Source: Modestoto Bee Contact: http://www.modbee.com/man/help/contact.html Website: http://www.modbee.com/frontpage/index/0,1112,,00.html Pubdate: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 Author: Ron DeLacy Bee staff writer LODE GOING TO POT SONORA -- It was like medical marijuana law day Monday in the Mother Lode. First, a blind diabetes patient in Sonora got five years' probation for growing pot, and then celebrity attorney Tony Serra led a rally in San Andreas for a cultivation defendant who says he was growing for cannabis clubs. "Law enforcement agencies should be seeking to actualize the law," Serra told about 100 people in front of the Calaveras County Courthouse. "Instead, they seek to subvert the democratic process." The law he referred to is Proposition 215, the "compassionate use" initiative California voters passed in November. It legalizes marijuana for people with doctors' prescriptions or recommendations. Several Bay Area cannabis clubs distribute pot to such patients. And Robert Galambos of Paloma claims he was growing for several of those clubs when his patch of 380 plants was raided last summer. Galambos is scheduled for trial starting April 29 on a felony cultivation charge. Serra is on the defense team, joined by Sonora defense attorney Michael Weisberg. "There's something the matter," Weisberg told Monday's rally, "when the voters say marijuana is legal for medical use and the prosecution still wants to stamp it out." Other speakers included Calaveras County Supervisor Tom Tryon, a Libertarian who considers the war on drugs an abuse of the government's power and a waste of its time and money. Galambos attended the rally, but did not speak, and he declined to talk to reporters about his case. The district attorney's office wouldn't talk about it, either. According to sheriff's Lt. Mike Walker, though, the cannabis-club defense wasn't raised during the raid last year. Walker said he learned of it just last week, through posters promoting Monday's rally. But Serra said it's a "bona fide case" of a person who was growing for those clubs, and also a significant case in the evolution of Proposition 215 law. This is the first trial, he said, where a cannabis club's contract grower is charged. And the contract growers are essential, Serra said, because "you can't in essence legalize milk and outlaw the cow." Earlier Monday in Sonora, Tuolumne County Superior Court Judge Eric DuTemple fined Myron Mower $1,000 and put him on probation for another five years. Mower only recently completed an earlier probation for the same charge -- cultivation of pot. He suffers from a variety of diseases and disabilities, including blindness, diabetes, digestive dysfunctions and "wasting syndrome" that his doctor, Joy Boggess, said is similar to what happens to AIDS patients. In Mower's case, the county drug agency knew he had his doctor's permission to use pot. He was allowed to grow it, but agents could raid his garden without warrants while he was on that earlier probation. When they found 31 plants there last summer, they said that was too many. After Monday's sentencing, Mower said the bust not only had put him back on probation, but also cost him his plants. Raiders confiscated all but three, of which one died, one turned into a worthless male and one was later stolen. "This is all a lot of bulls--- for nothing," Mower said. "They could be spending their time taking care of real criminals."