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veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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Modesto men file insurance claim for stolen marijuana [CA]
#7646662 - 11/17/07 04:02 AM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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Modesto men file insurance claim for stolen marijuana November 17, 2007 - fresnobee.com
MODESTO -- A gunman stole 3 pounds of marijuana from the garden of several medical marijuana users in a southwest Modesto home last week.
The growers valued the loss at $12,000 to $16,000. They had tended the buds from seeds for nine months in a greenhouse full of bell peppers, tomatoes, corn and sunflowers.
No one has been arrested.
The four men each had medical clearance to use marijuana, which allowed them to grow cannabis for personal use, the Modesto police reported.
The men reported the theft twice. First, they called police. Next, they called their insurance company. Their renter's insurance, they hoped, would compensate them for the loss.
It wouldn't have been the first pay-out for pot.
One insurer paid $12,375 to a Sacramento man who lost 3 pounds to an armed intruder in 2000, according to published news reports. A year earlier, a different Sacramento man was the first person reportedly reimbursed for marijuana through household insurance. He received $6,500 from CGU California Insurance for 13 plants sheriff's deputies seized from his garage. A handful of other reimbursements have been reported since then.
The Modesto men's insurance company declined. But the company, said Antonio, 50, who asked to be identified only by his first name, told him they would have considered his claim if the outdoor plants had been appraised or if his buds had been inside.
Farmers Insurance Group could not confirm Antonio's explanation Thursday or comment on the company's general policy, said spokesman Jerry Davies.
"Each claim like that is different," Davies said. "They are all investigated from the get-go."
But the company has compensated for pot losses before. In 2000, a Southern California couple received almost $7,000 from Farmers after police seized 14 pot plants from them, news reports show. Farmers concluded the plants fell within the "trees, shrubs, plants and lawns" section of its homeowner's policy.
California insurance companies that have covered marijuana losses cite Proposition 215, the 1996 California ballot measure that authorized medicinal marijuana. If it's legal to use the plant, and you have a doctor's note to prove it, then it's legal to own it, the reasoning goes. And if you own it and you're insured, the plants can be covered like any house plant or shrub.
One reason insuring marijuana poses a challenge, said Candysse Miller, the executive director of the Insurance Information Network of California, is that it's hard to determine its value.
"That's a challenging thing to do with a narcotic that's sold on the street in most cases," she said. "You have to determine street value. And what street? It's a pretty broad market. There aren't a lot of people writing receipts for marijuana."
Another complication is that states and the federal government have butted heads for years over medical marijuana, leaving insurance companies with different policies.
"Until that's clearly defined, you're going to find insurance companies on both sides," said Miller.
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AJ4U
Cloud N9ne



Registered: 09/06/06
Posts: 5,609
Loc: Dirty Jersey
Last seen: 13 years, 4 months
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Re: Modesto men file insurance claim for stolen marijuana [CA] [Re: veggie]
#7646940 - 11/17/07 07:52 AM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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funny you think they could just get someone to rob them of their 12,000 of pot, collect the money, then sell whatever pot was "stolen" if you catch my drift.
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johnm214



Registered: 05/31/07
Posts: 17,582
Loc: Americas
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Re: Modesto men file insurance claim for stolen marijuana [CA] [Re: AJ4U]
#7648337 - 11/17/07 05:40 PM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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"That's a challenging thing to do with a narcotic that's sold on the street in most cases," she said. "You have to determine street value. And what street? It's a pretty broad market. There aren't a lot of people writing receipts for marijuana."
--- marijuana is not a narcotic, k?
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shroom_ninja
Stranger



Registered: 11/03/07
Posts: 150
Last seen: 8 years, 10 months
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Re: Modesto men file insurance claim for stolen marijuana [CA] [Re: AJ4U]
#7649633 - 11/18/07 12:05 AM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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insurance fraud. Novel idea! /sarcasm
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