Pubdate: Mon, 02 May 2005
Source: Addison Independent (Middlebury, VT)
Copyright: 2005 The Addison County Independent
Contact:  http://www.addisonindependent.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3777
Author: John Flowers
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?232 (Chronic Pain)

BRYANT CLAIMS MARIJUANA WAS MEDICALLY NECESSARY

MIDDLEBURY -- An Addison County District Court jury on Friday found a
Goshen man guilty of cultivating a large crop of marijuana on his
property, but found him innocent on an added charge of possession of
the substance, which he said he was using to treat chronic pain
stemming from a horrific accident he'd suffered more than 30 years
ago.

The jury's verdict, rendered after more than seven hours of
deliberations at the Addison County Courthouse, saw defendant Stephen
Bryant successfully use the state's rarely-invoked "defense of
necessity" -- through which he and his lawyers argued that Bryant had
no choice but to engage in a criminal activity (using marijuana) to
remedy an emergency situation (bouts of excruciating pain).

It's a decision that should give the Legislature impetus to expand the
scope of the state's medical marijuana law to include people suffering
from ailments like Bryant's, according to attorney Robert Keiner, who
represented Bryant during the two-day trial.

"It should have some legislators asking some questions about the
marijuana law," Keiner said following the verdict, delivered by the
jury at 11:30 p.m.

The Charges

Bryant, 54, was facing felony charges for cultivating 49 marijuana
plants and possessing more than two ounces of the substance. Bryant,
one of several witnesses who took the stand during the trial, told the
court that he needed marijuana to dull the lingering pain of a
construction site accident three decades ago.

The accident occurred in Fredonia, N.Y., in 1974, when Bryant impaled
himself on a metal bar during a fall from a radio tower he was
dismantling on top of a school building. Bryant told the jury that the
metal bar had penetrated his right thigh and exited his left buttock.
Pausing to collect himself on several occasions, Bryant told the jury
how he managed to pull himself up, only to find that his legs "didn't
work."

He recounted how a school janitor -- the first person to come to his
aid -- had placed a crucifix around his neck when he saw the extent of
Bryant's injuries. A priest at the hospital to which Bryant was rushed
pronounced last rites on the injured man.

"Beyond Description"

"The pain was beyond description," Bryant told the jury, during
questioning from Keiner.

Bryant spent two weeks at a New York hospital, where he was treated
for substantial internal injuries. It was during that time in the
hospital, according to Bryant, that he was first administered a series
of narcotic painkillers to control persistent pain that has lingered
from the accident.

Those narcotic painkillers, according to Bryant, proved addictive and
brought undesirable side effects, such as wooziness, constipation and
nausea.

"It temporarily covers the pain; when it wears off, you want more," he
told the jury.

Bryant said the wooziness caused by the narcotics prevented him from
returning consistently to the only job he had ever known --
construction and carpentry, usually at lofty heights.

During the next three decades, Bryant said he consulted more than a
dozen physicians, who prescribed a whole range of medicines and
therapies to try to alleviate the constant pain he was in. Bryant also
tried physical therapy, herbal medicines and bee sting therapy in an
effort to get relief.

But the only thing that worked consistently, according to Bryant, was
smoking marijuana, a remedy one of his friends suggested to him around
eight months after the accident.

"The interest was two-fold," Bryant told the jury. "It acted as an
appetite stimulant, and reduced the level of pain to allow me to sleep."

Bryant, who stands well over six feet tall, claimed his weight dropped
by 40 pounds (to 135) in the aftermath of the accident.

Move to Alaska

He told the jury he briefly moved to Alaska in 1985 to legitimize his
marijuana cultivation. Alaska, at the time, was the only state in
which one could legally cultivate small quantities of marijuana.

"It would make the pain manageable," Bryant said of the drug. "I could
function as a normal human being."

Testifying on Bryant's behalf were Linda Adams, his longtime partner,
and Dr. Joseph M. McSherry, an associate professor of neurology at the
University of Vermont. McSherry was one of two physicians to serve on
the Vermont Legislative Committee on Mari-juana in 2002. Addison
County District Court Judge Christina Reiss ultimately ruled, however,
that there was insufficient evidence to deem McSherry an "expert" in
the field of medical marijuana.

Vermont has a new medical marijuana law, but that law strictly limits
users to three plants and restricts eligibility to patients suffering
from multiple sclerosis, cancer or AIDS.

Bryant grew his own marijuana on his property for 20 years -- enough,
he said, to meet his own needs on an annual basis.

Crop Uncovered

He was able to evade detection until Aug. 7, 2003, when a Vermont
State Police Marijuana Eradication Team -- during a helicopter
fly-over -- detected patches of marijuana growing on Bryant's property
in Goshen.

The following day, a four-person police team executed a search warrant
at Bryant's home. That search, according to police, yielded 49
marijuana plants growing in three locations on the property, 132 grams
of processed marijuana and 490 grams of marijuana seeds.

Addison County Deputy State's Attorney Chris Perkett offered three
witnesses who participated in the search of Bryant's home on Aug. 8,
2003. Those witnesses -- VSP Det. Sgt. James Whitcomb, VSP Trooper
Julie Ryan and Vermont Fish and Game Warden David Rowden -- also
testified seeing and/or pulling the marijuana plants from Bryant's
property. Some of the plants were more than four feet tall, they said.

Authorities acknowledged during their testimony that Bryant cooperated
during the search, showing them where the plants were growing on his
property. They said they found no scales or large quantities of cash
that would be consistent with marijuana sales.

Bryant's cooperation, Keiner argued, proved he was using the marijuana
for himself as a pain remedy of last resort.

"Since 1985, when you started using marijuana, have you ever stopped
looking for an alternative so you didn't have to keep looking over
your shoulder?" Keiner asked his client.

"No," was Bryant's response.

A True Necessity?

But Perkett, during cross-examination, got Bryant to admit that he'd
received some pain relief from herbal remedies, prescription drugs,
over-the-counter medicine and through a back operation he had received
in 1980.

That testimony, Perkett argued, proved that Bryant had alternatives to
marijuana to relieve his pain, and that he was therefore not entitled
to use the "defense of necessity."

The jury ultimately allowed Bryant to use that defense on the
possession charge, but found him guilty on the felony cultivation
charge, which carries a penalty of up to 15 years in jail and/or a
fine of up to $500,000.

The court this week is expected to set a sentencing hearing for
Bryant.

"I think it was a very fair verdict, given the evidence in this case,"
Perkett said. "Given the compelling amount of evidence about this
defendant's medical condition... I was not surprised the jury, in its
humanity, rendered this verdict."

That said, Perkett does not believe the verdict should give cause for
changes to Vermont's medical marijuana law.

"The law permits what I think is an experiment in critical,
end-of-life care and really shouldn't be extended beyond that,"
Perkett said.

Expanding the scope of the law, Perkett said, could create a "slippery
slope that could lead to legalization, and I think that's the wrong
way to go."

Keiner said he was "disappointed" the jury didn't find his client
innocent on both counts. He is weighing an appeal to the Vermont
Supreme Court 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake