Save Bernie's Farm

[TotallyOz]

On August 28, 2002, Bernie Ellis’s farm was raided by the Tennessee Marijuana Eradication Task Force, a force that included both state and federal law enforcement officers. During the ten hours the Task Force was on Bernie’s farm, two helicopters and ten ground troops combed his land, searched his home and out-buildings and confiscated farm supplies, files from his work as a public health consultant and his computer. The Task Force found a small amount of cannabis in Bernie’s home, 20-25 plants that were four to six feet tall and a number of small “clones” (under 12 inches tall) – all ready to harvest. To their surprise, they also found a proposal solicited by the New Mexico Governor’s Office for Bernie to help that state establish and operate a state-operated medical cannabis production facility.

From the outset, Bernie cooperated with the Task Force officers and answered their questions about why he was growing cannabis. At the time of the raid, Bernie was using cannabis himself for pain associated with degenerative joint disease and pain and sleep disturbance associated with fibromyalgia. He was also providing free cannabis to four very sick people – three of whom were dead within months of the raid. Bernie admitted that he had been providing free cannabis to sick and dying people for many years, beginning when he helped establish the Tennessee AIDS Program for the Tennessee Department of Health in the late 1980s.

At the conclusion of the raid, the Task Force leaders chose not to arrest Bernie. They assured him that he would be able to retrieve his computer within a matter of days so that his work as a public health epidemiologist would not be disrupted. He was also told that the Task Force had found enough plants to place him within the existing guidelines for federal prosecution. Neither of those statements turned out to be true.

The Charges

For the three months following the raid, Bernie was not charged with any crime. However, in November, 2002, Bernie was informed by his first attorney (a local lawyer recommended by one of the cancer patients that Bernie was helping) that the federal government had asked for the case because of the large reported plant count, which by that time both the government and Bernie’s first attorney knew to be inflated -- but information they did not share with Bernie. He was informed that the federal government intended to charge him with manufacturing 100 or more cannabis plants – a charge that brought with it a mandatory minimum five year sentence. He was also informed that the federal government planned to file a separate “civil asset forfeiture” case against him in order to confiscate his 187 acre farm, a farm that had been Bernie’s home for almost four decades.

http://saveberniesfarm.com/case/index.html

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