[420 Girl]

A Fort Collins couple is planning to sue the city and Larimer County for more than $200,000 after police officers destroyed their 39 marijuana plants two years ago.

Last year in court, James and Lisa Masters successfully showed that city police illegally seized their plants following a raid at their home on Aug. 2, 2006. Judge James Hiatt in December ordered the city to return the seized pot plants, which by then were dead.

The couple said they use the marijuana for medicinal reasons, growing some for their personal use and dispensing the rest to other people registered under the state's medical marijuana law.

And they say that state law, enshrined in the state Constitution as Amendment 20, required the government to maintain their plants, in much the same way a dog seized as evidence would be fed and cared for.

"The Masters suffer from debilitating medical conditions that were made worse by the stress of this lengthy case," their lawyer, Rob Corry Jr., wrote in a letter to the city and county declaring plans to sue. "Their valuable medical marijuana was taken away and killed in violation of Colorado law."

City and county officials say federal law requires them to destroy the plants, or at the very least not care for them. A spokesman for Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said questions about whether agencies must care for live plants would be best answered by the Colorado Department of Public Health, which runs the state's medical marijuana registry. A CDPHE spokesman referred questions to Suthers' spokesman.

The case could end up having statewide implications, by forcing a judge to decide whether the state or federal law takes precedence.

For James Masters, however, it has much more important considerations. Lisa Masters has been hospitalized for five weeks with a life-threatening blood disorder that may be related to the fibromyalgia for which she uses marijuana. That medical care has cost the family more than $600,000, James Masters said.

"It's been a real struggle, but we're not giving up on it," he said this week. "I've committed my life to this."

The couple runs one of the city's first marijuana dispensaries, selling what they consider to be medical-grade pot for about $45 an ounce.

They used the federal government's estimates of what marijuana is worth to settle on the approximately $202,000 they are seeking, or $5,200 per plant.

City officials are set to meet in the next two weeks to determine a response to the Masters' pending lawsuit. The city could offer the couple a settlement, offer to pay the entire claim amount, or decide to fight the claim in court. Pending that decision, city officials declined to comment.

Larimer County sheriff's deputies last week seized more than 200 live marijuana plants from another local couple who said they were growing it for medicinal purposes, their second arrest in two years under the same circumstances.

Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said he had no plans to maintain the plants while the courts rule on the new case.

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