TheAgitator.com
What the Hell Is Wrong with Us?
Thursday, October 13th, 2005An Army veteran who fled to Canada to avoid prosecution for growing marijuana to treat his chronic pain was yanked from a hospital by Canadian authorities, driven to the border with a catheter still attached, and turned over to U.S. officials, his lawyer says.He then went five days with no medical treatment and only ibuprofen for the pain, attorney Douglas Hiatt said.
Steven W. Tuck, 38, was still fitted with the urinary catheter when he shuffled into federal court for a detention hearing Wednesday, Hiatt said.
“This is totally inhumane. He’s been tortured for days for no reason,” Hiatt said.
[...]
Tuck suffered debilitating injuries in the 1980s when his parachute failed to open during a jump, and those injuries were exacerbated by a car crash in 1990, Hiatt said. He said Tuck was using marijuana to treat his chronic pain.
In 2001, while he was living in McKinleyville, Calif., his marijuana operation was raided for the second time. He fled to British Columbia to avoid prosecution but asylum was denied.
Last Friday, he checked himself into a Vancouver hospital for prostate problems, and it was there that he was arrested.
Richard Cowan, a friend who runs the Web site marijuananews.com, said in a telephone interview from Canada that he was with Tuck at the hospital when Canadian authorities arrested him.
“I would not believe it unless I had seen it,” Cowan said. “They sent people in to arrest him while he was on a gurney. They took him out of the hospital in handcuffs, put him in an SUV, and drove him to the border.”
He was turned over to Whatcom County Jail officials, who called federal marshals. The marshals took him to the King County Jail in Seattle.
Jesus. Remember after Raich how federal officials told us sick patients had nothing to worry about? Yeah. Bullshit.
