Pubdate: Mon, 15 Jun 2009
Source: Bangor Daily News (ME)
Copyright: 2009 Bangor Daily News Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/MWLhV21W
Website: http://www.bangordailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/40
Author: Judy Harrison, BDN Staff
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

MEDICAL MARIJUANA ON COURT'S DOCKET

PORTLAND, Maine -- The Maine Supreme Judicial Court will hear 
arguments Wednesday in the first challenge to the state's medical 
marijuana law.

Donald Christen, 55, of Madison is appealing his April 2007 
conviction by a Somerset County jury of aggravated cultivation of 
marijuana. The long-time advocate for legalization of marijuana was 
sentenced in August 2007 to 14 months in prison with all but six 
months suspended and two years probation after representing him-self 
in the three-day trial.

He has remained free on bail pending the outcome of the appeal.

Ironically, Christen was found not guilty last December by a Somerset 
County jury on the same charge and a charge of furnishing marijuana, 
according to a story published in the Portland Press Herald. Walter 
McKee, the Augusta attorney who represented Christen in the more 
recent case, told the paper it was the first time a defendant had 
proved he was growing and distributing marijuana legally under the 
state's medical marijuana law.

Peter Bickerman, the Augusta attorney representing Christen in the 
appeal of the 2007 conviction, argued in his brief that Superior 
Court Justice Kirk Studstrup incorrectly instructed the jury about 
the state's medical marijuana law. Bickerman also claimed that 
Christen was denied a speedy trial because it took place 27 months 
after he was indicted.

Voters passed a referendum in November 1999 and the Legislature 
amended it in 2002 to allow the medical use of marijuana. The law 
allows a designated caregiver to possess 21/2 ounces of harvested 
marijuana for the benefit of a patient eligible to receive medical 
marijuana plus a total of six plants, of which no more than three 
could be mature, flowering plants, according to Bickerman's brief.

Since the enactment of the law, people have asked Christen to be 
their caregiver once they have received the necessary medical 
permission to use the drug medicinally from their physicians. 
Bickerman argued that Christen was following the law when Somerset 
County sheriff's deputies, armed with a warrant on Nov. 10, 2004, 
seized 13 marijuana plants from his residence.

Christen, according to Bickerman's brief, had the proper paperwork to 
show that he was acting legally as a caregiver to at least six 
people, including his wife, Pamela Christen, 45, of Madison, who was 
suffering from ovarian cancer.

Efforts last week to obtain a copy of the brief filed by the Somerset 
County District Attorney's Office were unsuccessful.

Assistant District Attorney James G. Mitchell is expected to argue 
that Studstrup correctly interpreted the medical marijuana law and 
properly instructed the jury on how to apply it, according to 
information on the judiciary's Web site.

A bill that seeks to make it easier for qualified patients in Maine 
to obtain medical marijuana will go to referendum in November. The 
Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee in April rejected a 
citizen initiative that would have had the state issue identification 
cards to qualifying patients and allow licensed nonprofit 
dispensaries to provide marijuana to those patients. 
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