MarijuanaNews.com : Steve Tuck Now “Free” and Getting Proper Medical Care. Will Return to Humboldt to Confront Medical Marijuana Cultivation Charges. The Many Issues In a Complex Case.

Analysis by Richard Cowan
Posted October 14, 2005
For a summary of events from the last week, see

Steve Tuck Released From Custody To Get Medical Care. Must Report To Humboldt to
Face Charges for Growing Medical Cannabis After He Gets Out of the Hospital. His
Health Has Been Badly Damaged.
and links

Steve Tuck’s resilience is astonishing. When I talked
with him this morning, he was still physically weak from his ordeal, but his
spirit is very strong.

After being released from the Seattle jail last night,
he was taken to the hospital and finally given proper pain medication. He did
not have to stay overnight, but he had to go back today for more tests and
X-rays, MRIs, etc., so the doctors can decide on the proper course of treatment
for his numerous medical problems. These problems were greatly aggravated by the
abuse and neglect of the last week – and the last four years.

As soon as his health permits, he has to return to
Humboldt County to confront charges for growing medical cannabis there, but now
we can deal with all of the issues raised by his case, and they are numerous and
complex. Below is a summary of the issues and links to provide background
information on them.

The most immediate issue is relatively simple, medical
abuse and neglect in two countries:

How could Canadian officials take a man from an ER
gurney and turn him over to the US, when they had been repeatedly warned about
what would happen?

How is it that an American citizen and disabled veteran in Steve’s condition,
which is immediately obvious, could be deprived of proper medical care and
forced to endure incredible pain for a week?

Remember that Steve has not been convicted of any crime
on either side of the border. Many people in jail are there simply awaiting
trial because they lack the resources and education to defend themselves.
See

Prohibition and The Prison State. “Protecting” Youth and Minorities. In DEAland,
The UK and France Prisons Are Full.

Everyone needs to understand that the undertreatment of
pain is one of the consequences of the Drugwar, but prisoners are the most
vulnerable to this abuse.
See

Georgia Quadriplegic Sentenced To 7-Year Prison Sentence Now Faces Up To 10 More
Years In Prison After Indictment For Possession Of 36 Grams Of Marijuana.

and

Judicial Murder: Quadriplegic Dies In DC Jail. Compassionate Conservatism At
Work? Michigan MS Patient May Get Mercy, If It Does Not Threaten Drug War. Three
Stories. Infinite Insanity.
and more articles on pain below at the bottom of the page.

Why was Steve not even given antibiotics for his urinary
tract infection?

The Associated Press has been reporting on Steve’s
ordeal, and they managed to get some interesting comments from officials on both
sides of the border.

From the Seattle jail: “For privacy reasons, Jail
Capt. Roberta Johnson declined to comment on the treatment Tuck received, but
she noted the jail has health staff on duty 24 hours a day.”

Is that supposed to be reassuring? In other words, their
“health staff” has no excuse. It is also nice to know that medical neglect of
prisoners is not the policy there.

The AP also reported, “King
County Executive Ron Sims said Thursday he was unaware of Tuck’s case, but that
he would expect a prisoner who came into the jail with a catheter to have it
examined and removed or changed as necessary.”

One assumes that Tuck’s “treatment” did not meet his
expectations.

And the AP reports the line from Canada: “A Canadian
Border Services Agency spokeswoman in Vancouver said she could not specifically
discuss Tuck’s arrest, but that agents always obtain a doctor’s permission
before deporting someone with an obvious medical condition.

“We’re not doctors. We rely
on doctors and their advice about whether someone is OK to be removed,” said the
spokeswoman, Janis Fergusson.

Tuck said the agents did follow that procedure.

“They went in there doctor-shopping till they found a
doctor who said I could go,” Tuck said. “I saw them go around to three or four
doctors asking them.”

Oh, yes, I am sure that CBSA and Immigration Canada
always follow procedures. They always go through the motions. They use all the
right forms. However, I can easily document the incompetence and dishonesty with
which they follow their procedures.
See

Steve Tuck’s Appeal to Canada. His Life and A Country’s Honor Hang In The
Balance.
and

Tuck Refugee Hearings End. The Facts Put Canada In Awkward Position. Catching A
Nark In A Lie? Imagine That! News and Analysis by Richard Cowan.

It will also be interesting to find out what the doctor thought he or she
was doing… and we will find out.

Did they simply ask if Steve could survive a one hour
car trip?

Or did they inform him that he was being taken where
they could not be assured that he would receive proper medical care?

Had the doctor even examined Steve? What was the hurry
about getting him out of Canada?

If they had just waited until Tuesday morning, as we
urged, it might have been possible to avoid what happened. In fact, by taking
him to the border on a Friday afternoon before a long holiday, they maximized
the risk of what predictably happened. And we did predict it.

Ironically, the Globe and Mail, one of Canada’s two
national newspapers has a front page article today reporting, “Amnesty scolds
Canada over rights. Ottawa criticized for attempting to deport people to
countries where they risk torture.”
It seems that AI is accusing Canada of ignoring its
international legal obligations.

Excerpted from the Globe and Mail:
“International law is very clear . . . the
international legal protection against torture, including removal to face
torture, is absolute and applies in all circumstances, and Canadian law and
practice must be reformed accordingly,” Amnesty says…

Amnesty says the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights obliges Canada to refuse to
send people to countries where they face serious risk of torture…

Amnesty also says the federal government should
implement an independent review process for people who claim they are refugees
but are turned down in the first instance. Refugee and immigration laws were
amended three years ago to establish a new appeal process, but the government
has not brought that portion of the law into force.”

That provision could have made an enormous difference to
Steve. Why is it that IC is stalling on this part of the law?

And while we are addressing failures to protect human
rights, why has Amnesty International generally ignored the Drugwar as a major
source of human rights violations in both advanced and developing countries??
Until AI stops playing it safe and starts addressing drugwar crimes, I simply
cannot take it too seriously.

In short, Steve’s ordeal is an international scandal
that is not going away.

As Steve told me in our first
phone conversation after he was released: “We have a new cause, the medical
abuse of prisoners. There are people in there in even worse shape than I am in
and suffering even more pain, and they don’t have anyone who cares about them.”

See

Program Notes for Pot-TV’s The MarijuanaNews World Report for April 12, 2005 The
New York Times Discovers Mexico… Drug Czar Pushes Reefer Madness As Teen Meth
Use Surges. Texas and Canadian Prisons
and

The Patriot Act Hits A New Low As The Prison/Probation/Parole Population Hits A
New High.
and

Abuse In Prisons: Iraqi and American. Bush says, “That is not the way we do
things in America.” No, That Is Exactly The Way We Do Things in America!
Especially In Texas and Florida.

Even in such horrible circumstances he was thinking of
others. Steve and all the other
prisoners with medical problems have been subjected to torture as surely as if
they had been in any medieval dungeon or modern third world hellhole. Indeed,
torturers usually stop, but the untreated agony of injuries and illness never
ends.

On the other hand, Steve also
emphasized that he was treated very well by the U.S. Marshals. He said that they
were all very professional and did everything he could to help him, and he might
not have survived without their help. We should never forget that we are not at
war with the police, just the narks, and even some of them know that the war on
cannabis is a murderous fraud that is undermining effective law enforcement.

The other questions for Canada:

How can Canada reconcile taking a large quantity of
cannabis seeds from Steve and then send him back to the US to be prosecuted for
the act that produced the seeds?
See

Tuck Refugee Hearings Begin. Canadian Government Brings In Heavy Artillery, Who
Quickly Learn More Than They Wanted to Know. And I Play “Lawyer.” Special Report
to MarijuanaNews by Richard Cowan

Why has Health Canada stalled on providing a real
medical cannabis program?
See

Faux Canada! Phony Decrim Bill Dead Until Next Parliament. Phony Medical
Cannabis Program Still Ignores Courts. Collaboration With DEA Puts American
Medical Users in Danger, But No Asylum.

Why did the Squamish RCMP conspire with the DEA to
kidnap Steve in 2004?
See

Documenting The Role of Politicized Canadian Police In Maintaining Cannabis
Prohibition. Canadian Narks Versus Canadian Freedom. Following the DEA Party
Line. The Battle for Canada

How did the RCMP/DEA corrupt the Pre-Removal Risk
Assessment process by lying to the CBSA about Steve having been arrested for
growing in Squamish?
(Steve was never charged with a crime in Canada.)

Why was Immigration Canada allowed to block an official
medical examination of Steve and then claim that he had failed to prove that he
needed cannabis?

What was the rush to get Steve out of Canada when truly
dangerous people and even war criminals are allowed to stay for years?

Why is Immigration Canada still trying to send Steve
Kubby back to DEAland after the leading cancer specialist in BC testified he
will die without cannabis?

If the US won’t allow Steve Tuck to take morphine – or
even give him antibiotics for a week, what does Canada think will happen to
Steve Kubby? Or Michelle Rainey?
See
Placer
County, Still Murderous After All These Years. Kubbys Find Secret “Death
Warrant” Signed by Disqualified Judge. Key To Canadian Refuge, If Not Justice In
California.
and

The Paupers of Pot and the Politics of Cannabis Prohibition In Canada. The Other
Cases Raise Questions That Canada Must Answer. Will Canada Murder Michelle
Rainey?

Will Canada recognize that it violated Steve’s rights
and allow him to return to Canada after he has dealt with the medical marijuana
cultivation charges in order to develop a major mining project?

And just two more questions for the US:

Why is law enforcement allowed
to lie to the people and break the law?
See

Selective Enforcement Versus Selective Compliance – 2 Articles
and

The Crisis in Democracy, Prohibitionism And The Police Fiasco. Why Will It Work
In Iraq, If It Does Not Work In DEAland?
and

Science, Democracy, Ideology and the Prohibitionist Police State. Marijuana Use
Doesn’t Hurt “Thinking Skills” But Prohibition Does. Analysis by Richard Cowan

and

The Police Fraud. Someone Is Lying. Marking The 30th Anniversary Of An Article
in National Review. What if Don Quixote Was Right? Analysis by Richard Cowan