Police stopped Matthew Macosko late one January night and found a small corked-bottle filled with several grams of marijuana in his car. Police returned the drugs Friday and Macosko smoked some of the marijuana in the parking lot of the South Lake Tahoe Police Department.
"The law is starting to work for me and I'm happy," Macosko said. "There's a lot of propaganda behind it making it illegal."
The 27-year-old South Lake Tahoe resident got his marijuana back because of California's Proposition 215.
The law, which passed in 1996, allows physicians to issue certificates that "ensure that seriously ill Californians have the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes." It also states that "patients and their primary caregivers who obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes upon the recommendation of a physician are not subject to criminal prosecution or sanction."
Macosko said he uses marijuana, mostly by cooking with "ganja oil and butter," to alleviate pain, an attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity.
"I use it to help stimulate my appetite and help me fall asleep and calm my nerves," he said. "I got off Ritalin. I got off Prozac. I think I have anxiety because I took all those pills when I was young. I told him (Macosko's doctor) a list of things and he didn't argue with any of them."
Macosko obtained his medicinal marijuana certificate from Dr. William S. Eidelman in Santa Monica, Calif.
The certificate, issued Oct. 20, 1999, states: "Matt Macosko is under my medical care. He reports to me that using marijuana relieves his medical symptoms. I have evaluated the medical risks and benefits of cannabis use with him as a treatment pursuant to Health and Safety Code Section 11362.5, otherwise known as the medical use of marijuana.
"If Mr. Macosko chooses to use cannabis/ marijuana therapeutically, I will continue to monitor his condition and provide advice on his progress."
Eidelman could not be reached for comment because he's on vacation.
Macosko was stopped Jan. 19 by an officer who noticed an expired registration tag on his orange Volkswagen van. They arrested him for driving under the influence, possession of less than one ounce of marijuana and driving with a suspended license.
All of the charges against Macosko were dropped except for one, driving with a suspended license. That charge was reduced to driving without holding a valid license for which Macosko was fined $400.
"I wasn't smoking when I got pulled over," he said. "I was completely sober."
The South Lake Tahoe Police officer who pulled Macosko's van over stated in his report that Macosko told him that he "had a few beers." After a search, the officer found four unopened beers behind the driver's seat and the corked-bottle containing marijuana.
The report also stated that Macosko didn't have his medicinal certificate when he was pulled over because he had left it at a friend's house.
Nearly six months after his arrest, Macosko was given his marijuana back from police after public defender Ken Bonham filed a request motion for return of property. El Dorado Superior Court Judge Jerry Lasarow approved it.
"Matt said, 'I want my medicine back,'" Bonham said. "It's the first time I've made such a motion. To the credit of the D.A. and the police department ... they, I think, did the right thing."
Assistant District Attorney Hans M. Uthe, who represented El Dorado County at the property hearing, said marijuana is contraband and not usually returned, but in Macosko's case the amount of marijuana was clearly for personal use.
"This is the first time we've had such a property order," Uthe said.
He also said that issues related to the Proposition 215, such as how much one person is allowed to grow for medicinal use, are still being debated.
"Those guidelines are still being formulated," he said. "I think there are some guidelines being considered that will help out law enforcement. Bottom line right now is that they don't exist."
Chris Elliott, head of SLEDNET a multi-agency drug task force that operates in South Shore, agreed that the law is vague.
"The law needs to be more definitive," he said. "What were finding is 25-year-old snowboarders who say they need marijuana because they have arthritis. I thought the intent of the law was more for serious illness."
Three years ago Macosko served seven months in El Dorado County Jail after he was convicted of possession of marijuana with intent to sell. Macosko said then he was growing marijuana and selling it, but didn't yet have a physician's certificate that would allow him to grow it for medicinal purposes.
Macosko still grows marijuana but he said he doesn't sell it, he shares it with people sick with cancer, epilepsy and other diseases.
"I give out about half a pound a week in food I cook" he said. "I think it needs to be taxed. There needs to be a club. I'm in the role of providing the person with what the physician recommended for him."
He said prosecutors warned him that even if he does have the right to possess marijuana he shouldn't transport it.
"They kept telling me that I shouldn't transport it," he said. "But if you're a caregiver you have to transport it. The law is very vague and you can interpret it in a lot of different ways."
Friday, after retrieving his marijuana at the South Lake Tahoe Police Station, Macosko smoked some of it and then "walked up into the mountains" to avoid getting in any trouble for transporting the drug.
Much of the information concerning his case is available at www.123hemp.org, a Web site devoted to the medicinal use of marijuana that Macosko is constructing.