Ohio

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Joint you smoked last week may come back to haunt you

2006-08-24
By Jim Phillips
Athens NEWS Senior Writer
The Athens News


In June 2003, an Athens County jury acquitted an Athens area woman of aggravated vehicular homicide in connection with a car crash that killed a Shade man.

A blood test allegedly showed that Farah Holter had chemical byproducts of recent cocaine use in her system at the time of the crash. Her attorney, however, using expert medical testimony, persuaded the jury that those byproducts, or "metabolites," were not impairing Holter's ability to drive.

Holter was convicted of only a misdemeanor charge of negligent manslaughter. If her case came up today, however, the outcome might be different.

Effective Aug. 17, the state of Ohio has made it a criminal offense to have certain levels of drug metabolites in your system, regardless of how impaired you may or may not be.

Police still aren't supposed to be able to order a blood or urine test without some evidence of impairment. But some observers worry that Senate Bill 8 will result in people being charged criminally for the lingering evidence of prior drug use.

"There are obviously going to be more cases," predicted K. Robert Toy, an Athens defense attorney who handles a fair amount of DUI cases. "I call this the Defense Attorney Relief Act of 2006."

According to a handout from Athens County Municipal Judge William Grim, including information from the Ohio Department of Health's Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Testing, S.B. 8 sets "per se" prohibited blood and urine levels for certain drugs.

In plain English, if you have the listed level of the drug in your system after last Thursday, you're breaking state law regardless of your impairment level.

Drugs cited in the law include marijuana and its metabolites. S.B. 8 sets illegal blood levels for marijuana (presumably its active ingredient THC), as well as two different levels for marijuana metabolites, which are breakdown products of THC that can show up in the blood long after the intoxicating effects of marijuana use have worn off.

BEFORE S.B. 8, ACCORDING to Athens County Assistant Prosecutor Colleen Flanagan, there were no defined illegal bodily levels in Ohio for many drugs of abuse, other than the 0.08 milligrams per decaliter of alcohol in the bloodstream that makes one legally drunk.

Therefore, she said, the presence of heroin or cocaine in a person's blood could be used as an aggravating factor in another crime, or as supporting evidence for a drug-possession charge, but wasn't itself a crime.

Toy said he supports keeping people who are high on marijuana out of the driver's seat. However, he said, it's known that marijuana metabolites linger in the bloodstream long after the high wears off, which could lead to people who are not impaired being punished for driving with something in their bodies that poses no threat to the public.

"You may be convicted of DUID (driving under the influence of drugs) without being impaired," he said. "That's the issue."

He added that while police officers are supposed to establish that a suspect is impaired before asking him to undergo blood or urine testing, in practice he believes officers will use very flexible standards for finding evidence of impairment.

As a defense attorney, Toy said, he has seen cases in which an officer testified that a suspect showed all six "clues" of being impaired during sobriety tests (follow a pen with your eyes, walk a straight line, stand on one leg, etc.)

"Then they give them a drug test and - guess what? They shouldn't have had six clues (based on their drug levels)," Toy said. The clear implication, he suggested, is that officers in the field sometimes see what they want to see in a field sobriety test, in order to justify a blood or urine test.

He noted that he has never seen a field sobriety test performed on videotape, though many police officers have video cameras on their cruisers to record vehicle stops.

Toy said he also worries that officers may seek blood and urine testing on people they think look like probable dope smokers.

"I see a lot of people bopping along wearing nose rings being stopped and given the test without evidence of impairment," he predicted.

Flanagan noted, however, that S.B. 8 doesn't criminalize the drugs it cites, because their use was already a criminal offense - it just wasn't illegal to have evidence of that use in your bloodstream.

"I would say, first of all, that all of these drugs would be illegal to use to start with," she said. She added that she would tend to trust the word of a police officer who reported that a suspect had shown evidence of impairment on a field sobriety test.

Flanagan said she believes S.B. 8 was needed. "I think it fills a gap," she said. As an example where the new law would be useful, she offered a scenario in which someone crashes a car, but is too injured to undergo a field sobriety test.

Blood samples taken at a hospital could be used to establish drug use by the suspect, which could then be used to support a criminal charge. Before S.B. 8, the presence of the drugs in the person's system alone would not have been the basis for a charge, she noted.

Flanagan pointed out that the new law also extends, from two hours to three hours after an alleged offense, the time period in which police can take a blood, urine, or breath sample for testing, which she said will also be a change welcome to law enforcement.

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Medical marijuana may go on Ohio ballot

<span class=postbigbold>Michigan's vote of interest to proponents here</span>

Saturday, August 18, 2007 3:25 AM
By Alan Johnson
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

A statewide issue to legalize medical marijuana is headed for the ballot in Michigan next year -- and could swing south to Ohio shortly thereafter.

The nonprofit Drug Policy Alliance, which backed an unsuccessful 2002 Ohio constitutional amendment to require treatment instead of imprisonment for nonviolent drug offenders, is watching Michigan closely, a spokesman said.

A dozen states already have some form of medical marijuana law on the books.

"Ohio would be a state worth considering, certainly a high priority. It would be a question of timing," said Edward J. Orlett, a former Democratic state legislator who represents the Drug Policy Alliance in Ohio.

Marijuana contains THC, a powerful chemical that can produce a sense of euphoria.

According to some but not all medical practitioners, it also is useful in limiting pain; suppressing nausea and increasing appetite in cancer and HIV/AIDS patients; and relaxing symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

It can be smoked or taken orally.

Amanda Conn Starner, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services, said agency officials think there is "no need to change ODADAS's policy on medicinal marijuana. We continue to monitor research on the topic."

Any Ohio marijuana vote almost certainly would reunite the three high-powered businessmen-activists-philanthropists who bankrolled the 2002 ballot issue -- George Soros, Peter Lewis and John Sperling. The issue was defeated by a 2-1 ratio at the polls.

Lewis, president of Progressive Corp. of Cleveland, the third-largest insurer in the U.S., has given $7 million to the Marijuana Policy Project, a national organization that maps out ballot issues and legislative lobbying. He is an admitted user of marijuana and hashish.

The project recently awarded a startup grant to the Ohio Patient Network, a Columbus-based group that supports medical marijuana.

Dianne Byrum, spokeswoman for the Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care, said the group needs to gather more than 500,000 signatures to get the issue on the November 2008 ballot.

"It would allow for the medical use of marijuana with a doctor's permission," Byrum said. "This is not a broad use of marijuana. It would be under very controlled circumstances."

The Michigan Democratic Party has endorsed the issue. In addition, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Flint and Traverse City passed ordinances instructing law-enforcement officials to not make it a "priority" to arrest patients who use medical marijuana, even though it remains illegal.

Ohio Rep. Robert F. Hagan, D-Youngstown, sponsored a bill in the last legislative session to legalize medical marijuana. The bill died without a hearing. Now, Hagan is encouraging backers to take the issue to the ballot.

"I feel very strongly there should be alternatives to pain medication," he said. "If people feel in the last days of their life, when they are in terrific pain, that they need an alternative, the doctor should allow that to happen."

Hagan's father, also a state legislator, died of three forms of cancer. Now, Hagan's elderly mother is suffering from lung cancer.

Hagan said he assured her that if she wants medical marijuana to ease the pain, he will get it.

"If I need it," she responded, "I would take it."

Opposing points of view on this issue can be viewed at http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/drugfact/factsht/medical_marijuana.html and http://www.drugpolicy.org/marijuana/.

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<table class=posttable width=431><tr><td class=postcell><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/q6ckPa_kOiI&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/q6ckPa_kOiI&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object></td></tr><tr><td class=postcell><p class=postbold>Chronic Pains, Part I</p>"Chronic Pains" by <a class=postlink target=_blank href=http://mmjactionnetwork.com/>The Medical Cannabis Action Network</a> is a Documentary featuring Patients Randy Brush, Tonya Davis and North Ohio NORML Attorney Dennis Day and examines the need for and efforts toward the legalization of Medical Marijuana in Ohio.</td></tr></table>

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<table class=posttable width=431><tr><td class=postcell><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PBAmAzZLlvg&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PBAmAzZLlvg&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object></td></tr><tr><td class=postcell><p class=postbold>Chronic Pains, part II</p>"Chronic Pains" by <a class=postlink target=_blank href=http://mmjactionnetwork.com/>The Medical Cannabis Action Network</a> is a Documentary featuring Patients Randy Brush, Tonya Davis and North Ohio NORML Attorney Dennis Day and examines the need for and efforts toward the legalization of Medical Marijuana in Ohio.</td></tr></table>

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Article published Friday, September 15, 2006

DANIEL GENE ASBURY, 1956-2006
Activist battled to pass medical marijuana laws

The Toledo Blade


Daniel Gene Asbury, 50, a Toledo-area activist who spent more than 20 years lobbying state legislators to introduce the legal use of marijuana for medical purposes, died Wednesday in Flower Hospital from complications of a massive heart attack.

Mr. Asbury, an ardent environmentalist, also was opposed to the expansion of the Envirosafe Services of Ohio Inc. site near his South Wheeling Street home in Oregon.

A quadriplegic, Mr. Asbury, who used a wheelchair after a fall that left him paralyzed from the chest down 26 years ago, relied on marijuana to ease the pain of muscle spasms, his sister, Susan, said.

He became involved in the movement to change state laws regarding the use of marijuana for medical purposes because he knew what it meant to people who needed it, his sister said.

"He was very passionate about the cause and spent many years going to Columbus and Ann Arbor to march with groups that believed in the importance of changing the law," Ms. Asbury said.

However, his passion for changing marijuana laws was not without its legal hurdles.

In 1999, Mr. Asbury pleaded guilty and was given a one-year suspended jail sentence for attempted possession of marijuana after U.S. Customs officials intercepted a marijuana package from Sweden addressed to him.

"Somebody from Sweden who knew about his involvement in the movement to change marijuana laws in Ohio sent him a package and that is how he got into trouble," his sister explained. "He didn't even know the person who sent the package."

Born in Toledo, Mr. Asbury grew up in Oregon.

He graduated from Scott High in 1974 and held a number of jobs in Toledo before his accident in 1980, which left him unable to take on other jobs.

So he spent much of his time after the accident reading and teaching himself about laws concerning the use of medical marijuana, his sister said.

"He never felt sorry for himself," she said, "and that is when he started to get involved in a number of causes he believed in."

Having grown up a few blocks away from the shores of Lake Erie, he naturally opposed the expansion efforts of Envirosafe, his sister said, "because he worried that the company would contaminate the lake."

In 1996, he wrote then-Vice President Al Gore, asking him to take an active role in the movement to reform state and federal laws concerning medical marijuana, his sister said. "He was especially proud of that letter and the fact that Al Gore wrote him back," she said.

Three years later, Mr. Asbury was one of three residents who threatened to sue the city of Oregon in an effort to have the city replace its curb ramps, which did not meet federal standards. Oregon City Council not only agreed to change its curb ramps to meet federal standards, it paid $5,920 in legal fees for the three plaintiffs.

"Daniel strongly believed that he ought to live his life in pursuit of a cause he believed in," his sister said.

Surviving are his mother, Elizabeth Brandenburg; father, Clyde Asbury; sisters, Susan, Carol, Candace, Constance, and Libby Jane, and brothers, James and Michael.

Visitation will be after 2 p.m. Sunday in the Eggleston Meinert Funeral Home, Oregon, where services will be at 11 a.m. Monday.

The family suggests tributes to the St. Francis Health Care Center in Green Springs, Ohio, or a charity of the donor's choice.

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Article published November 30, 2006

Defendant gets 7 years in slaying, robbery

<span class=postbigbold>Sylvania man enters into plea agreement</span>

The Toledo Blade

The last of five defendants accused in a botched home-invasion of a Springfield Township residence that resulted in the fatal shooting of an accomplice entered into a plea agreement yesterday.

Michael Madrid, 25, of 6500 Cornwall Ct., Sylvania, was convicted in Lucas County Common Pleas Court of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated robbery.

The Alford pleas entered to each of the charges were accepted by Judge Denise Ann Dartt, who found him guilty and immediately sentenced him to seven years in prison.

In an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit guilt but pleads guilty to a lesser charge to escape more severe penalties had the case gone to trial.

The plea agreement stems from the robbery Jan. 20 at 8965 Old Airport Hwy., where an occupant shot John Reece, one of the intruders, who died later in University Medical Center.

Jose Hernandez, 25, who was convicted by a jury on Nov. 9 of murder, aggravated robbery, and aggravated burglary, is serving a sentence of 22 years to life for his role in the crimes.

William Klink and Brandon Klein, who also was shot in the gun battle, each pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and were given prison sentences of seven and 10 years, respectively.

Brian Hartford, who drove the intruders to the house, was convicted of aggravated burglary and placed on community control for four years.

The men went to the house to rob the occupants of drugs and money. After entering the residence, Reece, 29, and Klein were shot during the gun battle with the home's occupant, Joshua Bennett.

Lucas County sheriff's deputies seized more than 100 marijuana plants, lights and power supplies, and three firearms during a search of the home after the shooting.

Bennett and Joel Bixler were convicted in Common Pleas Court of illegal cultivation of marijuana and sentenced to four years of community control.