Court Opinion

ID: 9787856
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 00:26:18.556513+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:01.497110
License: Public Domain

SERCOMBE, J.,
concurring.
I join in the opinion and agree that the case is not justiciable in light of the state’s concession that the marijuana distributed to the cardholders cannot be retrieved. I write separately to counter the dissent’s analysis of the merits of the appeal. The question of statutory construction presented by the parties is whether “the person from whom the marijuana * * * was seized” described in the text of ORS 475.323(2) — i.e., “the person” to whom the marijuana must be returned — refers only to the person who had physical possession of the marijuana at the time of seizure or includes third persons, such as cardholders, who were not in actual possession of the marijuana but who may have a limited property interest in it. If the merits of this case were reached, I would hold that “the person” described in text of ORS 475.323(2) refers only to the person who had physical possession of the marijuana at the time of seizure. Accordingly, I would reverse the trial court’s order on the grounds that it lacked the authority to order the return of marijuana to the cardholders, irrespective of whether the district attorney made a determination not to prosecute them.
*521The dissent reasons that ORS 475.304(5) and ORS 475.309(l)(b) confer on cardholders possessory and ownership interests in the medical marijuana at a grow site and that, when read together with ORS 475.323(2), those statutes “evidence the legislature’s intent that a cardholder is among the ‘persons’ to whom seized medical marijuana could be returned under the authority granted by the statute.” 252 Or App at 531 (Edmonds, P. J., dissenting). The property interest created under ORS 475.304(5), however, is not referenced in the part of ORS 475.323(2) at issue.
ORS 475.304(5) provides:
“All usable marijuana, plants, seedlings and seeds associated with the production of marijuana for a registry identification cardholder by a person responsible for a marijuana grow site are the property of the registry identification cardholder and must be provided to the registry identification cardholder upon request.”
ORS 475.304(5) is part of a statute that establishes the marijuana grow site registration system and rules. Properly framed in that context, ORS 475.304(5) establishes, as between a cardholder and a person responsible for a grow site, that the cardholder is the owner of the medical marijuana. The statute plainly provides that the marijuana in production at a grow site “must be provided to the registry identification cardholder” by the “person responsible for a marijuana grow site.” By its terms, ORS 475.304(5) clarifies who owns the marijuana in order to grant the cardholder the right to obtain the marijuana from the grower on request. Because that statutory provision bears exclusively on the relationship between cardholder and grower, it has limited value in evaluating the obligation of a law enforcement officer to return seized marijuana under ORS 475.323(2).
ORS 475.309(1)(b) is even less material to the analysis. ORS 475.309(1) provides:
“Except as provided in ORS 475.316, 475.320 and 475.342, a person engaged in or assisting in the medical use of marijuana is excepted from the criminal laws of the state for possession, delivery or production of marijuana, aiding and abetting another in the possession, delivery or production of marijuana or any other criminal offense in which *522possession, delivery or production of marijuana is an element if the following conditions have been satisfied:
“(a) The person holds a registry identification card issued pursuant to this section, has applied for a registry identification card pursuant to subsection (9) of this section, is the designated primary caregiver of the cardholder or applicant, or is the person responsible for a marijuana grow site that is producing marijuana for the cardholder and is registered under ORS 475.304; and
“(b) The person who has a debilitating medical condition, the person’s primary caregiver and the person responsible for a marijuana grow site that is producing marijuana for the cardholder and is registered under ORS 475.304 are collectively in possession of, delivering or producing marijuana for medical use in amounts allowed under ORS 475.320.”
ORS 475.309(l)(b) is but one condition that must be met in order for a person to be excepted from the criminal laws of this state that pertain to marijuana offenses. In essence, that subsection requires the person who has a debilitating medical condition, the person’s primary caregiver, and the person responsible for a marijuana grow site to be collectively in possession of, delivering, or producing medical marijuana in order to qualify for immunity from criminal prosecution. That subsection does not affirmatively confer on a cardholder a possessory interest in the marijuana as the dissent suggests. See 232 Or App at 531 (Edmonds, P. J., dissenting).
Because I do not find the text of either ORS 475.304(5) or ORS 475.309(1)(b) to be helpful in the statutory construction of ORS 475.323(2), I would begin and end the analysis of ORS 475.323(2) with that provision’s plain text. ORS 475.323(2) provides:
“Any property interest possessed, owned or used in connection with the medical use of marijuana or acts incidental to the medical use of marijuana that has been seized by state or local law enforcement officers may not be harmed, neglected, injured or destroyed while in the possession of any law enforcement agency. A law enforcement agency has no responsibility to maintain live marijuana plants lawfully seized. No such property interest may be forfeited under any provision of law providing for the forfeiture of *523property other than as a sentence imposed after conviction of a criminal offense. Usable marijuana and paraphernalia used to administer marijuana that was seized by any law enforcement office shall be returned immediately upon a determination by the district attorney in whose county the property was seized, or the district attorney’s designee, that the person from whom the marijuana or paraphernalia used to administer marijuana was seized is entitled to the protections contained in ORS 475.300 to 475.346. The determination may be evidenced, for example, by a decision not to prosecute, the dismissal of charges or acquittal.”
(Emphasis added.)
First, it is worth noting that the highlighted text does not explicitly refer to whom the marijuana shall be returned — the verb “returned” is not followed by an object. But the plain meaning of “return” includes “to pass back to an earlier possessor” and “to bring, send, or put (a person or thing) back to or in a former position.” Webster’s Third New Int’l Dictionary 1941 (unabridged ed 2002). The marijuana, in this sense, can only be “returned” to a person who formerly had physical possession of the plants. When marijuana is seized from a grower, as here, the cardholders never had physical possession of the usable marijuana, and the plants cannot be “returned” to them.
Second, the only other indication in the statutory text as to the identity of the intended recipient of the returned marijuana lies in the statutory condition that the marijuana shall be returned on a determination by the district attorney that “the person from whom the marijuana * * * was seized” is entitled to the protections of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act (OMMA). On its face, the statute allows a return of seized marijuana if the person from whom the marijuana is seized is in compliance with the OMMA, as shown by district attorney action on any charges brought (“for example, by a decision not to prosecute, the dismissal of charges or acquittal, ORS 475.323(2)”). I would therefore infer from that condition that the legislature intended the marijuana be returned to “the person from whom [it] * * * was seized.” See id.
*524The legislature, in enacting ORS 475.323(2), chose to use the words “the person from whom the marijuana * * * was seized,” rather than the words “a person” or “any person.” By using the definitive article “the,” rather than an indefinite article, the legislature has indicated its intent that the obligation of a law enforcement officer to return seized marijuana extends only to one person. Put another way, the text of the statute suggests that marijuana is seized only from one person, the particular person who had physical possession of the marijuana at the time of seizure and not any one of a number of persons who might have separate legal interests in the marijuana. Here, the particular person who had physical possession of the marijuana at the time of seizure was defendant.
Finally, the construction of ORS 475.323(2) advanced by the dissent is incomplete. The dissent does not analyze whether the statute requires that the district attorney decide if all persons with an interest in the seized marijuana are entitled to the protections of the OMMA in order to return the seized property. If “the person from whom the marijuana * * * was seized” means any number of persons, as construed by the dissent, see 232 Or App at 531 (Edmonds, P. J., dissenting), then how would a district attorney determine the existence of an entitlement “to the protections contained in ORS 475.300 to 475.346” when that determination differed for each person? If the marijuana was seized both from a grower who grew more crop than allowed under the OMMA and from a cardholder who operated consistently with the law, then one person from whom the marijuana was seized, the cardholder, would be “entitled to the protections contained in [the OMMA],” but another person from whom the marijuana was seized, the grower, would not be so entitled. The dissent assumes that the marijuana can be returned to any person with a property interest in the marijuana who complies with the law, even though the district attorney can also make a determination in that instance that a “person from whom the marijuana * * * was seized is [not] entitled to the protections contained in [the OMMA].” In my view, if “the person” means many persons, the statute should be construed to require the district attorney to make the entitlement determinations as to all persons with an interest in the marijuana.
*525Therefore, I would conclude that the trial court’s authority to order the return of the seized marijuana was limited only to ordering the return of the marijuana to defendant, if the district attorney had determined that defendant was entitled to the protections of the OMMA. Because the court had no authority under ORS 475.323(2) to order the return of the marijuana to the cardholders, I would hold that it erred in doing so.
For the reasons expressed above, if I were to reach the merits of this case, I would concur in the result reached by the dissent, but not in its reasoning.