Pubdate: Tue, 24 Apr 2007
Source: Morning Sentinel (Waterville, ME)
Copyright: 2007 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc
Contact: 
http://centralmaine.mainetoday.com/readerservices/lettertotheeditor.html
Website: http://www.onlinesentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1474
Author: Alan Crowell
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

POT CASE VERDICT IS GUILTY

Legalization Advocate Faces Five-Year Jail Term

SKOWHEGAN -- Marijuana legalization activist Donald Christen faces up 
to five years in jail after he was found guilty of aggravated 
cultivation of marijuana.

A Somerset County Superior Court jury found Christen guilty of 
cultivating marijuana on Friday, but not guilty of the more serious 
crime of aggravated drug trafficking.

That verdict capped a week-long trial in which Christen, an advocate 
of legalizing marijuana, claimed the cannabis that police seized in a 
November 2004 raid on his Madison home was destined for patients.

Maine is one of 12 states that have medical marijuana laws, although 
many consider the law unworkable because it does not provide a legal 
means of acquiring seeds or marijuana itself. A measure now before 
the Legislature, LD 1418, would create a registry of nonprofit 
corporations that could provide the drug to qualified users.

Christen, 53, said he did the best he could to comply with the 
medical marijuana law and will try again during sentencing to 
convince Justice S. Kirk Studstrup that he met the law's 
requirements. If he is not successful, he said, he plans to appeal.

Prosecutors, however, say that Christen, who was previously convicted 
of furnishing and trafficking in marijuana, was essentially thumbing 
his nose at the law.

"We have always fully complied with both the letter and the spirit of 
the medical marijuana law," District Attorney Evert N. Fowle said 
Monday. "This is Donny pushing the limits and acting in a way that is 
contemptuous of our law."

Christen is founder of the Maine Vocals, a now-defunct organization 
that advocated for legalizing marijuana.

He also organizes a series of rock concerts in Starks with a 
marijuana theme, including Hempstock and Harvest Fest.

In addition to other patients, Christen said he was growing for his 
wife, Pamela Christen, who was then undergoing chemotherapy as part 
of her treatment for cancer. He admitted, however, that he would have 
used some of the marijuana himself.

Christen said he considers himself a patient because he has a bad 
back, although he acknowledged he does not qualify as a medical 
marijuana patient under Maine's law.

People who qualify under the law include cancer patients, and people 
who suffer from AIDS, glaucoma, and certain other conditions.

Patients or their caregivers may grow up to six marijuana plants, 
although only three of those plants can be mature or flowering.

Christen, however, had 13 plants at the time of his arrest, according 
to police and prosecutors.

Police say he also had more than a pound of harvested marijuana, 
although Christen said that much of that amount was not usable.

The case underscored apparent conflicts within Maine's medical marijuana law.

Not only does the law not offer a legal means to buy marijuana or 
marijuana seeds, it only allows possession of 21/2 ounces. Christen 
said that one plant alone may provide a user with between 4 ounces 
and a pound of usable marijuana. That means that by harvesting one 
plant, a grower could be violating the law, he said.

Christen said that when he didn't have his home-grown marijuana to 
give to patients, he bought marijuana and resold it to them, getting 
them a better price by pooling their money.

Fowle acknowledged that the current law is poorly drafted and 
confusing, but said Christen should make changes through the 
Legislature, not "thumb his nose at the law."

He said his office would ask for an "appropriate" sentence.
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