Assenberg announces for sheriff

Michael Adam Assenberg, 52, of Colfax, said he believes he can do a better job than Whitman County Sheriff Brett Myers.

He announced his intention to run for the office of county sheriff, although the election is a year and a half away.

Assenberg gained notoriety when he was arrested after a May 2011 raid on his home. He was charged with violating state law by selling medical marijuana to more than one patient. But in January, he was exonerated of all charges because of a new legal interpretation.

Some of the confiscated marijuana was returned to him by the sheriff’s office in January.

“I decided to run when I saw through my court case that a lot of injustice was being done,” he said.

“I wanted to show the public that I could stand up for what is right and not cave in under pressure,” he said.

As sheriff, Assenberg, who moved to Whitman County five years ago, said he would make some changes.

“I would honor not only the exact wording of state law but, unlike our current sheriff, I would also honor the Washington State Constitution,” he said.

Assenberg said that Myers didn’t honor the state Constitution when he wouldn’t allow Assenberg to sell medicinal marijuana.

“I would see to it that every citizen in Whitman County would be protected by the state Constitution,” he said.

Assenberg said he was going by the exact wording of the law. He claims the sheriff, when he applied for the search warrant, did not tell the judge that he was a medical cannabis patient and also did not tell the judge that he had a business license or that he was only helping other legal patients one at a time.

In 1998, Washington state voters approved I-692 in order to see that patients, whose doctors felt that marijuana would help them, could have a safe place to get this drug.

Assenberg claims the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Drug Administration has superseded their authority. He said the FDA will not recognize medical marijuana, citing that marijuana has a high potential for abuse.

He also said if he is elected sheriff, he would arrest any DEA agent “trying to arrest any person operating under state law.”

Assenberg said he wants to organize a panel to talk about the sheriff’s department.

“I would set up a panel of two officers and two people from the public to review actions taken by the sheriff’s office,” Assenberg said.

“More freedom of information is being blocked,” he said. He said a bill was introduced in the Washington legislature affecting the Freedom of Information Act, that if approved, would make it more difficult to get information from the government.

He also said he wants more contact with the public.

“I would set up public meetings once a month with law enforcement and the public,” Assenberg said. “I want to talk first-hand to the public.”

Assenberg also said he is concerned with how much taxpayer money is being spent on court cases.

“Right now there is no accounting of how much of your money is spent on each case. I would change that and see that the public had a better accounting of their money,” he said.

“It’s time to keep track of what is being spent in the sheriff’s department, what is going on behind closed doors,” he said. “I want to put more money back in the crime division.”

“At a time when the poor are getting services cut and hospitals, schools and post offices are getting shut down, is it not time to hold people in office more accountable? For not only their actions but it’s also time that the people in office are more wise about how they spend your money,” he said.

“Cannabis is not my only issue, as you can see,” he said. “It’s time that we the people take back government and have it work for us once again.”

“I would never put the public in harm over what I use for medicine,” he said. “I put the public first. We have law enforcers who may be on morphine, percocet or other pain medication while still on duty. With a pill, you get one generic dosage at a given time. With cannabis, you can regulate how much you need for the level of pain you’re in. This is a fact the government likes to hide.”

Assenberg said he hasn’t had a chance to talk to Sheriff Myers.

“I want to sit down with him and have a good talk if he’s willing,” he said.

He lived most of his life in southern California before moving to the Seattle area to help his family.

Because his father had a heart attack when Assenberg was in 10th grade, he dropped out of high school. He earned a GED in the 1970s and then went to culinary and cooking schools.

He then was trained as a security officer and worked in security at a mining company in California before he was severely injured.

One day, he said he saw two people by a dynamite shack, followed them and was assaulted. He fell 15 feet onto some boulders, breaking nine vertebrae in his back. He was completely paralyzed for six months and took seven years to get off a walker.

He is on disability now. He said no one will hire him because he takes medical marijuana.

Assenberg lives with his wife and two children in Colfax.

He recently received his licenses to operate his three medical marijuana dispensaries.

“I want to really see a better Washington and if the people in every state would look at other issues that they could fix from the inside of their local government and all of us unite on these issues, just think of the force we could become,” he said.