|
TAX DEDUCTIBLE |
|
|
|
|
|
About the |
|
|
|
Sister Somayah |
|
|
|
|
Crescent Alliance Self Help For Sickle Cell
Sister Somayah Kambui
WOMAN WITH SICKLE CELL WINS FIGHT TO GROW CANNABIS FOR MEDICINE and POSSES CANNABIS FOR MEDICINE AND COMPASSIONATE USE!!
March 19, 2002
"A woman who said she grew marijuana to treat the effects of sickle-cell anemia was acquitted of several drug charges Monday despite overwhelming evidence that her personal stash was for more than medical use."
Sister Somayah's Rebuttal
Blast the L.A. Times for suggesting that I was guilty despite an acquittal!!
What if the media printed that O.J. was acquitted despite overwhelming evidence he killed his wife!!??? Would that not be a liability on the L.A. Times?..
I want a rebuttal...or don't you think I'm entitled, since there was NO EVIDENCE WHAT SO EVER THAT SUGGESTED THAT I DID ANYTHING ELSE WITH MY CANNABIS ASIDE MEDICAL USE!!
I will make the best out of this by seeking ways to REBUT this RED LIGHT for more raids have been printed in the L.A. Times by a reporter I was misled into thinking was not going to print a bias story...either way.
The best ending would have been to quote my telling him "On to get a MARIJUANA RESOLUTION <http://www.geocities.com/sistersomayah> for the City and County of Los Angeles."
Thank you all for your support and all donations can be sent to 824 West 40th Place, Los Angeles, CA 90037; made out to
Text From Los Angeles Times Articles
March 19, 2002
By JOHN L. MITCHELL, TIMES STAFF WRITER
A woman who said she grew marijuana to treat the effects of sickle-cell anemia was acquitted of several drug charges Monday despite overwhelming evidence that her personal stash was for more than medical use.
Police testified that they found more than 200 pounds of marijuana plants in Somayah Kambui's backyard when she was arrested Oct. 5. They believed she was using her medical condition as a ruse to run a distribution operation out of her South Los Angeles house.
Also seized were six pounds of marijuana in large glasses, an additional 13 pounds in packaging, 34 marijuana cookies, 32 small brown vials of hash oil, and a pot on the stove with three liters of oil. But after six days of testimony, a Superior Court jury spent only three hours deliberating before finding Kambui, 51, not guilty on all five counts.
"The evidence was clear that it was a violation of the law," said a disappointed Sean M. Carney, the deputy district attorney who prosecuted Kambui. "But she is a very sympathetic figure. She does have sickle-cell anemia, and the jury, I think, gave a nullification verdict."
The case tested the state's Proposition 215, the medical marijuana initiative passed by California voters in 1996. The measure allowed medical use of marijuana but did not set limits on how much could be grown or consumed.
Kambui said her house was merely a meeting place for the Crescent Alliance Self Help for Sickle Cell, a marijuana club she said she founded 20 years ago. Club members shared information on the uses of marijuana--making cookies and oils from seeds.
"I feel victorious, honorable and vindicated," Kambui said after the reading of the verdict. "Now we have to see what can be done to get my property back and get the LAPD to stop raiding my house."
Her court-appointed attorney, Robert A. Welbourn, said authorities "spent a lot of money and time trying to convict an innocent woman of a crime. Maybe they will leave her alone."
After her arrest, Kambui spent 60 days in jail awaiting trial. Three years before, she had spent two weeks in jail after police raided her home and seized her marijuana. She beat that case, and her confiscated plants were returned.
Kambui, who was twice convicted of felonies in the 1970s when she was active in the Black Panther Party, faced a prison sentence of up to eight years if she had been convicted this time.
Kambui said her use of marijuana eases the pain of sickle-cell anemia, a debilitating disease in which the blood cells become deformed when oxygen levels are low, creating painful blockage of blood vessels and causing organ damage. Although she once shared her marijuana with others, she testified that she hadn't been able to help anyone in the last year because she was too sick. The 27 marijuana plants and several gallons of hemp oil she kept at her two-story residence were for personal consumption, she said.
When the verdict was read, Kambui asked Judge Michael Johnson whether "anything could be done to stop any further raids on my house."
Responded Johnson: "The case is concluded."
The verdicts brought cheers of celebration from supporters outside the courtroom.
"We have reason to party now," said Bill Britt, a 42-year-old Long Beach medical-marijuana activist. "This is wonderful."
Kambui said she also was ready to celebrate. Standing with cigarette paper in her hand, she said: "I've got to roll me some medicine."
*Originally posted
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-000020059mar19.story
Times staff writer Gariot Louima contributed to this report.
If you want other stories on this topic, or to order a reprint, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives.
Donations can be sent toLOS ANGELES TIMES ARTICLE - 1/29/02
Woman With Sickle Cell
Anemia
Fights for Right to Grow Pot for Medicinal Use Trial:
The marijuana grower's case
will test Prop. 215,
passed in California in 1996.
For years, Somayah Kambui argued that she had a medical right to use marijuana--a drug of choice for many like her who suffer from the debilitating and painful disease sickle cell anemia.
So the 51-year-old founder of a cannabis club, Crescent Alliance Self Help for Sickle Cell, said she got a doctor's prescription and began growing her personal stash of marijuana in her South Los Angeles backyard.
But police officers challenged Kambui's claim in October when they raided her garden and confiscated, by their estimate, a stash that was somewhat more than personal: 200 pounds of marijuana plants. "She had a farm back there," said Deputy Dist. Atty. John Kildebeck.
Kambui was arrested, spent 60 days in jail awaiting trial and now--because of two prior felony convictions--faces the possibility of life in prison under the three-strikes law. The two previous convictions, involving illegal-firearms possession and explosives, came in the 1970s when she was active in the Black Panther Party.
Fearing the worst, she appeared Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, where prosecutor Kildebeck and Kambui's attorney both called for a delay in the start of her trial.
Robert A. Welbourn, Kambui's court-appointed attorney, told his client she would be taking a chance if she went ahead with a trial so soon. Kambui refused his advice and asked the judge for a speedy trial. He complied, setting a Jan. 18 date.
"Let things fall where they need to fall," Kambui said later.
Her case is another test of Proposition 215, the medical-marijuana initiative passed by California voters in 1996. The measure allowed medical use of marijuana but did not set limits on how much could be grown or consumed--a gray area that has surfaced in several criminal cases.
Last year federal agents shut down a West Hollywood cannabis club, uprooting 400 plants, seizing indoor growing lights and hauling off computers listing the names and medical histories of the center's patients who allegedly used marijuana to ease the pain or help with nausea caused by chemotherapy or AIDS.
California is among a handful of states that legalized medical use of marijuana, putting it in conflict with federal statutes that make pot illegal for cultivation, sale and use. That dispute escalated this year with a U.S Supreme Court ruling that upheld federal law.
Kambui said her use of marijuana eases the pain of sickle cell anemia, a disease in which the blood cells become deformed when oxygen levels are low, creating painful blockage of blood vessels and causing organ damage.
Kambui said the marijuana grown in her backyard--on a block of single-family homes and apartments near the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum--was not for her use alone but was to be shared with the dozen or so members of her club who also suffer from sickle cell anemia. She said the effects of marijuana were far less harmful than the morphine she had been prescribed.
But since 1998, she said, she has been under scrutiny because of her plants. Police seized her stock that year, and she spent two weeks in jail. She beat that case, however, and her confiscated plants were returned.
Her club continued to operate without problems until last year, when police, with helicopters hovering overhead, searched her two-story home.
"I was sitting having a cup of coffee with a little hemp oil when they broke down the door," she said. "I said, 'I'm legal, I have a doctor's note and I'm compliant with the law.' "
She said the officers told her they thought she had too much to be for personal use only.
"I said 'OK, why don't you take what you think I don't need and leave me the rest?' " she recalled. "They took it all."
She disputed law enforcement's estimate of her stash.
"That is 200 pounds wet, with dirt and stalks," she said.
Kildebeck said he doubted that Kambui would be tried as a third-strike defendant because the current charge does not involve violent conduct. "We're trying to do the right thing too," he said.
Her neighbors also seemed sympathetic.
Mario Mercado said Kambui should be allowed to use marijuana if it is for her personal use and not for sale in the neighborhood.
For information about reprinting this article, go to http://www.lats.com/rights/
|
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
|
|
Sister Somayah is a Sickle Cell Survivor
If
you have any information to share |
For
More Information Contact: Sister Somayah:
|
