CITRUS HEIGHTS POT-CLUB COUPLE CONVICTED

A couple who claimed they were legally operating a "cannabis club" under
California's medicinal marijuana law were convicted Tuesday in Sacramento
Superior Court of felony drug charges.

Susan B. Rodger, 47, and Michael Urziceanu, 38, were convicted of
conspiracy to sell marijuana. They ran the FloraCare network in Citrus
Heights that supplied marijuana to about 300 "applicants" of the organization.

Rodger, a former state computer specialist, faces three years and eight
months in prison at sentencing Aug. 25 before Judge Trena H. Burger-Plavan.
Rodger is free on $40,000 bail.

Urziceanu, a former correctional officer, faces a four-year prison term. He
was taken into custody.

Urziceanu, who was convicted of receiving stolen property, also was
convicted of possession of ammunition and a firearm as a felon. He was
acquitted of an extra count of possession of ammunition as a felon and an
additional felony charge of marijuana sales.

Rodger and Urziceanu were acquitted of felony marijuana cultivation. A
mistrial was declared on three other felonies when jurors said they were
deadlocked.

Deputy District Attorney Caroline Park argued the couple operated the club
for profit and that the medicinal marijuana claim was a front for simple
drug dealing that brought in $3,000 a day.

Defense attorneys David Marcolini and Victor S. Haltom did not dispute that
their clients were furnishing marijuana to chronically ill people.

The lawyers told jurors that Rodger and Urziceanu were "primary caregivers"
under the state's Compassionate Use Act. The law, mandated by the voters'
passage of a 1996 ballot initiative, decriminalized personal marijuana use
and cultivation for medicinal purposes.