PHOTO COURTESY OF RHONDA ROBISON Kona residents John and Rhonda Robison, left, and Kealoha Wells showed their state medical marijuana permits Tuesday while inside a cage John Robison built to safeguard their marijuana plants at their home. Police arrested the three and confiscated their plants Monday.

Medical marijuana
users claim police
harassing them

The Kona patients say officers
block their legal use of the drug

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By Rod Thompson
rthompson@starbulletin.com

KAILUA-KONA >> Three Kona residents say Big Island police are blocking them from legally using marijuana for medical purposes.

Rhonda Robison, her husband, John, and their house guest Kealoha Wells were arrested Monday at their Kalaoa, North Kona, home for allegedly promoting a detrimental drug. Police seized 20 marijuana plants and 1.5 ounces of processed marijuana, Rhonda Robison said.

John Robison and Wells have leukemia, and Rhonda Robison has a form of muscular dystrophy. They have permits to use marijuana under the state law that allows medical marijuana users to have seven plants each, plus one ounce of processed marijuana each, Robison said.

Police told them there would have been no arrests if each person's supply had been separated from the others or if each plant was labeled with the owner's name, Robison said. The law does not require that, she said.

The Robisons were arrested twice before, in March and November of last year. No charges were filed then or on Monday.

Because police have seized their plants each time they start to mature, the couple has never grown usable plants, Robison said.

In November, police seized John Robison's carpentry tools because they might have been used to construct a setup to grow marijuana, and seized the couple's computer because it might have contained evidence of marijuana sales, Robison said.

The couple petitioned the Attorney General, and their property was returned about two weeks ago, Robison said.

They think the return of their property incited police. "They weren't happy with that. This makes me honestly believe we're just targeted," she said.

Kona Criminal Investigation Division Capt. Julian Shiroma denied that. "That was never our intent, and it is not our intent to seek retribution," he said.

"We responded to a report from a concerned citizen," Shiroma said. A search warrant was approved by a judge, he said.

John Robison was diagnosed 10 years ago with acute lymphocytic leukemia, his wife said. Doctors consider it a miracle he is alive, she said.

Wells was diagnosed with the same disease recently and just returned Friday from three weeks of radiation therapy, Rhonda Robison said.

A 1974 study of tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive substance in marijuana, showed it reduced tumors in three kinds of cancer, including virus-induced leukemia, she said.

However, other research, including from the University of California-Los Angeles, indicates that marijuana smoke, which includes THC and about 400 other substances, may promote cancer.

Still, John Robison attributes his long-term survival to marijuana use, his wife said.

Rhonda Robison uses it to treat Charco-Marie-Tooth disease, a form of muscular dystrophy.

When John Robison saw police outside the Robison house at 7 a.m. Monday, he said, "Here they come again to get us," Rhonda Robison said.

"You do understand we are medical marijuana users?" she asked police. They said the problem was not having plants individually labeled. Robison said she had prepared such labels but had not yet put them on the plants.

Shiroma said the search was done after consulting with the county prosecutor and the state Narcotics Enforcement Division.

State Public Safety head Ted Sakai, whose responsibilities include narcotics, said there is no requirement for separate storage or labeling of plants when more than one medical user lives in a house.

The ultimate decision on searches and arrests lie with police, he said. The police action shows a gray area in the law that needs to be clarified, he added.

During the search, Rhonda Robison said, one police officer threatened to hit the Robisons' dog with a piece of rebar. "I said, 'Look, we are cooperating,'" she said.

Police then arrested them.

"We're not violent people," she said. "We're a very Christian-based family."