It all started 16 months ago when the Masters' received a knock on the door from the Fort Collins Police Department.

In early August, 2006, the Masters home was raided by police after child welfare investigators saw marijuana growing in the home.

James Masters surveys the damage as Lawyer Robert Corry looks on

A rapid chain of events were executed and in no time at all, Mr & Mrs Masters had been arrested and charged with growing marijuana, and conspiring to distribute a narcotic (Schedule 1) substance. Serious charges, and certainly serious enough for the children of Lisa and James, to be removed from the family home and taken into social care.

Soon afterwards a judge found in favor of the Masters', deciding the actions of the Fort Collins PD "illegal".

He also ordered FCPD to return the growing equipment seized during the raid.

And on Monday December 3rd, James and Lisa Masters collected the dead plants, and the broken growing equipment which the police had siezed illegally.

Broken and dead the returned booty may be, but for the people of Colorado it was history in the writing.

 “This is indeed historic,” said Robert Corry, a lawyer for the couple. “It’s a beautiful day for medical marijuana.”

Meanwhile, in the UK and Warwick Crown Court was hearing the case of Rugby resident Mr Roderick Cotton.

In August 07, Police found 250 cannabis plants growing at Mr Cotton's address and just a week before he appeared in court police found yet more plants at his home.

Judge Marten Coates told Cotton: "I know you have a personal crusade, but you waste so much public time and money achieving nothing. "I am not without sympathy for your point of view."

"Indeed I was tempted not to send you to prison, but you have ruined that."

This, after Cotton told Warwick Crown Court that he would not stop his campaign to help people with medical conditions, which made it difficult or impossible for them to grow their own medical marijuana.

Mr Cotton understood how the law stood, but he would not stop growing medical cannabis as his care-group were reliant on him.

Jailing him, Judge Coates said: "Mr. Cotton has a previous conviction for producing cannabis at his home, and here we are again.

"I have asked if he will give an undertaking never to commit this kind of offence again and he cannot give that undertaking." "Therefore I cannot pass a non-custodial sentence."

Cotton received a 12-month jail sentence and is planning to take his case to the Court of Appeal.

So in Colorado, you can collect your "marijuana" from the local police department, but in the land which is America's closest ally, doing the same thing (growing cannabis for people to use as a pain reliever) is enough to get you one full year in prison.

Where's the sense?

Where's the justice?

http://cannazine.co.uk