Local right-to-farm pot case goes to Supreme Court

After being told twice Missouri's 2014 right-to-farm amendment doesn't include her right to grow marijuana in her basement, Lisa Loesch has taken her case to the state Supreme Court.

Public Defender Justin Carver on Tuesday asked the seven-judge high court to prohibit Cole County Circuit Judge Dan Green from holding a trial in January on Loesch's 2012 indictment for violating state law by "manufacturing and producing a controlled substance."

Carver took the appeal to the Supreme Court one day after the appeals court in Kansas City declined to hear it just hours after the motion was filed.

So far, the Supreme Court hasn't accepted or rejected the case, but they did allow Loesch to file as a poor person without paying the required fees.

Cole County grand jurors in October 2012 said Loesch "knowingly manufactured and produced more than five grams of marijuana, a controlled substance, by growing, planting, cultivating, and harvesting it."

Last April, Carver asked Green to cancel the indictment, arguing Missouri's voter-approved right-to-farm amendment protected Loesch from being charged with the crime.

On Sept. 1, Green accepted Assistant Cole County Prosecutor Steven Kretzer's arguments the amendment didn't change the charge Loesch broke state law.

Green issued a 13-page judgment ruling Loesch's "argument that growing marijuana in a basement constitutes a "farming or ranching practice' goes way beyond the plain meaning of "farming or ranching practice.' ... Simply put, marijuana is not considered a part of Missouri's agriculture."

The high court hasn't set a briefing schedule or a time for oral arguments in the case.