| Paul Wellman |
| Federal medical marijuana patient Elvy Musikka holds a tin of joints send to her each month by the U.S. federal government |
Elvy Musikka, one of four surviving patients in the federal medical marijuana program, was detained by Oregon State Police early Thursday morning following a town hall meeting on medical marijuana.
Musikka was detained along with other registered Oregon medical marijuana patients after a state trooper staked out the co-op 45th Parallel and harassed cardholders as they left the building, reports Russ Belville in the Examiner.
Several members of the patient cooperative were detained by the trooper, who issued citations including a $1,000 ticket to a grower for “residue” left behind on an empty pipe by a patient.
Musikka was in town for the 45th Parallel’s Town Hall Meeting, which had occurred earlier Wednesday at the Clarion Hotel. At the hotel, an Oregon State Trooper parked just down the street from the public entrance to the parking lot.
“[I] cannot verify (but strongly suspect) it was the same trooper,” Belville said.
According to 45th Parallel clinic manager Joey Nieves, Musikka, who is in her mid-60s, was detained for more than an hour in a squad car as the ignorant trooper did not believe Musikka’s federal paperwork authorizing her to possess and use her federally produced medical marijuana anywhere in the U.S.
The encounter was videotaped by patients on the scene, but the videos were seized by state police.
The trooper “got much more polite” once Nieves identified himself as a former soldier, reports Belville; Nieves was a counter-narcotics specialist in the U.S. Army. However, the trooper denied requests for the video and the state police are reportedly giving Nieves the runaround regarding the paperwork needed to get it back.
Musikka told Belville that the police took her ID and her prescription and gave her a court summons for October 5.
State troopers in Oregon are allegedly being ordered by the federal Department of Justice to seize medical marijuana and harass state-registered, legal patients, according to Belville.