Medical pot grower loses to robbers, cops

SEATTLE, May 27 (UPI) -- A Seattle man who reported medical marijuana stolen by four men posing as federal agents lost the rest when he reported the crime to police.

Roger Spohn said police officers spent hours chopping up his pot plants.

"It was pretty terrible," he told KOMO-TV, Seattle. "I really felt negative about it."

Spohn acknowledges he had hundreds of plants, far more than the 15 he is allowed as a medical marijuana user under Washington State law. He said the excess were for friends, because not everyone has the ability to grow marijuana, especially if they are suffering from a terminal disease.

Spohn said the robbers burst into his home, yelling "FBI, get down on the floor." He said they stole several pounds of marijuana.

Douglas Hiatt, a lawyer specializing in medical marijuana cases, said police in Seattle have recently become far more rigid about enforcing the letter of the law.

"A lot of patients that band together to grow their medicine together," Hiatt said. "So when you come into a situation like this, you're not dealing with one person's medicine; you're dealing with as many as a hundred or more."