All Over America Police Are Being Ordered To Return Seized Cannabis To Medical Marijuana Patients

While there once was a time that any seized pot was thought to be destroyed (or discreetly consumed by stoner law enforcement) we are truly in a new age.

This Supreme Court of Arizona (SCOA) ordered, without comment, that Yuma County, Ariz., officials must return the seized cannabis of medical cannabis user Valerie Okun. After a Yuma County judge ordered the weed returned, the case was appealed to the Arizona state Supreme Court, which in turn affirmed the county ruling.

In 2013, police in Tacoma, Wash., were ordered by Municipal Court judge Jack Emery, to return the cannabis of Joseph L. Robertson, an authorized medical marijuana patient. Unsurprisingly, Tacoma police refused. Judge Emery, called the refusal “contemptuous” and again ordered police to return Robertson’s weed.

In December of 2013 the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled that police return the hashish of medical marijuana patient James J. Ellis. Ellis’s attorney, Leland Berger, also was “Guru of Ganja” Ed Rosenthal’s attorney in a case in Medford, Ore., regarding the seizure of Rosenthal’s cannabis as he was traveling home from the Medford airport to his home in California. Berger was successful in Rosenthal’s case, Rosenthal returned to Oregon one year later to consume the seized cannabis with activists from Southern Oregon NORML to celebrate the win.

Last year in Lynnwood, Calif., police returned growing equipment and the remains of over 200 plants to Sky High Gardens.

But it is not always just cannabis that law enforcement has been ordered to return.

Last year in Michigan, six-month-old Bree Green was ordered returned to her medical cannabis using parents. The Greens, initially facing felony drug charges, are now able to resume growing their own children and medical cannabis.

Do you know anyone who has had their cannabis returned by the police? Tell us in the comments below!