FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED SEPT. 20, 1999
THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
Californian reimbursed for theft of his marijuana
In 1996, California voters approved Proposition 215, allowing the
medicinal use of marijuana on a doctor's recommendation.
On Oct. 1, 1998, Placer and Sacramento County sheriff's deputies burst
into the home of Robert DeArkland of Fair Oaks, Calif., and grabbed 13
marijuana plants from his garage.
DeArkland pleaded with the officers, the daily Sacramento Bee reports,
pointing to several notes signed by his doctor and prominently displayed on
the wall. One of them said, "I have evaluated Mr. DeArkland and have
recommended that he use marijuana. This recommendation is valid until Jan.
21, 2000."
DeArkland, who suffers from arthritis and prostate cancer, was charged
with felony illegal possession and cultivation of marijuana. But in April,
the Sacramento County district attorney opted to drop those charges.
Then, history left it to 71-year-old Robert DeArkland to do something of
historic significance. He filed a claim with his homeowner's insurance
company, CGU California, seeking the replacement value of his illegally
stolen property -- 13 marijuana plants.
On Oct. 3, the Sacramento Bee reported that GCU paid off on the stolen
property claim -- $6,500.
"They gave me $500 per plant, the highest amount possible under my
extra-protection policy," which provides coverage for, among other things,
false arrest or wrongful entry, DeArkland said.
"If your drugs were stolen out of your medicine cabinet and you had
insurance for that, you would be entitled to compensation. Marijuana
should be no different," explains Dale Gieringer of the San Francisco-based
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
"It's a whole new situation in California," Dan Zielinski of the American
Insurance Association, a Washington-based industry lobbying group, told the
Bee.
Yes it is. The question is -- when are California cops and prosecutors
going to figure that out?
For years these jack-booted thugs, zealously imposing their Puritan
religious beliefs on their harmless neighbors in violation of the First and
Ninth Amendments, have disingenuously mewed "We have no choice; we have to
enforce all the laws as written; if you don't like it go talk to your
lawmakers."
Well, now the law has been changed, and now it's the Kalifornia Kops who
are breaking the law, singling out and prosecuting anti-Prohibition authors
like the desperately ill Peter McWilliams and 1998 California gubernatorial
candidate Steve Kubby (who actively campaigned for Prop 215), the latter an
adrenal cancer survivor whose doctors say he is alive today only due to
medicinal marijuana, but who has been driven into bankruptcy, seen his wife
miscarry a child, and been brought within hours of dying, himself, due to
deprivation of medical care ... all as these Fearless Drug Warriors
demonstrate that changing the law (start ital)won't(end ital) stop their
insane, 65-year rampage.
Barred by his county from filing a wrongful arrest claim, Mr. DeArkland
now says he will go to court, seeking millions in damages.
Good. Since there is no immunity for individual police and prosecutors
who invade homes and steal property "under color of law," here's hoping he
wins, and that every one of the men who looted his property is bankrupted
(start ital)personally(end ital).
Then, they should each be hauled into federal criminal court and charged
with violating Mr. DeArkland's civil rights.
Should a randomly-selected jury including many previous victims of the
Drug War choose to convict, I have previously recommended the proper
punishment: These bandits in uniform believe it is the right of the
majority to dictate whether and how an individual's consciousness may be
altered. While I personally find that a hideous doctrine, let it now be
turned on them: The officers who willfully and violently terrorized these
sick people in violation of the law should be locked up and dosed daily
with consciousness-altering substances, without being told in advance which
drug they're being given.
Who knows, maybe it'll turn out they (start ital)like(end ital) 800
micrograms of Orange Sunshine on their morning Fruit Loops.
# # #
I don't believe I've ever recommended a book of poetry.
Most modern poetry stinks. Dave Duffy at Backwoods Home magazine is of
the opinion that's because most of the stuff is written by academics,
preoccupied with form.
But what's really missing is any perceptible attempt to channel the
honest cry of the inarticulate human soul, whether in anguish or in joy.
Then last week I headed up to Oregon, signing books both at the Rose City
gun show and at the adjoining "Y2K Preparedness Expo," where I was charmed
to discover an Idaho couple who sell excellent freeze-drid food -- that's
the kind where the meat is not bean curd -- at prices below wholesale,
along with beautifully restored military rifles: contact Kurt and Angie
Wilson of Survival Enterprises, 4200 W. Seltice Way, Coeur d'Alene, ID
83814; 877-486-7225; or via web page http://www.survival.com.mx.
And while in Portland I stumbled on a book of poetry by John Silveira,
senior editor of the aforementioned Backwoods Home magazine, which blew me
away.
In any one of these spare little gems, you'll find everything from the
wonder of a child discovering those little aerial diamonds we know to be
dust motes in the afternoon sun, to the wistful realization that -- the
child having figured out "it's only dust" -- she may never feel that
particular wonder, again.
And then there's the sex -- pared-down and evocative stuff which
nonetheless rivals the honesty and power of Henry Miller or Chuck Bukowski.
"Sex and Sins in the Cemetery" is $8.95 postpaid from Backwoods Home
Magazine, P.O. Box 712, Gold Beach, Ore 97444. If you don't read poetry,
buy this little stocking-stuffer as a Christmas present for someone who
does ... but sneak a look before you wrap it up.
(Advisory: some of Mr. Silveira's language is R-rated.)
Vin Suprynowicz, assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas
Review-Journal, is author of the book, "Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on
the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998," available at $21.95 plus $3 shipping
through Mountain Media, P.O. Box 271122, Las Vegas, Nev. 89127. The
500-page trade paperback may also be ordered via web site
http://www.thespiritof76.com/wacokillers.html, or via 1-800-244-2224.
Credit cards accepted; volume discounts available.
***
Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com
"The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it." -- John
Hay, 1872
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and
thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series
of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken
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