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Pubdate: Sat, 20 Nov 2010 Source: Chico Enterprise-Record (CA) Copyright: 2010 Chico Enterprise-Record Contact: http://www.chicoer.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/861 Note: Letters from newspaper's circulation area receive publishing priority Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal) POT PATIENT CHOOSES JAIL OVER ABSTAINING OROVILLE - A man who claims marijuana is his medicine turned himself in to jail Tuesday because he said he couldn't comply with a Butte County judge's order to not use the drug. Joel Kelly Castle, 62, said he did not have the change of heart discussed in front of Judge Clare Keithley Nov. 2. "I'm remanding myself under protest of them taking away my Proposition 215 rights," of medical marijuana, Castle said. Castle claims he was operating a legal medical marijuana collective out of his home before his arrest. He is accused of trading two ounces of marijuana with an undercover Chico police officer for an acoustic guitar after responding to an ad on craigslist, an Internet shopping service. After Castle's arrest, police reportedly recovered 5 and a half pounds of packaged marijuana and a loaded firearm in his motel room. His court-appointed attorney, Larry Willis, said on his client's decision to go to jail that, "I think he's out of his ever-lovin' mind." Willis already raised a doubt as to Castle's mental competency but a report from Dr. Don Stembridge found him competent to stand trial. "Why anybody would want to go into custody - he can't smoke dope in jail," Willis said. "Why he doesn't do it discretely, I don't know." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom