Pubdate: Sat, 22 Dec 2007
Source: Chico Enterprise-Record (CA)
Copyright: 2007 Chico Enterprise-Record
Contact: http://www.chicoer.com/feedback
Website: http://www.chicoer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/861
Note: Does not print letters from outside circulation area
Author: Barbara Arrigoni, Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

JURY ACQUITS MEDICAL-MARIJUANA GROWER

OROVILLE -- After an hour-long deliberation Friday afternoon, a jury 
found a Chico man not guilty of charges he cultivated marijuana and 
stored it illegally.

It's thought by attorneys to be the first case tried in Butte County 
Superior Court under California Senate Bill 420, which allows people 
with medical marijuana prescriptions to form a cooperative or 
collective to grow for their recommended use.

Brett Eric Johnsen was on trial for what Butte County authorities 
said was an illegal garden growing in his house on West First Street. 
Butte County sheriff's officers found the garden May 30 upon entering 
Johnsen's home on a search warrant. They reportedly found plants 
hanging from a bedroom ceiling and an elaborate garden filled with 
flowering marijuana in the basement.

Johnsen's defense was that he was growing the plants for his own use 
as a medical-marijuana user and for others who have prescriptions to use it.

The law allows collectives to have eight ounces per patient, or six 
mature plants or 12 immature plants.

Deputy district attorney A. J. Haggard contended deputies confiscated 
31 plants, which is over the legal limit allowed under SB420, and 
which officer Jacob Hancock testified he estimated to weigh a total 
of 7.9 pounds.

Johnsen's attorney, Jodea Foster, argued his client was growing the 
plants as part of a collective with two other people and questioned 
the amount and weight of the seized plants.

In the second day of testimony, Johnsen testified there were only 18 
plants growing in the house that had been started in mid-March with 
"clones" -- pre-started plants obtained from a cannabis club in 
Oakland. It was the second crop he and his friend, Simmon Flagg, had 
grown since last December. He said he had not grown pot before that time.

The two had an agreement to split the costs of the first crop and 
share the yield equally.

Johnsen also said he agreed to allow Flagg to bring in an extra 
person for the second crop. "I said fine, as long as everything's legal."

Foster called a witness who contradicted the district attorney's 
estimate of the weight of the plants seized.

Jason Browne, who was considered an expert, described an extensive 
background dealing with medical marijuana issues and working with law 
enforcement and health officials in several counties.

Browne provided a complex formula for determining potential yield 
from a crop that contradicted the officers' estimate the garden would 
have yielded 7.9 pounds.

Using a method agreed upon by the Drug Enforcement Agency in studies 
with the University of Mississippi, he used the square footage of the 
garden area, the wattage of the lights used to grow and other 
calculations to determine the garden would have yielded about 1.5 pounds.

Browne also testified that it didn't matter how many plants were in 
the room because given the square footage, the yield would have been 
the same. He said the size of the plants is what mattered.

Hancock testified the plants in the basement ranged from 1 to 5 feet high.

The jury went into deliberations shortly after 3 p.m. and returned 
the verdict at 4 p.m. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake