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Scott Day

F$%* the drug war.

That’s what I really wanted the title of this article to be.

The federal drug war has done what it does best and put another medical marijuana patient through agony, anxiety, and defeat for the few remaining months of their life.

Scott Day was an awesome guy. The picture above is from an article that was written in the Missoula Independent. I wrote about Scott and his wife Summer being arrested back in February of this year. Scott and his wife were growing medical marijuana and were raided by the police. I had the opportunity to meet Scott and Summer and they are two of the nicest people you could ever have the chance to meet.

Sadly, Scott left us yesterday. Thanks to the arrests and the federal drug war that claims the lives of hundreds of thousands of people each Scott got to worry about his impending court case and the police for the final months of his life. All because he wanted to feel some comfort from the disease that afflicted him.

Despite this devastating blow, Summer Day, is still facing the charges that stemmed from trying to take care of her late husband.

Please, join the fight and contact the county to petition to stop the prosecution of medical marijuana patients and their loved ones.

The departments for Beaverhead County in Montana where the cases are being held can be found here:
http://www.beaverheadcounty.org/html/departments.html

Of particular note is the contact information for the county attorney and his assistant. The county attorney is Jed Fitch. His email address is: jfitch@co.beaverhead.mt.us. His administrative assistant is Amy Walker. Her email address is awalker@co.beaverhead.mt.us. The physical address for contact is:

2 South Pacific Street CI. #2
Dillon MT 59725
Phone: (406)-683-4306
FAX: (406)-683-5776

Patients and Families United is a statewide Montana support group for patients who use medical marijuana, regardless of their medical condition, and for patients who suffer from pain, whether they use medical marijuana or not.

They released a statement in regards to the passing of Scott Day. It deserves to be reprinted here:

Patient Education & Support Group Calls on Beaverhead County to Drop Charges in Medical Marijuana Case

Blames Prosecutors & Drug Task Force for Contributing to Scott Day’s Untimely Death

Reeling from the news that Scott Day, a beloved member of its statewide family of patients, died unexpectedly yesterday, Montana’s medical marijuana public education and patient support group today blamed prosecutors and the local drug task force for contributing to his death – and called on Beaverhead County to drop the charges it has brought against Scott Day and his wife, Summer.

“Those of us who knew and loved him are well aware that Scott Day’s health has plummeted steadily ever since Beaverhead County began prosecuting him. His final six months of life were plagued with constant fear and anxiety thanks to the government’s unwillingness to show compassion and to comprehend the nuances of Montana’s medical marijuana law,” said Tom Daubert, founder and director of Patients & Families United.

“Scott Day suffered egregiously at the hands of his health condition, and the last thing he needed was the added, stressful burden of being a defendant facing the possible loss of his vitally needed healthcare insurance coverage. But this functional death sentence is precisely the draconian outcome that Beaverhead County prosecutors actually sought, using taxpayer dollars every step of the way on a witch hunt right out of the Dark Ages,” Daubert said.

“There is no question but that this totally unwarranted prosecution contributed mightily to Scott Day’s untimely death,” he emphasized. “Now that Scott has died, we call on the county attorney to drop his charges against Summer Day and recognize that all ongoing persecution of medical marijuana patients must cease in this state,” he said.

Daubert noted that the entire law enforcement process involved in the Scott and Summer Day case demonstrates the “colossal and continued waste of scarce taxpayer dollars used to chase, arrest and demonize suffering patients who desperately need marijuana as medicine and who just want to be left alone to tend to their private healthcare challenges.”

“Overzealous and misguided law enforcement agencies have made local, state and national taxpayers complicit parties to this debacle in Dillon,” Daubert charged, noting that all the costs of the unnecessary prosecution have been paid by Beaverhead County residents, and that costs of the drug task force’s “inexcusably faulty” investigation were borne not only by all Montana taxpayers but also in part by the entire nation, since a National Guard helicopter was employed at one point in the process.

“When Senators Baucus and Tester, and Congressman Rehberg, rushed to restore funding to drug task forces, were they told that taxpayer dollars would be used to terrorize horrendously sick patients like Scott Day, who are just trying to improve their lives under Montana’s medical marijuana law?” Daubert asked.

Daubert reported that medical marijuana patients all over Montana “are reacting to the tragic news with a fully justified combination of fury and anguish. Every one of us who has known Scott and Summer Day loves them dearly, and together we call on Beaverhead County to shut down its prosecution immediately, today.”

Scott Day suffered from muccopolysaccharidosis, a rare congenital condition that deformed his body and brought him unrelenting, constant pain and a variety of other severe conditions. He needed multiple strains of the marijuana plant to relieve his varied symptoms, and his use of medical marijuana contributed greatly to his quality of life and ability to function. The southwest Montana drug task force claims it conducted an intensive three-month investigation – at the end of which the task force still had no grounds for a search warrant, and still didn’t know that Scott was sick nor even that he was married. The task force then violated Montana trespass law to snoop on his private property without a search warrant. Beaverhead County law enforcement officials later brought multiple felony charges against Scott and his wife – charges which, if successful, could have eliminated Scott’s eligibility for the healthcare insurance that was vital to his survival.

Scott Day needed more than $40,000-worth of enzyme and other healthcare treatments every month in order to survive in the face of his rare medical condition, Daubert explained. Medical marijuana helped alleviate the suffering that these treatments couldn’t quell, he said.

“Using taxpayer dollars, Beaverhead County sought a functional death sentence for Scott Day by bringing charges that could have ended the healthcare treatments that kept him alive,” Daubert reported. “Now that their persecution worsened his health and killed him before a fair trial even began, we call upon the county attorney to stop wasting his county’s tax dollars to further torment Scott’s surviving wife. Summer Day has suffered too much already,” Daubert concluded.

Scott Day’s prosecution by Beaverhead County defied both Montana law and the expressed will of the Montana public. In 2004, Montana voters made medical marijuana legal by a vote of 62%, the largest margin of support for such a compassionate policy ever achieved in the U.S. In Beaverhead County, voters supported the measure with 55% of the vote. Today, approximately 1,080 patients in 37 Montana counties are registered as medical marijuana patients based on recommendations from more than 160 different physicians.

So please, do your part. Spread the word. Contact the county. Don’t let this happen in your own state. Don’t let the drug war claim two victims with one blow.

Misc

Reddit.com recently posted a story linking to the court docket where there was a denial of a motion to make the divorce papers of Governor Palin’s husbands business partner confidential. This was after the National Enquirer broke the story that Governor Palin was hiding an affair with one of her husband’s business partner. Unfortunately, the servers went down soon after that (reddit/digg effect). However, ilovebonnie.net got a hold of of the information. Here you go folks. This is a mirror of what was at www.courtrecords.alaska.gov today:


(larger here)

Here’s the full text from the page:

Dockets include limited information about filings and hearings that occurred before CourtView was installed in the court.

A maximum of 100 dockets will display at one time. Select the “descending” sort option to view the last 100 dockets entered. Select the “ascending” sort option to view the first 100 dockets entered. To see more dockets, adjust the date range of your search.

Docket Search

3PA-07-01581CI In the Matter of: Richter, Scott Alan and Richter, Deborah Marie

Search Criteria
Docket Desc.
Begin Date Sort
End Date Ascending
Descending
Search Results 21 Docket(s) found matching search criteria.
Docket Date Docket Text Amount Amount Due Images
09/04/2008 Order Denying Motion Case Motion #3: Motion to Make Case File Confidential 0.00 0.00
09/03/2008 Motion to Make Case File Confidential Attorney: Pro per (0100001) Scott Alan Richter (Petitioner); Case Motion #3 0.00 0.00
09/03/2008 Motion for Expedited Consideration of: Motion to Make Case File Confidential Attorney: Pro per (0100001) Case Motion #2 0.00 0.00
05/19/2008 Notice to Employer Re: Children’s Medical Insurance Deborah Marie Richter (Co-Petitioner); 0.00 0.00
05/19/2008 Cust/Spprt/Visit Modified. Case Closed. (no motion link) 0.00 0.00
05/19/2008 Order Granting Stipulation Case Motion #1: Standard Motion 0.00 0.00
04/03/2008 Stipulated Agreement for Child Support and Parenting Agreement Attorney: Pro per (0100001) Case Motion #1 0.00 0.00
04/03/2008 Case Reopened 0.00 0.00
09/18/2007 Child Support Order 0.00 0.00
09/18/2007 Decree of Dissolution Granted 0.00 0.00
09/18/2007 Shared Custody Child Support Calculation 0.00 0.00
09/18/2007 Amendment of Agreement 0.00 0.00
09/18/2007 Hearing Result: Hearing Held The following event: Dissolution Hearing w/Children scheduled for 09/18/2007 at 3:20 pm has been resulted as follows: Result: Hearing Held Judge: Zwink, David L Location: Palmer Courthouse 0.00 0.00
08/14/2007 Civil Deficiency Memo mailed re: agreement re retirement benefits and last quarterly statements of same; specifics of shared custody agreement. 0.00 0.00
08/14/2007 Hearing Set Event: Dissolution Hearing w/Children Date: 09/18/2007 Time: 3:20 pm Judge: Zwink, David L Location: Palmer Courthouse Result: Hearing Held 0.00 0.00
08/02/2007 Affidavit/Scheduling of Hearing Scott Alan Richter (Petitioner); 0.00 0.00
07/24/2007 Certificate of Completion of Viewing “Listen to the Children” Video Scott Alan Richter (Petitioner); Deborah Marie Richter (Co-Petitioner); 0.00 0.00
07/24/2007 Information Sheet 0.00 0.00
07/24/2007 VS401 Certificate of Absolute Divorce or Dissolution 0.00 0.00
07/24/2007 Proposed Child Support Order Submitted Prior to Hearing 0.00 0.00
07/24/2007 Petition for Dissolution of Marriage (With Children) Receipt: 268635 Date: 07/24/2007 150.00 0.00

I wrote a bit about the new nomination for the Vice Presidential pick right after the news broke. You can check out my other article here:

According to the CBS news blog, the McCain campaign had this to say:

““The smearing of the Palin family must end. The allegations contained on the cover of the National Enquirer insinuating that Gov. Palin had an extramarital affair are categorically false. It is a vicious lie,” said McCain senior adviser Steve Schmidt.

“The efforts of the media and tabloids to destroy this fine and accomplished public servant are a disgrace. The American people will reject it.””

The National Enquirer has been right when breaking news of affairs before. Let’s see how this one pans out.

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List

Sarah Palin has been selected by John McBushCain to be, quite possibly, the second most powerful person in the world.

Now everyone across the nation is saying to themselves: “Who is Sarah Palin?

Perhaps the second question running around is “Why is she fit to be the next Vice President of the United States of America?

Well folks, it doesn’t really seem that she is. At least not in the opinion of this blogger.

Here are 6 Good Reasons Why America Does Not Need Sarah Palin as Vice President:

  • 6. No experience with how to rebuild a nation after war.

    I would like my Presidential candidates to have some idea of what it is to be in combat, but I would like even more for my candidates to have experience or education in rebuilding a country after a war; whether it be ours or theirs. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism with a minor in politics. No combat experience. No education on the subject. The closest she comes to having experience with war is having her son enlisted. Her son, according to some, is scheduled to be deployed in September 2008. Now isn’t that just handy for the campaign of a war President?

    Oh wait, she poses for pictures with injured soldiers. I forgot she’s got experience with posing for pictures:

    Which brings me to my next point…

  • 5. Winning second place in the beauty contest means you get to collect 10 dollars.

    I don’t really think that it’s important that the Vice President of our United States won a beauty contest, whether it be Miss Alaska or Miss Teen USA. In fact, I think it detracts from how other countries view us. We go from having an idiot in the White House as President to an old war monger and a beauty pageant loser? Really? I think it’s possible that people could lose even more respect for those positions.

  • 4. She’s all about oil.

    Sure, it’s oil in Alaska. But the last thing that this country needs is another leader that has big oil signing their paychecks. Don’t believe me? Here’s her own words:

    ““We want it to happen,” she said, “Alaskans want to open up the lands for that development, for the contributions that are potential here for the rest of the US.” Palin went on to note that “it’s really a pathetic situation

    “And I have to ask lawmakers in Washington, DC, who have prohibited this drilling in ANWR if they’re doing all they can to secure the United States. When you consider, too, the geology that we’re talking about here, and the physical space that’s even needed to drill now, about a 2,000 acre plot, because of directional drilling and new technology, allowing such a small footprint to even be placed upon the tundra up north, it’s about 2,000 acres, which is smaller than the size of LAX and other big-city airports, that we would need to drill…””

    Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about removing our reliance on foreign oil, but again: we do not need another President with ties to big oil companies. I, for one, am sick of doubting the true intentions of my President (or Vice President) with every step they take.

    Besides, after she gets 3 square miles of land to drill for oil, how big is the next chunk of land she asks for going to be?

    But she doesn’t just want to drill for oil in Alaska:

    “Gov. Palin has also worked with the legislature to encourage these three big oil companies [BP, ExxonMobil, and ConocoPhillips] — and others who are not already so heavily invested in Alaska — to compete in developing a natural gas pipeline that will bring cheaper and more reliable energy to Alaska’s own consumers and eventually permit cheap export of natural gas to the Lower 48 states.” (source)

    Natural gas? Cool! I’m all for it! But assisting gas companies with anything is not something we should be focusing on right now. I know, I know. Those oil companies are really going through some tough times right now aren’t they?

  • 3. She seems to have her hands full enough already.

    Sarah Palin has 5 kids. They are 7, 13, 17, 18 and oh yea, one around 4 months. She had a baby in April that has Down syndrome. I don’t think that anyone, man or woman, young or old, has the capacity to raise a newly born child with Down syndrome, and other kids going through school (or Iraq) AND competently help run the United States of America as it is coming out of one of the most destructive Presidencies in its history. Not her, or anyone else. Please don’t take this as me saying that those with families can’t raise their kids and be extraordinarily successful, because I don’t think that’s true. I’m just saying that Vice President of the United States of America, at this point in history, is a position that requires the utmost dedication, focus, patiences and time; 4 qualities not usually found in excess for a new mother or father, let alone a new mother or father with 4 other kids already there.

    I looked around to try and find some good quotes about her being a parent and I was a bit shocked. Just when you thought we couldn’t get more “quotable” candidates in the office (for saying stupid things unfortunately) for the USA, check out this gem:

    “The Palins named their first child, a boy, Track, after the track and field season in which he was born. Sarah’s father jokingly asked what they would have named their son if he had been born during the basketball season. Without hesitating Sarah answered “Hoop.””

    Or how about this one when it comes to her being a mother:

    “It’s said the only difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull is lipstick,” she wrote. “So, with lipstick on, the gloves come off in answering administration accusations.”

  • 2. She posed for Vogue magazine.

    No, I’m not referring to the Photoshopped image that is floating around the internet. I mean she posed for Vogue magazine. Here’s what she said about the shoot:

    “”At first they had me in a bunch of furs,” she said. “Yeah, I have furs on my wall, but I don’t wear furs. I had to show them my bunny boots and my North Face clothing.””

    She just had to show them her bunny boots.

  • How can we expect countries like North Korea, China, Japan, India, Afghanistan, Iran, etc. to show us any respect on the global front if they are seeing the one of the leaders of our country plastered on a beauty magazine?

  • 1. Just 5 months ago, she could not even get her arms around or contemplate being selected for Vice President.

    From her own words in March of this year (just 5 months ago) on being selected for the Vice Presidential position:

    “I’ll tell you, I think that the possibility of this ever happening is so far out there, that it’s tough to get my arms around and even contemplate.”

    Now suddenly she is accepting the position for nomination? How about someone who was striving for the position for, I don’t know, sometime within the past year? Could they really not find a single person who wanted to be Vice President bad enough to push to be on the ticket?

    Nope. Instead they found a 44 year old beauty pageant loser with 5 kids, one of them being in the military (of course), with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in politics who used to be a television reporter, that now has a few years experience in politics for the state of Alaska, for the next Vice President of the United States of America.

    Not only that, but she has already disregarded the Vice Presidential position in government. She was caught asking a reporter to tell her:

    “…what is it exactly that the VP does every day? I’m used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration.”

    Apparently she is of the opinion that the Vice President does not work real hard in administration.

    When the reporter challenges her and says that the Vice Presidential position is a tough one she responds: “Well this is a pretty cool job here too though as governor of Alaska.” Check it out for yourself:

    Do you really want a Vice President, who was not ready for the position 5 months ago, to take on the position and think that it is a “pretty cool job?”

    At this point: it doesn’t surprise me that the Republican party could make such a stupid decision.

Those are just 6 reasons. But they are reasons enough for me. Please do not vote for John McCain for President in 2008. If McCain wasn’t bad enough, his pick for VP certainly isn’t even close to an ideal candidate either.

Bonus Reason:

  • According to screen shots taken today from Wikipedia, Sarah Palin is, in fact, the Hulkster!:

    Here’s a closer look:

    Do we really want someone, who is afraid to admit who they truly are, to be VP?

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