North Dakota

[palmspringsbum]

POLICE BLOTTER: Judge cites health concerns in sentencing pot-grower to GF jail

The Grand Forks Herald
By Susanne Nadeau
Herald Staff Writer - 01/12/2008


A Grand Forks judge took a pot-grower's diabetes into account Friday in sentencing him to a year in the local jail rather than in the state prison.

Jamison “Jamie” Stewart, 29, Grand Forks, pleaded guilty in November to making and possessing pot with the intent to deliver, after police found 90 marijuana plants in his rented home in May.

Members of the local Narcotics Task Force uncovered the “garden” last May, and also found about a half-pound of pot plus paraphernalia associated with ingesting it.

Stewart's girlfriend, Carissa Hoxtell, was arrested and charged with him, but charges against her were dropped in August because of a lack of evidence connecting her to the operation.

State District Judge Joel Medd sentenced Stewart to five years in prison, but suspended four of the years and said Stewart could serve the time in Grand Forks. Medd cited Stewart's health problems and testimony that suggested Stewart grew the pot only for his personal use as reasons for the sentence's terms. Stewart will be on supervised probation for five years after his release.

Well-known Grand Forks diabetes expert, Dr. James Brousseau, testified as an expert witness via telephone and said he had treated Stewart's diabetes since he was a child.

A pump necessary to administer insulin to Stewart several times a day requires a trained medical person, Brousseau testified.

Stewart's mother, in an unsworn statement before the court, said her son had mental health problems and probably used marijuana to alleviate anxiety and depression.

Police previously said each of the 90 pot plants had a potential of producing as much as a pound of marijuana per year, making the operation's production worth a total of upward of $500,000 on the street in Grand Forks. They described the plants in Stewart's operation as “B.C. bud,” - so named because the seed genetics and hydroponic techniques for growing it were developed in Vancouver, B.C. - which has high levels of THC, the intoxicating agent in marijuana.

But Stewart's attorney, Steven Light, Fargo, called Christopher Conrad as an expert witness Friday to dispute the prosecution's characterization of Stewart's operation as “sophisticated.” Conrad said he researches marijuana in Europe and California.

Conrad said Stewart bungled his pot operation, making it impossible to turn a profit from the plants. For example, he said, the plants were too far from the 1,000-watt lamp to make the lamp of any use to their growth.

Grand Forks Assistant State's Attorney Tom Falk said he didn't say Stewart's operation was sophisticated, “simply that it was a significant grow operation in North Dakota.”

But Conrad said the operation, because of Stewart's mistakes, likely would produce a total of only one to three pounds of pot per year, indicating it was for Stewart's personal use, not for commercial trade.

Judge Medd agreed, saying evidence and testimony during the hearing pointed to a longtime marijuana user attempting to “raise his own supply of marijuana.”

Stewart has previous marijuana-related convictions. But Light said in court Friday that while out on bail since last spring, Stewart passed regular drug tests.

Stewart will be allowed to serve his sentence in the Grand Forks jail and he is expected to report next Friday.

[palmspringsbum]

VIEWPOINT: Industrial hemp poses no threat


The Grand Forks Herald
By Wayne Hauge,
Published Sunday, January 20, 2008

RAY, N.D. I am proud and honored by the negative comments of Jeanette McDougal and John Coleman, as well as mystified by their statements that provide little in the way of statistical evidence to support their negative stance on industrial hemp ("The plan: First hemp, then pot" and "'Legalize pot' groups use hemp arguments as front," Page 4A, Jan. 16).

I am honored that McDougal would recognize North Dakota farmers as solid citizens: "What group is perceived as more 'solid' than America's farmers, especially North Dakota farmers?" Even in Arkansas, people who disagree with us recognize farmers in the entire Midwest are hard-working folks who supply the food needs of not only this great country but also major portions of the world.

But to state that marijuana has any correlation to the efforts by myself and everyone I have to date come in contact with, is sorely mistaken.

In the 18 years that I was an emergency medical technician volunteering with our local ambulance squad, I responded to too many calls that involved drugs. For me, it does not matter that marijuana could lead to other drugs; I will have nothing to do with its legalization.

I will have nothing to do with any tobacco products, either. Tobacco should be grown in the U.S. only as biological factories, or pharmaceutical plants that could use their large leaves for protein and other chemicals.

Further, to suppose that marijuana can be planted inside a field of industrial hemp and achieve any degree of so-called recreational high is again misleading. From what I have read, industrial hemp is a dominant pollinator, which reduces THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) content in marijuana to a point where the "good stuff" would end up practically worthless.

Industrial hemp pollen also would with winds pollinate marijuana plants for miles and, therefore, would serve as a compelling reason why it would be a desirable rotational crop.

Far more likely would be growing pot inside a corn field. But with sophisticated satellite imagery and high-speed computers, a lab could survey a suspected area 24 hours a day in multiple wavelengths.

So, no marijuana for me.

As to Coleman, his assertion that our nation's legislators have been swindled by past drug proponents is intriguing, to say the least. In order to make this assertion, you have to assume that the governor of North Dakota, along with the state attorney general, agriculture commissioner and House and Senate majorities, also have been duped.

North Dakota is known as a state with hard-working people who are respected for their ingenuity and integrity. Coleman's assertions are akin to the idiocy put forth in the old story about the Buffalo Commons: As written by Frank and Deborah Popper in 1987, our drier Upper Midwest plains supposedly were not suitable for sustainable agriculture. But North Dakota recently has been listed among the top in the nation in production of many grains, peas, beans, lentils and honey. The state also produces a great deal of beef, pork, turkey, buffalo and other meats.

If industrial hemp is not a profitable rotational crop well suited to North Dakota, then why have our leaders supported legalization of it for 10 years?

Further, if industrial hemp is as readily available from other sources across the world as you presume, then freight must be free to get it to domestic markets.

It will be interesting to see how comments stack up by supporters of industrial hemp and those who have a different agenda.

I look forward to farming in a new era of alternative opportunity. When the stigma of marijuana has been separated from industrial hemp, then the creative talents of bright minds across our great nation truly will shine with new and innovative ideas.

In June, Hauge and another farmer with a state hemp-farming license, State Rep. David Monson of Osnabrock, sued in U.S. District Court in an effort to end the federal government's obstruction of commercial hemp farming in the U.S. They're appealing a judge decision in November to dismiss their suit.