Cannabis crusader
Colfax man on a mission to spread the word about medical benefits of marijuana
By Tara Roberts, Daily News staff writer
Saturday, July 28, 2007 - Page Updated at 12:00:00 AM
Michael Adam Assenberg keeps the form authorizing him to possess marijuana for Medical purposes in Washington duct-taped to his door. It's something he wants everyone entering his apartment to see.
"I've always invited the federal marshals back to see my garden and to show that I'm doing everything legally and I'm not hurting anyone," he said. Assenberg, 47, grows marijuana in pop bottles in the bathroom of the Colfax apartment he shares with his wife, Carla, and Carla's two children.
Assenberg and his family moved to Colfax last summer. This summer, along with speaking at area Hempfests, Assenberg started an Internet radio show to share his story with the world. Assenberg is among Washington's most controversial medical marijuana patients.
He sued the Anacortes, Wash., Housing Association after a conflict over marijuana and service-animal snakes that led to his family being evected while the court cases were still in progress. Most recently, he filed suit against the federal government arguing for the national legalization of medical marijuana.
Assenberg's storybegan in 1985, when he worked as a security guardat a mining company in California. One day, after approaching two men looking around a building where dynamite wa stored, Assenberg was attackedby an assailant who hit him in the back with a baseball bat and pushed him off a bridge into the dry riverbed below.
"I crawled 2 1/2 miles, the police estimated, to the nearest guard shack," Assenberg said.
When he woke up in the hospital, a doctor told him he'd fractured nine vertebrae.
Since then, his life has been about dealing with pain. He said he currently takes 500 milligrams of oral morphine and 60 milligrams of Percocet daily, in addition to the small amount of marijuana he has room to grow. Assenberg is on Social Security and Carla is filing for it, so their income is limited and they have only been able to afford a small apartment.
Assenberg said he would not have to use as much of the other medication if he had space to grow enough marijuana to use half an ounce in a vaporizer every few days.
Assenberg has been hospitalized three times recently for severe abdominal pain, which he said was diagnosed as acute diverticulitis caused by the prescription drugs. He said doctors have told him he will soon need surgery.
"I still go into over a dozen pain convulsions a day," Assenberg said. "It makes everyday life hell for me. The only thing that makes life worthwhile is my wife and my children."
Medical marijuana is the other thing that keeps him going, Assenberg said. A friend introduced him to marijuana in 1987, and he was among the first to get a permit when Oregon passed its medical marijuana law in 1998.
The marijuana helped ease his pain, Assenberg said, but when his mother died in 2004 he felt like no one was left who cared about him. In November 2004, he stabbed himself four times with a steak knife. A huge scar snakes down his chest from the open-heart surgery that saved his life.
Assenberg found a family in April 2005 when he met Carla on the Internet. Assenberg soon moved to Anacortes, Wash., where Carla had an apartment. They were married earlier this year.
Things seemed fine in Anacortes for a while. Assenberg clicked with Carla's children, Skyler Kearney, now 13, and Christina Kearney, now 10, whom he hopes to adopt. He said he never smokes marijuana in front of the children.
In August 2005, the family received a letter from the Anacortes Housing Authority stating they had 30 days to vacate their apartment.
The letter said the family was being evicted because Assenberg kept snakes on the property. Assenberg said the snakes - one of which he still has - were service animals that help soothe the pain and heat in his back and treat his depression, and his doctor wrote a letter supporting him.
As the argument over the snakes continued, Assenberg decided it was a good time to alert the housing authority to his medical marijuana, so he presented officials with paperwork from his doctor. On Sept. 27, 2005, Assenberg received a letter from the housing authority stating he was not allowed to keep the snakes or grow his marijuana, and was told again to leave.
"I tried to find an attorney who would handle our eviction case, but no one would touch it because of the snake issue, and all the animal rights people wouldn't touch it because of the marijuana issue," Assenberg said.
He filed his own paperwork suing the housing authority and soon found a lawyer, Lonnie Davis of Seattle's Disabilities Law Project. The housing authority had the case moved to federal court, which ruled against Assenberg.
Assenberg and his wife said they were treated unfairly by being denied a jury trial.
"The state violated my rights under the Constitution and I should have been allowed a jury trial to see whether or not I was using marijuana in a legal fashion," Assenberg said.
Assenberg has appealed the ruling and sued the housing authority and the federal government for $5 million. Assenberg said if he wins, the money will go to support medical marijuana co-ops as well as toward a house and car for his family.
"The only reason I went ahead and put such a high price on it was to slap the government in the face so they'll never do this again to anyone who is suffering," he said.
The housing authority did not return calls seeking comment on the lawsuits.
As the Assenbergs await the results of their lawsuits, they are settling into their apartment in Colfax, where they moved after being evicted. So far, they love the town.
"I fell in love with this place because everybody else welcomed us with open arms," Carla said. "This is the first place that I felt that really cares about me, that really cares about my family."
Assenberg said Skyler and Christina have excelled in Colfax's school system.
Skyler said living in Colfax has been "pretty cool."
"We want to make this our family home for life," said Assenberg, who hopes they can find an affordable house in town where he has space for a marijuana grow-room.
Assenberg said many people in the community have helped his family. He applauded Colfax Police Chief Bill Hickman, who he said has been understanding of his need for the snakes and the marijuana.
Hickman said he couldn't comment much about Assenberg because of confidentiality concerns.
"We've tried helping him in every way we can," Hickman said. "I like him."
One of the first things Assenberg did when he moved to Colfax was find an area doctor to authorize his marijuana use. Dr. Janice Boughton, who works in Moscow but is certified in Washington as well, signed the paperwork Assenberg keeps on his door.
Assenberg told Boughton she could comment on his case, but she chose not to because of patient confidentiality issues.
Assenberg also has chosen Colfax as his hub for spreading his story. He recently set up an Internet radio show, accessible on his Web site, www.geocities.com/massenberg420, to tell his story and interview other marijuana and medical marijuana advocates.
One of the first people he interviewed was Holly Conrad, who goes by Holly G. and is the host and producer of marijuanaradio.com. She said she thinks Assenberg's efforts to share his story will help the marijuana and medical marijuana movements.
"I think that Adam is an amazing fighter as well," she said. "Now that he has the show, it's a really great way to get the word out."
Assenberg spoke this spring at Moscow Hempfest, and will speak at the Spokane and Olympia Hempfests this fall.
Moscow Hempfest organizer Arlene Falcon said it was good to have someone local like Assenberg talk about his marijuana experience.
She said while his story is "wild," it's also typical of someone whose medical use of marijuana was challenged.
"I support his mission in terms of promoting medical marijuana," she said. "It's important for people to know that it's not a drug like others. It's an herb."
Assenberg said he hopes to reach the world with his story, and encourages other medical marijuana users to set up their own podcasts and tell their stories.
"I want it to be more about the ... medical marijuana users who are out there suffering in silence," he said.
Tara Roberts can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 234, or by e-mail at troberts@dnews.com.
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