A Missouri man with stage 4 pancreatic cancer says his rights were violated when police searched his hospital room after they suspected he might have marijuana.
Last week, officers confronted Nolan Sousley, who was a patient at the Missouri hospital. Police say they received a call from hospital security, stating they smelled marijuana.
Sousley said that made no sense, because he doesn't smoke marijuana. However, he admitted he does use CBD oil from marijuana plants, which has been cited to ease pain for patients with certain ailments.
Missouri did vote to approve medical marijuana in this past election. However, patients would need medical cards, which won’t be issued until July.
Dan Viets, an attorney who worked on the effort to make medical marijuana legal in Missouri, says he doesn’t believe there was legal justification to invade the patient’s room.
Viets has consulted with Sousley about the hospital room incident.
“There's just no justification for treating patients as if they were serious criminals,” the attorney says.
According to reports, police said they received consent to search his bags. Ultimately, cops found nothing, and no citations were issued.
In a statement on their Facebook page , the hospital apologized to Sousley and said they are reviewing the incident.
