Mickey Mess

In the wake of a series of raids last week targeting a Tacoma medical-marijuana dispensary, a Kitsap County mother is claiming that drug cops mistreated her son, took money from her daughter, and trashed her house.

Christine Casey, patient coordinator of North End Club 420, tells the Weekly that the detectives from the West Sound Narcotics Enforcement Team (WestNet) who came to her house in Olalla (west of Vashon Island) handcuffed her 14-year-old son for two hours and put a gun to his head. They also told the kid to say good-bye to his dad, Guy Casey, because the dispensary owner was going to prison.

And as the detectives looked for cash to prove that the dispensary was illegally profiting from pot sales, Casey says, they confiscated $80 that her 9-year-old daughter had received from her family for a straight-A report card. Where did they find it?

In the girl's Mickey Mouse wallet, according to Casey. She also claims that the cops dumped out all her silverware, busted a hole in the wall, and broke appliances. She alleges too that the cops finger-wrote "I sell pot" in the dust covering the family's Hummer, which the cops then seized. (WestNet did not return repeated calls seeking comment.)

The federally funded, multi-jurisdictional task force came to Casey's home because Guy, her ex-husband, still lives on the property. A 48-year-old with arthritic knees, according to Christine, he also grows pot there, both for himself and for another medical-marijuana patient.

According to court documents filed with the Pierce County Prosecutor's Office, WestNet found $3,000 and 76 pot plants at the home (about half of which were small seedlings, Casey says). State law allows medical-marijuana patients to keep only 15 plants on hand unless they can prove a medical need for more.

The documents say the raids followed an undercover operation in which a police operative repeatedly bought marijuana at the dispensary without producing a doctor's recommendation, as state law requires before someone can legally use marijuana. The documents also say that the dispensary was charging double the street value for the pot. Casey denies those claims.

State law currently prohibits the sale of marijuana, whatever the price.