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<H1><FONT face="Times New Roman">Go ahead, bust me</FONT></H1>
<H2><FONT face="Times New Roman">Whitman County pot grower, user and supplier is
just jonesing for his day in a courtroom</FONT></H2>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">By [author]David Johnson[/author] of the
[org]Tribune[/org]<BR>May 17, 2011</FONT></P>
<P><BR><FONT face="Times New Roman">COLFAX - Less than two weeks after a drug
raid at his home netted 82 marijuana plants, Michael Adam Assenberg vowed Monday
to continue lighting up, growing pot plants in his basement and delivering
medicinal cannabis products throughout Whitman County.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">"I'm tired of all the ripoffs patients have to
go through," said the 51-year-old Assenberg. "So I decided to open up Compassion
4 Patients, and it really is about the compassion."</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">For the past four months, Assenberg said he's
been harvesting his cannabis crop, converting it into smokable and edible
medicines and using a 35-year-old ambulance to deliver products to upward of
nine patients.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">"It's very easy to find out what I'm doing
because I went on Craigslist and various newspapers and such," Assenberg said.
"I have advertised that I'm out there to help patients."</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">In accordance with medical marijuana laws,
Assenberg said he doesn't turn a profit and he makes sure those who buy his
products have been cleared by a doctor.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">"I'm tired of seeing patients like myself hurt,"
said Assenberg, explaining he suffers chronic pain after breaking his back in
nine places 26 years ago. "I'm tired of seeing patients like myself being sold
moldy medicine or medicine that's been sprayed down so it weighs more and people
can make more money on it."</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">But authorities are apparently tired of
Assenberg's overt actions. Members of the Quad Cities Drug Task Force recently
served a warrant at Assenberg's home here and seized 82 pot plants as well as
other evidence. Whitman County Sheriff Brett Myers confirmed felony charges of
manufacturing and delivering marijuana will be filed, perhaps by the end of this
week.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">Assenberg said he's retained a Spokane attorney
and he welcomes his day in court. "They know that if I ever get in front of a
jury with my argument, I'm going to win hands down," he said, describing medical
marijuana laws as vague at best and geared to perpetuate myths about cannabis
use. "So let's go ahead and bring it to a criminal trial where I am forced to
have a jury."</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">Myers said Assenberg may indeed get his wish. "I
think the case speaks for itself," the sheriff said, adding medical marijuana
laws have legal parameters and users must "go by the book." A spokesperson at
the office of Whitman County Prosecutor Denis Tracy said the case is still under
investigation.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">Meanwhile, Assenberg said he's already received
new marijuana plants from legal patients and his growing operation has resumed.
"I'm going to really go after them in court on this. When they raided my house,
they destroyed everything I had in my clone machine. I can no longer replicate
the exact strains I was growing before. They killed everything in my vegetation
room."</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">Assenberg said authorities left 15 plants for
which his wife, Carla, 47, who has been medically cleared to use cannabis for
treatment of fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, stress and arthritis. But
all his personal medicinal cannabis was seized, he said.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">"That's where the law needs to be clarified. How
is it that we can have a law that you are allowed a medicine, but yet there is
nothing in place where you're able to acquire that medicine without breaking the
law."</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">Police, Assenberg said, arrested him prior to
the raid while he was driving and asked him how many pounds of marijuana and how
many thousands of dollars they were going find at his house. "When they did the
raid, I had less than 4 ounces in the whole house of usable medicine," Assenberg
said.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">More important than the specifics of the raid,
Assenberg said, is the debate about medical marijuana laws and how they are or
are not enforced. "I'm daring them to take a look at what Congress said has to
meet the guidelines for a schedule one narcotic," he said. "And then I'm daring
them to show how the FDA has lied to the public so the pharmaceutical industry
and the law enforcement industry could keep making profits on this."</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">He said he welcomes becoming a test case so the
courts can finally make corrective rulings. "The simple fact is the FDA and the
DEA and police departments want to keep this a crime," he said, adding
government continues to perpetrate lies about cannabis.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">"That way they can go ahead and continue to make
money off the pharmaceutical complex, and also off the prison industrial
complex," Assenberg said. "What they're doing is creating a organization to
where we now have criminals behind badges who can steal legally from
you."</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">Assenberg insisted his biggest goal is to help
patients in need. He has a website called Compassion 4 Patients and Adams
Incredible Medables that advertises medical foods like Scooby Snacks, fudge and
Gummy Bears. There are also flavored tinctures and smokables with names like
Jack the Ripper, High Plains Drifter and Sweet Lavender Diesel.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">"I have never been a dope dealer. I'm just
making sure patients get their medicine," Assenberg said. "I'm replanting my
garden and in four to five months I'll be back helping patients again. I want
this argument to finally be made in a court of law so people don't have to
suffer."</FONT></P>
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