglas Hiatt
3161 Elliott Ave., Suite 340
Seattle, WA 98121

If you'd rather contribute online, you can donate to the anti-Drug War group The November Coalition.

Be sure to include a note with your donation that it is intended for Douglas Hiatt, and the money will go towards defending Sidney Delaplaine:

Donate to Douglas Hiatt via November.org