- SDPD Narcotics Detective Conrado DeCastro, ID#3954 (Chief Investigative Officer and mastermind of Operation Green Rx)
- SDPD Narcotics Detective Scott Henderson, ID#4713 (Undercover Operative who defrauded local phycisian and joined collectives listed on CA NORML)
I have lived in San Diego for over 20 years, four of which I was in the Navy. My service included 2 gulf deployments and numerous campaigns for which I was awarded medals and letters of commendation from my superiors. After being honorably discharged I completed my education earning an MBA. In addition for the last five years I have been building a successful career in software development.
After the service I developed several conditions. The symptoms I experienced as a result were unbearable, and prevented me from being able to function day to day. My ability to work, live a productive life, and complete my education, was seriously affected. I first turned to my regular doctors, who prescribed multiple pharmaceutical drugs, from which the side effects overpowered the benefits. With the use of medical cannabis I was able to find relief from my symptoms, maintain a normal life, and stay off the doctor prescribed drugs. I used cannabis to relieve the symptoms and was able to complete a Bachelors Degree in Business Management, a Masters in Business Administration, all while working full time on my career as a Software Development Project Manager for an IT company here in town.
When I began to seek access to medical cannabis in San Diego, I first found out that I had to either cultivate it myself, or go to one of three collectives/dispensaries that I found locally. At first I had no knowledge or the ability to cultivate, so I joined one of the collectives and obtained medication from there. In August of 2008 all the collectives that dispensed medication in San Diego were shut down by Local Law Enforcement. This left Orange County as the closest place for safe access. The August 2008 raids effectively eliminated all safe access in San Diego County. At this point I decided to form a collective, cultivate, and collectively distribute medical cannabis to other members of the collective at no profit.
In November of last year I received a call from a patient referring to himself as Jamie Conlan asking to join the collective in order to obtain medical cannabis. He said he suffered from multiple conditions for which his doctor recommended the use of cannabis. After calling his doctor, and verifying that he was in fact a real patient, as well as verifying that his doctor was legally licensed to practice medicine in CA, I called this patient back and explained how the collective works. He joined my collective, and I agreed to meet with him and provide him with medication. I met this patient and provided seven grams of medical cannabis to him at his house in Pacific Beach, a suburb of San Diego.
When I arrived at the house, I first verified that all the information he had provided to me over the phone matched his CA Drivers License by physically inspecting his Driver’s License. I then checked that the same information matched his Recommendation Letter and that the letter appeared to be authentic, and it did. Once I was certain all the information was correct, and that this was the same person who joined the collective over the phone, I went back to my car, got the medicine, went into the house and gave him 7 grams (1/4 of an ounce) of medical cannabis. After a brief conversation I left the house and did not hear from him again.
Three months later, on a Tuesday morning at 7am as I was getting ready for work my house was raided by an armed narcotics team from the San Diego Police Department. After being detained in handcuffs at my house in front of my wife, child, and neighbors for about seven hours, I was hauled off to jail, slapped with four felony charges and $65,000 bail related to the distribution, sales, and possession of marijuana.
The day of my arraignment, the DA’s office held a press conference where they touted the success of operation Endless Summer. (http://www.sdcda.org/files/
The evening news quickly picked up the story and that night showed video of me at the arraignment hearing, painting me as the poster child of this operation both mentioning my name and showing my picture following the description of the total number of illegal drugs seized during Operation Endless Summer. (http://www.
I am not a dangerous drug dealer, I did not possess any illegal drugs and I was operating the collective under what I truly believed was the guidance of California State Law. As a result of this press conference and charges, my personal and professional life has been permanently damaged.
The preliminary hearing in my case lasted from 8:15 in the morning until almost 4:30 in the afternoon. After trying to navigate the “Serpentine Roadmap” that makes up our medical marijuana laws with my attorney in court, it appears to be more confusing then ever.
The day started with the prosecutor fighting tooth and nail to not allow the recommendation from my physician to be admitted into the court records proving that I am a qualified patient even though we had subpoenaed the documentation from the doctor’s office, and had a sworn affidavit to support that from the doctor’s custodian of record. My recommendation was admitted although it took a lot of effort from my attorney.
The expert witness Chris Conrad, did get to testify and testified that the collective and the way that it was operating was in fact legal and sanctioned under state law. Even though the expert witness who was originally involved in an advisory and consulting capacity in drafting Prop 215 testified to what a collective is and that what I was doing did in fact fall under that definition as intended by the law, the judge did not agree he saw ‘no evidence of a collective” even though the detectives themselves said that I cultivated marijuana based on the equipment they found in my storage unit.
We also found out from Detective Conrado Decastro that this Operation Green Rx was in fact targeting Medical Marijuana Patients and the whole point with Operation Green Rx was to bring down everyone listing their collectives on NORML only later was the name changed to Operation Endless Summer. We also found out that Conrado Decastro is in charge and is the ‘mastermind’ behind “Operation Green Rx”.
On a side note: In February when I was arrested, Conrado Decastro interrogated me at the police station. During the interrogation he pulled out two large 3 inch black binders that had a large red cross and marijuana leaf on them. The two binders contained a large number of tabs with last names of people. As he pulled out the two binders, he told me that I was not alone, and that “we are gonna bring all you medical pot people down”.
Detective Scott Henderson (Jamie Conlan), conveniently ‘could not recall’ the details of the two phone conversations we had where I explained to him that this was a collective cultivation effort, and that he was not to divert the medicine to the illicit market. It was also very convenient that the detectives recorded everything except for the phone conversations even though he testified that the equipment for such recordings was readily available.
It was unbelievable to see this much resources from the practically bankrupt county of San Diego being spent on this effort. There were for example at least five bailiffs in the courtroom, the DA had at least five other people from the DA’s office advising her on how to properly prosecute this case, and they brought out three detectives to testify. All this during a Preliminary Hearing for a case where both people are qualified medical cannabis patients and one requested to join the other collective.
It seems that the San Diego Narcotics Division TOP priority has been made to investigate and shut down medical cannabis collectives in San Diego.
Here is another example from my Preliminary Hearing this Monday:
Conrado Decastro, the Investigative Officer in my case, was identified by his colleague Scott Henderson as the officer in charge of Operation Green Rx.
Conrado Decastro testified that he based his opinion of collectives and medical marijuana on training he received during his career. When questioned further about who conducted this training, he referenced a privately funded lobby group called California Narcotic Officers Association (CNOA). He also testified that during his training he received a handout which he used to base his expert testimony on, as to what a medical marijuana collective is and what constitutes qualified patient use.
Here is a brief sample from that handout:
USE OF MARIJUANA AS “MEDICINE”
Quick Facts:
Marijuana, a plant from the cannabis family, is illegal and highly psychoactive.
Marijuana and its associated compunds can seriously affect the human body.
Marijuana is NOT medicine.
Handout can be downloaded here from the CNOA California Narcotic Officers Association:
The expert testimony of Chris Conrad in my case is based on his involvement in working with the drafters of the actual Prop 215 and the law, which the judge did not agree with. However, this handout which is clearly designed to sway people into thinking that cannabis is not medicine is a valid document to base Conrado Decastro’s opinion on, which the judge did agree with.
In San Diego our Narcotics Officers are instructed that Marijuana is NOT Medicine and is highly addictive, our judges refer to medical cannabis as "dope", and the prosecutors fight with all their might to not allow legitimate patients to present subpoenaed physician records as evidence of their patient status.
The undercover footage of the actual delivery of medication to Scott Henderson (a qualified patient) can be viewed online at http://www.
Regards,
Eugene Davidovich
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