N. Calif/Man busted with ton of pot

By Trina Kleist, trinak at theunion.com
September 21, 2005

A Nevada City man arrested recently on suspicion of growing marijuana for
sale said Tuesday the county needs clear rules for people to follow when
growing for medical purposes.

Thomas J. Wease, 42, said he would have kept his marijuana garden, in an
area near North San Juan, within allowable limits had he clearly understood
the rules.

Sgt. Bill Evans of the Nevada County Narcotics Task Force agreed the rules
need to be more clear. Evans said he hopes to work with the District
Attorney's office and local medicinal growers on that issue at the end of
the harvest season, which lasts through October.

Evans said he would like to see legitimate growers register with the
county, list their medical recommendations and register their gardens.

Wease was growing 137 plants and had 23 medical recommendations, most of
them for patients in Southern California, Evans said. The recommendations
include one for the unemployed carpenter to treat his back pain, which has
left him disabled for three years, Wease said.

A recommendation is like a prescription written by a medical doctor. Dozens
of medical uses for marijuana have been recognized for decades.

County guidelines allow 10 plants or two pounds of processed buds for each
recommendation. Medicinal growers may raise marijuana for five local
recommendations and one out-of-area recommendation, Evans said.

Wease is suspected of growing marijuana way beyond legitimate medical needs.

On Friday, narcotics deputies seized 109 of Wease's plants. The 2,000
pounds of unprocessed green plant required two pickup trucks and a trailer
to haul it out, Evans said.

At the same time, they arrested Wease on suspicion of illegal cultivation,
possession for sale, being armed while committing or attempting a felony
and resisting arrest. He was booked into Wayne Brown Correctional Facility,
and posted a $10,750 bail bond.

Wease said he asked deputies on the telephone, prior to the seizure, to
tell him whether his crop was legitimate.

"I wasn't trying to do anything wrong and if I was doing something wrong,
if that man had just called me on the phone and said, 'You need to take out
50 plants,' I would have taken a machete and gone out and chopped them down
and brought them to his office," Wease said.

He also said the weapon involved is an old family keepsake that doesn't work.

"I didn't know it was in the back room in (my stepson's) closet," Wease said.

The boy, a 16-year-old, was at the residence alone when narcotics officers
first viewed the plants Thursday. At that time, Wease was returning from a
trip to Hawaii to visit his wife, the boy's mother, Wease said.

A separate investigation regarding child endangerment also is underway,
Evans said.

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To contact staff writer Trina Kleist, call 477-4231 or e-mail
<mailto:trinak [at] theunion.com>trinak [at] theunion.com.

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