Fort Collins couple to sue city over $200000 worth of dead …
The Coloradoan, CO

A Fort Collins couple is planning to sue the city and Larimer County for more than $200,000 after police officers destroyed their 39 marijuana plants two years ago.
Advertisement

Last year in court, James and Lisa Masters successfully showed that city police illegally seized their plants following a raid at their home on Aug. 2, 2006. Judge James Hiatt in December ordered the city to return the seized pot plants, which by then were dead.

The Masters say they use the marijuana for medicinal reasons, growing some for their personal use, and dispensing the rest to other people registered under the state’s medical marijuana law.

And they say that state law, enshrined in the state Constitution as Amendment 20, required the government to maintain their plants.

“The Masters suffer from debilitating medical conditions that were made worse by the stress of this lengthy case,” their lawyer, Rob Corry Jr., wrote in a letter to the city and county declaring plans to sue. “Their valuable medical marijuana was taken away and killed in violation of Colorado law.”

City and county officials say federal law requires them to destroy the plants, or at the very least not care for them.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection

AZFamily, AZ

Officers searching the vehicle and its contents noticed discrepancies with two ladders on top of the van and when they took the ladders down and inspected them, discovered 74 packages of marijuana hidden inside the sides of the ladders. The officers seized more than 211 pounds of marijuana, with an estimated street value of $343,000.

In another incident that happened early Sunday afternoon, August 17, CBP officers arrested a 33-year-old man from Mexico after discovering 76 pounds of marijuana hidden inside the gas tank of the 1989 GMC truck he was driving.

The drivers in both incidents were arrested and turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for further investigation.

Both incidents resulted in the combined seizure of 287 pounds of marijuana, with an estimated street value of almost $500,000.