[420 Girl]

When John David Brewster was booked on a charge of disorderly conduct, he had 13 grams of pot in his backpack — and it was completely legal because he had applied for a card under the state's medical marijuana law.

The jailers took it for safekeeping — but Brewster had trouble giving it back, as it turns out.

Springfield police acknowledged that the marijuana was rightfully Brewster's under state law, but, in an instance of the tension between state and federal laws about marijuana, they refused to give it back.

When Brewster's lawyer went to court, Springfield City Attorney Matthew Cox argued against a move to have the city return the marijuana.

Such an order would "require the City to technically commit the federal crime of delivery of a controlled substance" and require officers to violate their oath to uphold federal law, he said.

So, earlier this week, Lane County Circuit Judge Karsten Rasmussen ended the standoff: He accepted the marijuana as evidence and then directed his court clerk to hand it to Brewster.

Brewster's attorney, Misha Dunlap English, said she accepted the arrangement because doing so was in the best interest of her client.

"But Mr. Brewster should not have had to hire counsel and wait eight months to get his marijuana back," she said. Springfield "effectively evaded its responsibility regarding Oregon's Medical Marijuana Act," she said.

His lawyer says Brewster is 56 and a longtime Springfield resident who is unemployed and disabled, using marijuana to alleviate the pain. In October, he was arrested after blowing an air horn on his bicycle and cursing at an off-duty officer. His lawyer said the horn was to signal for a turn.

Smith said Brewster was taken into custody Nov. 4 when he could not post bail on the misdemeanor charge.

He also faces a misdemeanor criminal mischief charge. He's accused of causing a toilet to overflow in a second-floor holding area of Springfield's new jail, the water running through a first-floor ceiling.

He goes to trial in July.

Court records show that he has multiple convictions dating to 1983, including several drug offenses.

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