75A - PH - MEDICAL MARIJUANA - PROHIBIT

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In October 1998, the feds managed to get an injunction prohibiting the Oakland co-op from dispensing marijuana. The co-op fought it all. the way to th.e Supreme Court, where it eventually lost. Jones and his lawyers are preparing a new challenge, but except for a one-month period during which the injunction was Lifted, the co-op has not handed out a dime bag since 1998. Seven thousand patients needed another supplier, anal Estes jumped in to fill the void. But he needed customers, so Trainor says Estes called a friend who worked there, This employee gave Estes the names, addresses, and phone numbers of (ive hundred patients, and Estes soon started drumming up customers- No one at the co- op knew the two had done this; certainly the patients had no idea that their confidential information was being bandied about like just another mailing list. Estes concedes he made no effort to call their doctors anal confirm their medical condition -- he just started. making deliveries to anyone with a card from the Oakland club. By the time that Estes went into business for himself, he, Trainor, and their three children had moved to a house in Concord, where he began. growing pot to supply his growing army of patients. On September 20, Concord police officer David Savage took a cal]: Estes' neighbor claimed that she could see a bumper crop of pat plants growing in his backyard. Savage stopped by and peeked over the fence. Later that afternoon, he returned with a search warrant. Savage's police report indicates that he found pot everywhere. He found roughly fifty plants in a makeshift greenhouse in the backyard. He faund an elaborate hydroponics system in the garage; behind sheets of dark plastic, dozens of plants were growing on plastic trays and. in children's swimming pools; grow lights wheeled back and forth on a track hanging from the ceiling. He found baggier of weed stuffed in desk drawers and scattered along the floor, and plants hanging in the closets. In the master bedroom, underneath a crib where one of the children slept, Savage found two garbage bags with dried marijuana in them. "None of the growing and dried marijuana was in a secure place," Savage wrote in his report. "Most of the marijuana was accessible to the children in the residence. Estes told [me] he was not concerned with the children having access to the marijuana because 'They know it is for daddy."' Estes denies leaving bags of dope near his children's cribs. But Savage didn't la~ow what to do with Estes. Estes had an Oakland co-op card certifying him. as a patient, as well. as patient records indicating lie was a legally valid caregiver. How much dope did Proposition 215 allow him to have? "They got a judge on the phone, and I talked to the judge," Estes says. "I said, 'Please don't make me pull these plants out. These are good strains with medical benefits."' In the end, the cops confiscated the plants and the gn'owing system, and ratted him out to Child Protective Services. In deference to Proposition 215, they left Estes with three plants and an ounce .for his own use. But Estes complains Savage took all the kind buds, and left him just a bag of leafy shit. Fifteen months later, the cops would be back. By then, Estes had bought some property near Clear Lake, and Trainor had moved up north with the kids, growing more dope in a shed behind the house. Meanwhile, Estes' cousin. Tim Crew had moved into the house to help him grow a crop That dwarfed his prior stash. This period marks the beginning of one of Estes' most foolish habits: keeping massive amounts of drugs and money lying around. "People told me, 'Don't put more than a certain amount in the bank, or you could get in trouble,"' he says. "We had a lot of money, and I kept it with me. I'd hide it in my closet, hide it in my suitcase. I just di.dn't want to put it in a bank." 46 75A-55