Judge: MMJ a Joke

[gypski]

When judges start calling the people's will a joke, its time to remove them from the bench. :thumbsup:


Judge Orders Pot Patient: Stay 1/4 Mile From Your Own Stepkids

By Steve Elliott in Culture, Medical
Monday, Jun. 21 2010 @ 8:32AM

​Earlier this year, a judge in rural Washington who called the state's medical marijuana law "an absolute joke" and "an excuse to be loaded all the time" ordered a stepfather, Julian Robinson, to stay at least a quarter-mile away from the teenagers he has helped rear for the past 13 years, because he is a medical marijuana patient.

That means Robinson can't be around the children, even though they live in his home near Castle Rock, Wash., with his his wife and their four younger children, reports Gene Johnson of The Associated Press.

Robinson said he sometimes stays with friends, or rolls out a foam sleeping pad in his neighbor's horse trailer. He said he misses baseball games and church services with the kids.

"It has torn my family apart," Robinson said. "We used to do everything together."

In the case, the biological father, who has never had custody of the teenagers, is trying to win primary custody for the first time because their mother is married to Robinson, a medical marijuana patient.

While state medical marijuana laws can protect patients from criminal charges -- or, in the case of Washington state, at least provide an affirmative defense against them -- they haven't prevented judges and others from considering a parent's legal marijuana use in custody disputes.

This is even true in states like Washington, where authorized patients "shall not be penalized in any manner, or denied any right or privilege," according to the state's medical marijuana law.

Arbiters often side with parents who claim they are trying to "keep their children away from pot." Medical marijuana advocates in several states, including Washington, California and Colorado, said they have been getting more inquiries from parents involved in custody cases in recent years as the number of medical marijuana patients who are also parents grows.

Lauren Payne, a legal services coordinator with patient advocacy group Americans for Safe Access, said that since 2006 ASA had received calls about 61 such cases.

"The court cannot countenance a situation where a person is using marijuana, under the influence of marijuana and is caring for children," ruled an Island County, Wash., judge in one custody dispute.

"There's nothing in the medical marijuana law that deprives the court of its responsibility and legal authority to provide for proper care of children so that people aren't caring for children who are under the influence of alcohol or drugs."

Many patients insist that using marijuana makes them no less fit as parents, and that they shouldn't lose custody or visitation rights if there's no evidence they are abusing the drug, which is legal for them to use medicinally.

According to the Marijuana Policy Project, only two of the 14 states with medical marijuana laws -- Michigan and Maine -- spell out that parents who are also cannabis patients won't lose custody or visitation rights unless the patient's actions endanger the child or are contrary to the best interests of the child.

Opposing spouses often argue they have a right to keep their children away from "illegal substances;" marijuana remains illegal for any purpose under federal law.

[tango244ns]

wtf..What a joke...i agree,its time to remove this joker from the bench,wich by the way is a public appointed office/position and is suppose to do the will of the people or at least the RCW Laws of Wa state. But instead they seem to have their own personal agenda,wich is probrally politically/money motivated....They just find ways around the law to punish us,w/o violating the RCW for Medical Marijauna.

[jamessr]

Theft of honest services is a big federal crime...a judge cannot interrupt any medical treatment as the intent of the legislature clearly states...so the lawful substance of this substance is not impaired.

Obviously this judge don't know how to read...or do a proper statutory construction analysis.

[killerweed420]

Another example of bigotry.
C/P
Medical pot can cost parents in custody disputes

By GENE JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer

MATLOCK, Wash. (AP) -- Nicholas Pouch runs an organic farm and a glassblowing studio on a 20-acre spread in southwest Washington's timber country. Spicy mustard greens, tomatoes and corn sprout in humid greenhouses as chickens and sheep roam nearby.

It would be an ideal place for children to romp, Pouch thinks. But his children can't be there because he's a medical marijuana patient.

A drug task force acting on a tip from his former partner raided his grow operation in 2007. Even though Pouch's criminal charges were dropped, she cited the arrest and his marijuana use in winning full custody of their boys, now 9 and 11.

For the past 2 1/2 years, Pouch has seen the boys twice a month, during supervised visits at a neutral house in Olympia. "There's no reason anybody should have to go through this," Pouch said. "Why aren't they here, chasing snakes like they like to do?"

More than a decade after states began approving marijuana for medical use, its role in custody disputes remains a little-known side effect.

While those laws can protect patients from criminal charges, they typically haven't prevented judges, court commissioners or guardians ad litem from considering a parent's marijuana use in custody matters - even in states such as Washington, where complying patients "shall not be penalized in any manner, or denied any right or privilege," according to the law.

Arbiters often side with parents who try to keep their children away from pot. Medical marijuana activists in several states, including Washington, California and Colorado, say they've been getting more inquiries from patients wrapped up in custody-divorce cases in recent years as the ranks of patients who use marijuana swell.

Lauren Payne, legal services coordinator with a California marijuana law reform group called Americans for Safe Access, said that since mid-2006 her organization has received calls about 61 such cases.

In Colorado last month, an appeals court ruled that medical marijuana use is not necessarily a reason to restrict a parent's visitation. Washington courts have held otherwise.

"The court cannot countenance a situation where a person is using marijuana, under the influence of marijuana and is caring for children," an Island County, Wash., judge ordered in one such dispute. "There's nothing in the medical marijuana law that deprives the court of its responsibility and legal authority to provide for proper care of children so that people aren't caring for children who are under the influence of alcohol or drugs."

In that case, the medical marijuana patient, Cameron Wieldraayer, was granted only supervised visits with his two young daughters - a decision upheld by an appeals court.

Many patients insist that using pot makes them no less fit as parents, and that they shouldn't lose custody or visitation rights if there's no evidence they're abusing the drug.

According to the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project, two of the 14 states with medical marijuana laws - Michigan and Maine - specify that patients won't lose custody or visitation rights unless the patient's actions endanger the child or are contrary to the child's best interests.

Pouch, who grows marijuana in an old chicken coop, smokes a few puffs three or four times every day, and says he doesn't get high the way he did when he used marijuana recreationally in his younger days. He said he uses it to treat pain from carpal tunnel syndrome aggravated by glassblowing, as well as a shoulder that frequently pops out of its socket due to old sports injuries.

"I'm an outgoing, upstanding person. I do three different farmers markets and I'm a member of the Mason County Chamber of Commerce," said Pouch, 37. "I am not an activist at all, but I have the right to use this. It aids my pain, and it allows me to function in my everyday activities, where pills and opiates don't."

The mother of Pouch's boys declined to comment.

Pouch also has a young daughter with another woman, and is also allowed only supervised visits with her. This month, after a guardian ad litem made a favorable report about Pouch's parenting skills, a court commissioner awarded him custody - but then stayed the decision while the girl's mother challenges it.

Opposing spouses often argue that they have a right to keep their children away from illegal substances, and marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

With some other medications, such as narcotic painkillers or bipolar medications, judges can require tests to establish how much of the drug a parent has in his or her system, said Eleanor Couto, a family law attorney in Longview, Wash.

But treatment providers can't prescribe specific amounts of marijuana without running afoul of federal law, so it isn't always clear what constitutes an appropriate level of the drug.

"How do you monitor how much someone can smoke?" Couto asked. "How do know they're able to adequately care for that child? I think it's got to be a case-by-case basis."

Seattle lawyer Sharon Blackford noted that urine tests can establish how much marijuana is in a patient's system based on current use, and that monitoring is "as easy to do for medical marijuana as it is for alcohol."

Couto said she represents one father who worked out a tentative arrangement with his ex whereby he can continue to use medical marijuana, as long as someone else watches their child while he does.

In another case, she's representing a father who is trying to win primary custody of his teenagers for the first time because their mother is married to a medical marijuana patient who also has a history of minor criminal offenses and several drunken-driving convictions.

Early this year, a judge who called Washington's medical marijuana law "an absolute joke" and "an excuse to be loaded all the time" ordered that stepfather, Julian Robinson, to keep at least a quarter-mile from the teenagers because of his marijuana use, according to a transcript of the hearing.

That means Robinson can't be around the children he has raised for the past 13 years, even though they live in his home near Castle Rock, with his wife and their four younger children.

Robinson sometimes stays with friends or rolls out a foam sleeping pad in his neighbor's horse trailer. He misses baseball games and church services.

"It has torn my family apart," Robinson said. "We used to do everything together."

Pouch, who said he's spent $35,000 on legal costs in the past four years, hopes to persuade the court to grant him partial or even primary custody of his children.

In the meantime, they dug a garden last year at the Olympia home rented by South Sound Family Services where they have their supervised visits. Pouch brought in manure and vegetable starts last month. The boys planted corn, tomatoes, cucumbers and pumpkins.

Pouch's farm: Home (http://www.naturescreationfarm.com/)

[jamessr]

Judges who do this are legally handicapped by the rules of judicial conduct.:thumbsup:

File on judges like this will shut them up on their personal discriminatory animus against cannabis L. sativa.:D

[CovertCarpenter]

...and should be cause for removal, though that is a looong hard row to hoe.

I would definitely argue for a new hearing / retrial / act two... this utterly sux.

I wonder if the judge involved would have the temerety to visit the person in question, and watch them before and after their medicine usage, to see how non-'loaded' the person actually is. If they are a regular smoker, they're probably accustomed to it, and not 'stoned/loaded'.

The state needs less power.

[jamessr]

...and should be cause for removal, though that is a looong hard row to hoe.

I would definitely argue for a new hearing / retrial / act two... this utterly sux.

I wonder if the judge involved would have the temerety to visit the person in question, and watch them before and after their medicine usage, to see how non-'loaded' the person actually is. If they are a regular smoker, they're probably accustomed to it, and not 'stoned/loaded'.

The state needs less power.

Just the commission hearing or receiving such a case is enough for other judges to get the picture..removal isn't necessary for others to smell the fuse burning....judges talk amongst other CLOSED "CLUB" MEMBERS OF THE SUPREME CT. DBA THE STATE OF WA.

I have filed a few myself...and gotten good responses from the judges I filed them on...even though the commission dismissed them...it was the fear they felt with the unknown which they understood.

[Budcity911]

I think marijuana as medicine is the best thing ever. It has some sideffects like sillyness but marijuana builds communities and alcohol destroys.

[hiamps]

I wonder why someplace like NORML or ASA aren't stepping forward with big bucks and lots of press and making a case out of this...Guess they just want your money...