A few days before Christmas, Tom Cadamagnani decided to help a friend who was down on her luck. The former Marine and his friend jumped in his truck and headed for the Salvation Army to get some presents for her grandkids.
They never got there.
A Tucson police officer stopped Cadamagnani, 50, on Dec. 20 for a minor registration glitch, saw a pipe in his truck, and cited the medical-marijuana patient for an expired registration, DUI and possession of drug paraphernalia. The expired registration was a record-keeping glitch that has since been cleared up, Cadamagnani said.
He admitted smoking one hit of MMJ—more than six hours before he was pulled over. He said he failed a field-sobriety test because he has a detached meniscus and torn ligaments in his knee—the exact reason he has the MMJ card in the first place. He is awaiting a knee replacement and uses MMJ in lieu of painkillers that were attacking his liver.
I spoke with Tucson Police Department Sgt. Maria Hawke about department policies.
There was no mention of an MMJ card, which Cadamagnani said he presented, in Officer David Danielson’s report. The TPD procedure for such cases is clear, said Hawke: When a medical-marijuana patient presents a card, the arresting officer is to call the TPD records section to confirm the information.
“If the officer failed to include it in his report, or didn’t follow procedures as far as verifying it, then that would be dealt with internally,” she said.
If Cadamagnani presented an MMJ card, then the pipe charge was not appropriate, Hawke said.
Cadamagnani wonders why Officer Danielson even ran his license plate. The tags were current, and the officer’s report mentions no moving violation or other illegal traffic moves.
“He called it a random registration check. I thought I was completely legal,” Cadamagnani said.
He tells this tale: The trouble started when Danielson walked up to the car, and Cadamagnani was opening the door to talk, because his window doesn’t work. The officer tersely told him to stay in the car, and immediately asked if Cadamagnani had just come from buying meth, had been using meth, or had any in the car. Danielson then asked if he could search the car. Only then did he ask for a driver’s license, which Cadamagnani gave him.
Then, Cadamagnani, whose father had died a month earlier, started to tear up. He’s broke; it’s Christmas; his dad just died; and now he is getting a ticket for a pipe he thought was legal because of his MMJ card.
“Then all of a sudden, because I was crying, (the officer) says, ‘Is something wrong with you, sir? Have you been drinking?'” Cadamagnani said.
In a report written after the incident, Danielson relates his suspicion. Cadamagnani got upset and pleaded with the officer not to give him a ticket. “Thomas appeared to be very jumpy which made me feel either he was under the influence of something or hiding something in the vehicle that he did not want me to find,” Danielson wrote.
Fearing the situation could escalate, Danielson called for a backup officer. A second officer arrived and waited with Cadamagnani while Danielson wrote the citations in his squad car. From the car, Danielson again noted Cadamagnani was crying in his truck.
“I felt he could possibly be under the influence of unknown substance due him (sic) having an un-normal (sic) behavior,” Danielson wrote in the report.
Then the officer told Cadamagnani that if he refused a field-sobriety test, he would take him to jail.
“So I thought I would try,” he said. He failed.
Since December, Cadamagnani has been waiting for results of a blood test. His public defender, Cynthia Richardson, has so far declined her client’s requests to ask for a dismissal of the case. He thinks he was targeted and harassed because he fit a stereotypical tweaker profile—a white guy with a shaved head in a beater vehicle.
There are always two sides, and I haven’t heard the entire TPD side. All I have are police reports and breath tests showing a 0.00 blood-alcohol level. It seems like Officer Danielson overreacted. No, the MMJ statute doesn’t protect patients from arrest for paraphernalia. No, the paraphernalia statute doesn’t make an exception for MMJ patients, even though Hawke said the charge may not have been appropriate.
Police officers use discretion every day, and this looks like a case of poor discretion.
This article appears in Mar 22-28, 2012.
This is confusing on why this even on the Radar of your broadcasting. If you are under the influence while driving, it’s irrelevant if it’s illegal or legal for him to smoke it. The fact remains he is not allowed to drive under any influence. Medical doesn’t reduce the factor that he is endangering the public while he is driving. The police officers job is to protect the public and prevent accidents and what could result to a death; his own safety and others.
If it’s in his car sitting there then it gives the judgement that he is willing to do this while driving. The intent is considered. Why not stick it in a bag in the trunk? Why even have it out in public? I have to tell you this issue SMELLS. I can think of a million things you guys could have chose to write about, perhaps maybe even when you had the 2nd side of the story not someone who “Feels” like he is the victim here. The laws are set for a reason, not for excuses, but to follow since it has created problems in the past. We all know the law, now he pays the consequences. Can’t see the problem with that.
i can emphasize with toms plight.loss of a loved one can cloud judgement,and induce intense emotion.my mother passed i was in the same state of mind.it is a poor law to legalize medical marijuana and no way to legally smoke it.similar to making shot glasses illegal.this issue stinks with police state mental about legal MM.profiling and pull over for nothing except the police do not like your looks?or when his plates were ran,did it show he was a mmj card holder?plate checks now reveal mass personal information the police will not share with you until they can find a reason to use it against you.some info example: they know how much you owe on cars,houses,if you possess a ccw permit and other financial infomation.do i understand T.P.D has a record i am a card holder?so much for medical privacy.do they check painkiller perscription patients?no they do not need a card.the war on drugs is alive and well,as is the corruption that goes hand-in-hand.private prisons are coming to the rescue.they will save the state lots of money,as long as the prisons maintain 90% capacity.[fact]the medical marijuana issue is pesky to these corporate masters[thugs].after all we all know the biggest prison industry in the world,whose population is 70% non-violent,convicted of victimless drug crimes.and the majority are minorities.now that does not just smell.IT STINKS.
This is a very sad story, it sounds like the police didn’t have anything else to do but harass this guy.
Most people are on one kind of drug or another, it doesn’t say it’s against the law to dive on medication, what it says is know your limitations on operating equipment and it may make you dizzy etc.
If drug companies were made to say it’s against the law to operate equipment, do you think they would do it? No, they have lobbyists to keep it off the bottles.
You got this wrong:
No, the MMJ statute doesn’t protect patients from arrest for paraphernalia.
36-2801 9. “Medical use” means the acquisition, possession, cultivation, manufacture, use, administration, delivery, transfer or transportation of marijuana or paraphernalia relating to the administration of marijuana to treat or alleviate a registered qualifying patient’s debilitating medical condition or symptoms associated with the patient’s debilitating medical condition.