FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- Fort Collins police have returned 39 marijuana plants, eight ounces of loose marijuana and special growing equipment to two medical marijuana patients.

The plants were seized more than a year ago but a judge ruled on Nov. 26 that they were seized illegally. So Fort Collins police had to hand them over Monday.

In November 2000, voters passed the medical marijuana amendment, which said that marijuana plants "shall not be harmed, neglected, injured, or destroyed while in the possession of state or local law enforcement officials."

The attorney for James and Lisa Masters believes that's what police have done.

"These plants, I'm willing to bet, are dead and if that is indeed the case, then we are going to take legal action to try to get monetary compensation for our client's property," said defense attorney Brian Vicente.

The Masters estimate their plants were worth $100,000.

The couple's home was raided in August 2006 but all criminal charges were dropped in June 2007. The city attorney tried to reverse the property return order but Larimer County Chief District Judge James Hiatt denied that request last week.

While the Masters both suffer from severe debilitating diseases, they were not, in fact, state-licensed medical marijuana patients or caregivers at the time of the raid. Nevertheless, Hiatt ruled that the couple had in "all practical terms" fulfilled the definition of medical marijuana "caregiver" as laid out in the Colorado Constitution by demonstrating that they had significant care for a number of licensed medical marijuana patients at the time of the 2006 raid.

Vicente said that the case marks the largest medical marijuana plant return in Colorado history.

"This case has illustrated the extent to which authorities in Fort Collins will go to to deny sick people medicine," said Vicente. "Between the stalling tactics of the Larimer District and City Attorney's offices, the region has spent tens of thousands of taxpayers dollars in efforts to deny the Masters medical marijuana."