Pubdate: Sat, 28 Sep 2002
Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel (CA)
Copyright: 2002 Santa Cruz Sentinel
Contact:  http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/394
Author: Jason Schultz

JUDGE FREES MEDICAL-POT PATIENT, RETURNS STASH

SANTA CRUZ - Federal prosecutors might not respect the state law that 
allows people to grow marijuana for medical use, but a judge in Santa Cruz 
County does.

Medical-marijuana user Greg Brown walked out of the courthouse Wednesday a 
free man with a legal bag of marijuana.

Superior Court Judge Kathleen Akao threw out two felony charges against the 
Santa Cruz man after he proved he had a doctor's recommendation to use 
medical marijuana. She ordered police to return Brown's pot.

Brown was arrested March 15 after police found 52 plants growing at his 
house, 7 ounces of packaged marijuana and 3 ounces drying. He was charged 
with cultivating and possessing marijuana for sale, both felonies.

Proposition 215, passed by voters in 1996, allows state residents to grow 
and smoke marijuana if they have a recommendation from a doctor. A recent 
decision by the state Supreme Court backed up that law, saying people 
arrested on marijuana charges can use their doctor's recommendation as a 
defense in court.

Brown's attorney, Ben Rice of Santa Cruz, said Brown has a doctor's 
recommendation. He said Brown fell down cement steps 10 years ago and 
suffers back problems from the accident. He said Brown's written 
recommendation had expired when he was arrested in March, but he had a 
valid oral recommendation from the same doctor.

Brown's non-jury trial started Wednesday, and ended the same day when Akao 
agreed with Rice's motion to dismiss the charges.

The plants and the drying marijuana have been destroyed, but Brown got back 
the 7 ounces of dried pot.

"I feel great, of course, I feel relief," Brown said.

Brown said he also suffers from hepatitis C, which leaves him with 
heartburn and an upset stomach. The marijuana helps soothe his stomach and 
increase his appetite, he said, as well as helping him deal with back pain.

Rice said marijuana seized in such cases often is not returned, even after 
an acquittal.

"What I've started doing is when people hire me, I call the District 
Attorney's Office and tell them not to destroy any of the marijuana so it 
can be returned later," Rice said.

The U.S. government considers marijuana an illegal drug with no medicinal 
value. The federal government considers medical-marijuana users to be drug 
abusers, and those who provide the marijuana to be drug dealers, said Drug 
Enforcement Administration spokesman Richard Meyer. State law will not 
protect them in federal court, he said.

The DEA recently raided the North Coast farm of Wo/Men's Alliance for 
Medical Marijuana, touching off a national controversy about the medicinal 
value of the drug and the federal enforcement of pot laws in states that 
allow its medical use. The furor culminated in a much- publicized 
distribution of marijuana to patients by the alliance on the steps of Santa 
Cruz City Hall.

Rice is also the attorney for alliance founders Mike and Valerie Corral. 
Rice had intended to call one of them as an expert witness on the yield of 
marijuana plants in Brown's case.

San Francisco attorney John Kecher has joined the team to help defend the 
Corrals if the federal government decides to file charges in connection 
with the raid earlier this month.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens