Ore. medical marijuana clinic manager convicted

A southern Oregon woman who manages a clinic that helps people obtain medical marijuana cards has been convicted on drug manufacturing and delivery charges, The Daily Courier reported Friday.
Brenda Thomas, 44, was the manager of the Hemp and Cannabis Foundation clinic in Grants Pass. The foundation, headed by longtime Portland marijuana activist Paul Stanford, has clinics in nine states, where doctors examine patients looking for state authorization to use pot to treat medical conditions.
A Josephine County jury deliberated for about an hour Thursday before convicting Thomas after a six-day trial that included testimony about medical marijuana growers regularly using the cover of providing medicine for patients to pile up hundreds of pounds of illegal weed they can sell on the black market at low risk of going to jail.
The case against Thomas began with an October 2009 traffic stop on Interstate 5 in neighboring Jackson County, where a Nevada couple was pulled over and told Oregon State Police they purchased marijuana from Thomas for $1,000.
Under Oregon's medical marijuana law, patients can have someone else grow pot for them, but growers cannot charge patients for the marijuana they produce. They can only collect for expenses, such as electricity and fertilizer.
Police later raided Thomas's home in Wilderville and seized more than 200 pounds of marijuana worth an estimated $500,000.
During the trial, defense attorney Foster Glass attacked the motives of the lead investigator in the case, Grants Pass police Detective Ray Myers, a member of the Rogue Area Drug Enforcement team and a critic of the state's medical marijuana program.
Myers is still under investigation in a complaint filed last fall claiming that, while on the job, he campaigned while against a ballot measure to legalize marijuana dispensaries.
"He has a vendetta . to try to destroy the whole medical marijuana program," Glass said in his opening statement.
Meyers denied the allegation.
"The defense tried to make this into something personal I had against the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program and that's not true,"?Myers told The Daily Courier on Friday. "The only thing I want, we want, is that people abide by the law."
Other large medical marijuana cases are pending in Josephine County, including three against men who are accused of dispensing marijuana from storefronts in Grants Pass. Myers played key roles in those busts.
Glass said he expected an appeal in the case.