Pubdate: Thu, 23 Sep 1999
Source: Times-News, The (ID)
Copyright: 1999 Magic Valley Newspapers
Contact:  P.O. Box 548, Twin Falls, ID 83303
Fax: (208) 734-553
Feedback: http://www.magicvalley.com/submit.html
Website: http://www.magicvalley.com/
Author: Brian Haynes, Times-News

WOMAN FIGHTS WITH MEDICAL MARIJUANA DEFENSE

TWIN FALLS -- Prosecutors say Kathy Tadlock was selling marijuana, a charge
Tadlock is fighting with the rarely-used medical marijuana defense.

"We all agree that Kathy Tadlock had marijuana in her home," Public
Defender John Hansen said Wednesday during the trial's opening arguments.
"What we don't agree on is what she had it for."

Hansen hopes to show the jury that Tadlock uses marijuana to alleviate
chronic pain, but whether the jury will be allowed to consider that defense
depends on District Judge Nathan Higer, who will decide whether to allow
the common-law necessity defense once testimony is finished.

If Higer allows the defense, it would be the second such case in Twin Falls
County. The first was in 1996 when Steven Samora tried to convince a jury
that the marijuana he grew at his Murtaugh home was used to treat chronic
back pain. The jury didn't believe him and convicted him of trafficking
marijuana. Samora was sentenced to five to seven years in prison.

The medical necessity defense has been legal in Idaho since 1990, when the
Idaho State Supreme Court ruled that it could be used to defend charges of
marijuana possession. The case, State vs. Hastings, dealt with an arthritic
woman in Coeur d'Alene who used marijuana to alleviate her pain.

Tadlock, who suffers from chronic pain, insisted on taking the case to
trial and using the medical defense, Hansen said after the first day of
trial Wednesday.

The prosecution is trying to prove that Tadlock sold marijuana from her
Twin Falls home. Tadlock is charged with possession of marijuana with
intent to deliver.

The prosecution is building its case around items found in Tadlock's
bedroom during a January police search.

During the search, police found more than a half pound of what appeared to
be marijuana, scales, $5,000 in cash and a notebook with weights and prices
scribbled inside, Twin Falls police detective Anthony Barnhart testified.

About a month before the search a former roommate of Tadlock's, Mark
Kennedy, told police that Tadlock was selling marijuana from her Twin Falls
home, Kennedy testified.

But that was a lie he made up because he was mad at Tadlock and wanted
revenge, he said at trial.

The case will continue at 9 a.m today.
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