Siskiyou County District Attorney J. Kirk Andrus is declining to file charges and ordering authorities to continue an investigation into a well known outdoors writer arrested in a narcotics task force raid on his home in the town of Weed.
San Francisco Chronicle writer and hiking and camping author Tom Stienstra 55, and his wife were arrested last Thursday for investigation of possession of marijuana for sale after authorities served a search warrant at their property.
Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Susan Gravenkamp said in a statement that members of a local narcotics task force uncovered a "sophisticated marijuana cultivation operation" in a barn on the property.
She said officers seized 31 mature marijuana plants and 21 immature plants, 11 pounds of dried marijuana, packaging materials and scales.
But Stienstra, his wife Stephani Ann Cruickshank and their 18-year-old son, who was not arrested, all had medical marijuana recommendations, authorities said.
And in an interview this afternoon, Andrus said he has "declined to file charges at this time" and that he wants authorities to do more work in the case.
"We have submitted the case back . . . for further investigation," he said.
Stienstra was released last Friday from Siskiyou County Jail after posting $75,000 bail.
Read more of this story at the Sacramento Bee's Weed Wars blog.