MEDICAL MARIJUANA PATIENT ACQUITTED

OROVILLE - A Butte County jury late Thursday acquitted a Cohasset man of
all charges in what was being termed the area's first medical marijuana trial.

Jurors said they believed Joseph Michael Rogers, 44, was out to help the
sick, not for personal profit, when he started a local medical- marijuana
co-op in 1999.

The jury deliberated less than three hours before finding Rogers not guilty
of felony cultivation and possession of marijuana for sale.

A jubilant Rogers hugged several friends outside the courthouse in Oroville.

"I'm obviously very happy," the defendant said, calling the verdict an
"incremental victory for Prop. 215," the 1996 initiative that allowed ill
people to use marijuana with a doctor's recommendation in California.

Deputy district attorney Clare Keithley argued to Rogers' jury that he had
"aided and abetted" a Paradise couple in cultivating about 190 pot plants
in three different locations for the purposes of sale.

She had pointed to a newspaper ad Rogers had taken out and a promotional
flier he circulated offering to sell marijuana "clones" (clippings) for $10
and up" to co-op members.

Rogers' attorney, Kevin Sears of Chico, responded the only thing his client
was guilty of was "aiding and abetting the sick in this county."

Sears asserted that when Rogers tried to solicit the assistance of local
law enforcement in setting up the co-op, he was "rewarded" by being
arrested and having his "medicine" confiscated.

Following Thursday's acquittal of his client, Sears said: "I hope this has
sent a message to the DA loud and clear to leave the sick people of Butte
County alone."

District Attorney Mike Ramsey, who was present when the verdict was
announced, said it will not change his policy concerning medical marijuana
cases.

Ramsey, who estimated that all marijuana cases comprise less than 1 percent
of all referrals to his office, said he generally will not prosecute a
medical marijuana patient with six plants or less.

"We felt that 190 plants was clearly outside the law," the DA said,
referring to Rogers' prosecution.

The problem, both sides agree, is that Prop. 215 does not offer any
guidance as to how people are to legally obtain medicinal marijuana, or in
what amounts.

On the witness stand, Rogers testified he and two medical marijuana
patients from Paradise, Roger Chambers and Glenda Spangler, decided to
start up the Cohasset Cultivator's Commune Project, to help other ill
people obtain cannabis clones so they could grow their own pot.

After he advised law enforcement of his intentions and even invited them up
to see his plants, Rogers testified he sent out the fliers as a promotional
tool under the "mistaken belief" that the co-op was legal.

Rogers maintained that 21 marijuana plants recovered from his Cohasset Road
home were for his personal medical use. He denied any involvement in the
173 marijuana clones that were found at Chambers' and Spangler's home.

Charges against the ridge pair had been dismissed last year after a judge
ruled that sheriff's deputies did not have probable cause to search their
trailer.

Following Thursday's verdict, an Oroville juror said: "We could not put him
(Rogers) and Spangler together for cultivation and sale."

Added the male juror: "We felt they were trying to get a co-op together for
medicinal purposes, not to sell the plants and make a profit."

Rogers, the son of a conservative Coalinga farmer, called the trial "an
educational experience, hopefully for more than just me."

He hopes Prop. 215 will be amended to provide more clear-cut guidelines for
its implementation.

Legislation is currently under consideration in Sacramento that would put
medical marijuana under the control of the state Department of Health,
while allowing for small community co-ops like the one Rogers had tried to
form.

Chambers, who at one time was a co-defendant with Rogers, said he felt the
acquittal "reflects a changing in people's attitudes about their ability to
have control over their medical interests."

During the three-day jury trial, Grass Valley Dr. Stephen Banister, one of
two physicians who provide the bulk of medical-marijuana recommendations in
this area, testified for the defense that he approved marijuana to ease
Rogers' pain from a spinal fracture he sustained as a teen-ager.

Banister said privately that he has recommended pot for "several hundred"
patients for everything from pain reduction to controlling stress and nausea.