Pubdate: Tue, 12 Sep 2000
Source: Long Beach Press-Telegram (CA)
Copyright: 2000 Press-Telegram.
Contact:  http://www.ptconnect.com/
Author: Wendy Thomas Russell, Staff writer

COURT CHARGES POT GROWER

Prosecutor Refiles Cultivation Charge At David Zink's Preliminary
Hearing

A 55-year-old medicinal marijuana activist from Long Beach was 
arraigned Monday on three felony drug counts.  

David Zink pleaded not guilty in Long Beach Superior Court to 
cultivating marijuana, possessing marijuana for sale and manufacturing 
hashish, a controlled substance. Long Beach Superior Court Judge James 
Wright dropped the cultivation charge at a preliminary hearing Aug. 28, 
but prosecutor John Harlan refiled the count. Zink's attorney, J. David 
Nick, is expected to bring a motion to dismiss the count at an Oct. 11 
pretrial hearing in Judge James Pierce's courtroom.  

"I feel like I'm being harassed at this point," Zink said after 
Monday's arraignment.  

Police raided Zink's home Aug. 10 and dug up 30 marijuana plants from 
his back yard. Zink told police that two friends and he, all of whom 
had doctors' notes permitting marijuana use, were growing the plants 
for personal use.  

The District Attorney's Office has alleged that Zink is responsible for 
all the plants. Prosecutors said he possessed equipment used to make 
hashish, as well as a scale and baggies, items sometimes used to sell 
pot.  

Proposition 215, passed in 1996, allows patients and patients' primary 
caregivers to possess or cultivate marijuana "for the personal medical 
purposes of the patient upon the written or oral recommendation or 
approval of a physician."  
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