CO Police Apply Caution With Pot Arrests

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CO Police Apply Caution With Pot Arrests

Post by WhiteHotAfterburner »

Saturday, April 4, 2009
Police apply caution with pot arrests
By Mike Peters

In a marijuana bust Thursday where four people were arrested, officers from the Greeley Drug Task Force were especially careful with the marijuana charges, and the plants that were found were left in the house where they were growing.

It all happened because of recent court cases involving medical marijuana.

Arrested in Thursday’s bust were Chad Aiello, 24, his wife, Lindsey Aiello, 21, Devin Loucks, 22, and Sean Garza, 19. Apparently, they all were living at the house in east Greeley, where an undercover officer made several drug buys.

Those buys, included marijuana, small doses of OxyContin and Ecstasy tablets.

But drug task force Lt. Mark Jones said officers had to be careful because the main suspect, Chad Aiello, had a permit for medical marijuana. The search warrant also stated that during one of the buys, the suspects told the undercover officer how he could obtain a permit to have medical marijuana.

According to Lt. Jones, obtaining a medical permit isn’t that difficult. “There are doctors out there — especially in California — who give out the permits like candy,” Jones said. “There are some doctors that if you tell them you have chronic back pain, they’ll give you the permit.”

Chad Aiello apparently has a license to sell medical marijuana, although he is accused of selling to the undercover officer, who doesn’t have a license to medically use marijuana and never told the four suspects that he did. Jones said that’s how officers were able to arrest him on the dispensing charges.

To obtain a medical marijuana license in Colorado, the State Board of Health requires the signature of a medical doctor who confirms that the person has an illness that would suggest medical marijuana as a treatment.

The warrant did not show if Chad Aiello actually had a medical marijuana permit card. State laws prohibit the state from releasing the names of patients who have the permits.

Illnesses for which marijuana has been designated as a treatment include cancer, glaucoma, some types of chronic illness and an immunodeficiency virus.

A medical marijuana permit costs $90.

On the search warrant for the house, police said an undercover officer paid $80 for three OxyContin tablets and $30 for three Ecstacy tablets. The undercover officer noted in court records that the Ecstacy tablets were “100 percent pure,” which indicated they are unusually strong.

Although the price of the marijuana varied, the officer paid about $220 for one-half ounce of the marijuana.

In the basement of the house, police found a small plastic swimming pool that contained several growing marijuana plants, and grow-lights had been set up to boost the plants’ growth.

Because of cases in other cities involving the confiscation of medical marijuana, Jones said the task force decided to leave the plants in the house. “There have been cases where the police took the plants, and when they all died, the police were sued by the person who had the medical marijuana permit. We didn’t need to take the plants to prove our case, so we left them at the house.”

In addition to drug charges, Lindsey Aiello was charged with child abuse for allowing their 4-month-old baby to live in the house. The baby was turned over to Social Services.

Bonds for the foursome total $350,000, with Chad Aiello being held on the most bond, $200,000. All remain in the Weld County Jail.


http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/2 ... ile=search

Take care all,
WHAB