Woman Arrested During Medical Marijuana Raid Speaks Out

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Photo: 8 News Now

​Rhonda Shade’s garage in Las Vegas used to be packed with dozens of marijuana plants. Now all the cannabis is gone, along with the lights used to grow it, since everything was seized in a drug raid.

“They’ve taken our finished medicine, which was ready for use, and they took all of our equipment,” Shade said, reports 8 News Now. “Law enforcement is taught to look for these lights and these plants growing, and maybe it looks crazy to them, but it was beautiful to us. That was our medicine, and we took pride in it. There’s nothing wrong with that, and I’m not going to be ashamed of that.”


Photo: 8 News Now
Rhonda Shade: “We worked within the law and what our doctor said”

​Shade said she preferred to treat her back pain with marijuana rather than a prescription drug. The Nevada Division of Health accepted her application for a medical marijuana card. According to Shade, a doctor’s note indicates her husband can grow more than the seven plants Nevada’s medical marijuana law allows.
Shade recently lobbied the Nevada Legislature to relax the state’s medicinal cannabis law, and in fact she had just returned from the state capitol in Carson City on Saturday night when the Las Vegas Police Department showed up with a search warrant.
“There were about 40 mature plants here,” Shade said.
Police also confiscated chocolate fudge containing cannabis from the couple’s home.
Buying or selling pot is illegal in Nevada, even for medical marijuana patients. Police claim Shade and her husband Lowel were illegally selling cannabis.
“We are medical patients,” Shade said. “I have the law right here. We worked within the law and what our doctor said. We did not sell marijuana here.”
A police officer found tally marks on a white board in the home, according to the arrest report. The officer claimed the marks indicate the Shades were collecting “donations” from medical marijuana sales.
Shade said the tally marks are from the family’s pool games. She said a note reading “leaf donations” was a fundraising idea she jotted down for her political efforts.
“Even though we’re medical patients who have not been proven guilty in a court of law, they’re going to destroy the way we make our medicine,” Shade said. “That’s just not fair.”
The police also piled on a charge of “child endangerment,” because the Shades’ 14-year-old son was living in the home. According to the family, the boy was not in harm’s way and would never be allowed to smoke marijuana. It’s a bogus charge, according to Shade.
Police declined to comment.

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