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A man in Larimer County, Colorado was recently acquitted of multiple felonies involving marijuana because he is a legal patient in the state. He is now suing the Sheriff’s office in Larimer County for destroying the 42 plants they took from him and that he rightfully owned.

Denver lawyer Rob Corry said his client – Kaleb Young – expects to receive $5,000 per plant (totaling $210,000), based on what law enforcers have testified a marijuana plant is worth, in addition to attorney fees.

Young had been growing the plants in a Wellington, CO home in compliance with Colorado’s medical marijuana laws. During a warrant search in September 2010 Young had shown deputies paperwork authorizing him to do so, according to the lawsuit. The deputies proceeded to take all his plants and equipment, among other things.

Five months of surveillance went into the case, but all for nothing as Young was found not guilty of all charges in November 2011.

“Typically, the agency will preserve the plants as they’re required to do under the (Colorado) Constitution,” Corry said. “Here, they just straight-up cut them down and destroyed them.”

“Throughout December 2011, Mr. Young repeatedly attempted to enforce, through counsel, the District Court order that required the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office to return property previously seized from his residence, including 42 medical marijuana plants,” the lawsuit says.

Some of the property was returned, but the plants were gone.

Rob Corry represents people in marijuana cases across the state, and he said this is likely the first time in Colorado that a medical-marijuana grower was acquitted at trial and sued because plants and marijuana were not returned.

“You hear a lot about these cases being threatened,” he said. “But to my knowledge, none have gone the distance yet.”

A victory for Mr. Young will send a message to those in law enforcement in Colorado and beyond that property rights mean something, even among medical marijuana patients, who are sometimes treated like second-class citizens by authorities. A cannabis plant is medicine to millions of people, and they are legally able to possess it in many states. That is the essence of medical marijuana legal protections for patients; to give them the protection from illegal law enforcement activity that is afforded everyone else.

The tide is clearly turning in public opinion on marijuana, particularly in Colorado after legalization. There are still criminal charges possible, even in in this state. But a victory in this lawsuit would send a huge message to law enforcement that cannabis is just another mainstream business, and property rights apply.

A stigma still surrounds marijuana, even after all the progress that has been made. This is the result of 75+ years of propaganda against cannabis. Many people were raised to believe that marijuana is bad, and I’m sure this is true among many who choose law enforcement as a profession. This is why some of them can be so cavalier about a few dozen plants. To them it’s an illicit drug.

75 years of lies is hard to overcome, and it will take a lot of hard work to make the truth about marijuana common knowledge to future generations.

– Joe Klare