The State of Florida’s case against Key West medical marijuana activist Joe Hart fell apart today when the judge granted Public Defender Julio Margalli’s motion to suppress all of the evidence.

He ruled that crashing through Hart’s door 15 seconds after knocking was an unnecessary violation of his rights, when the police knew that it would be impossible to dispose of 2.8 kilos of marijuana in so short a time.

Motions to suppress evidence at the beginning of a trial are a standard part of most defenses, but they are seldom granted. This unexpected ruling was just the latest – but perhaps not the last -- chapter in a very odd sequence of events.

Joe Hart, a Vietnam veteran who contracted AIDS from a contaminated blood transfusion, has been active in the medical marijuana movement since 1995. He actually ran the Medical Cannabis Advocates Club across the street from the Key West Court House for a year and a half (Key West really is different.) before it was busted in August of 1996.

On February 15, 1997, the state lost that case based on a medical necessity defense established by the late Barbara and Kenny Jenks, who also contracted AIDS via contaminated blood supplies. (Kenny was a hemophiliac and his wife contracted AIDS from him. They subsequently received legal medical marijuana from the federal government under the Compassionate IND until they died.)

A little over one month later, on March 20, 1997, Hart received an unsolicited package of marijuana in the mail from Switzerland. (The December issue of High Times has a long story about "The Swiss Hemp Traitors.") It came from the same group that sent marijuana to Jean Marlowe, and then reneged on a commitment to support her legal defense.)
See
Jean Marlowe Given Six Months Home Confinement;
To Appeal Denial Of Medical Necessity Defense  – NORML Report

By the time Hart opened the package and found that what he thought was a box of T-shirts was really contraband, the mailman was gone, but shortly thereafter a 250 pound battering ram smashed through his unlocked door.

Hart is obviously well-known in the small community. Nonetheless, he was knocked down, handcuffed and held at shotgun point. All of this is standard operating procedure in medical marijuana raids.

His small home was crowded with 25 state and federal police, including Postal Inspectors. When one of them saw an AIDS poster on the wall, Hart heard a voice say, "We’re taking this contaminated faggot down."

That, too, is standard operating procedure in medical marijuana raids. It is necessary to dehumanize medical marijuana users in order to justify using deadly force against them.

Fast forward to today. When the judge suppressed the evidence, the local prosecutors actually congratulated Hart. They may have been relieved.

For reasons that no one has ever explained, even though it involved the US mail, the case against Hart was not brought in Federal Court, but in Florida State Court, which meant that it would be tried before a Key West jury. This would certainly have been a difficult trial for prosecutors, who themselves probably know better. After all, they live in Key West, also.

Now what? Well, Hart’s case might still be federalized, if the feds can find away around the double jeopardy prohibitions, but it is probably not one that they want to try.

Florida is going to be the next major battleground for medical marijuana. The state is home to some of the most rabid prohibitionists.

"You have no idea how rabid these people are, especially McCollum," says Hart.