MEDICAL-MARIJUANA TRIAL DRAWS PICKETS

OROVILLE - A few pickets demonstrated outside Superior Court Monday, as
jurors began hearing testimony in what is being termed Butte County's first
medical-marijuana trial.

Holding signs that read: "Quit trying our patients" and "I'm sick, not a
criminal," three female demonstrators said they were protesting what they
felt was local law enforcement's refusal to honor Proposition 215, the 1996
initiative that allowed Californians to smoke marijuana with a doctor's
recommendation.

"... I'm here in support of getting the police and the DA out of our lives
so we don't have to fear our homes being raided for using something that is
allowed by law," said one of the protesters who identified herself only as
"Rusty."

Butte County prosecutors have accused Joseph Michael Rogers, 40, of
Cohasset, of cultivating and possession of marijuana with intent to sell.

Rogers maintains that when he was arrested in August 1999, he was in the
process of growing "clones" (clippings from pot plants) for other members
of a fledgling group of medical marijuana users called the Cohasset
Cultivator's Commune Project.

A sheriff's officer testified Monday that four pot plants were found
growing at Rogers' Cohasset Road home and 17 more marijuana plants at a
Chico residence, where the defendant admitted taking them to protect them
from a wildfire threatening Cohasset at the time.

Deputy district attorney Clare Keithly is also attempting to link the
defendant to a Paradise residence where 173 smaller marijuana plants and
seedlings were discovered.

Two residents at the ridge address, Glenda Susan Spangler and Roger
Chambers, were initially arrested with Rogers. But charges against them
were dismissed after a judge ruled sheriff's officers did not have probable
cause to search their Pentz Road trailer.

Former Butte County sheriff's deputy Devon Klein testified Monday that
during questioning, Rogers admitted being a "co-conspirator" with the
Paradise couple.

But Rogers' attorney, Kevin Sears, contends the remark demonstrated his
client's "humor," as did a flier containing both Rogers' and Spangler's
telephone numbers seeking "donations" of $10 and up for "Concowie Wowie"
and several other "super stony" varieties of marijuana clones.

In his opening remarks to the jury, Sears took issue with the prosecutor's
assertion that Rogers was selling marijuana "in the community."

"His intent was to provide marijuana for persons who are ill," the defense
attorney insisted.

Prior to the bust, Rogers said he corresponded with local law enforcement
officials, and even permitted Klein to see his indoor grow site in an
attempt to establish legal guidelines in which the co-op could operate.

District Attorney Mike Ramsey told reporters at the time that the Cohasset
man was warned that only a "primary caregiver" - not a co-op - could
legally dispense pot to medical marijuana patients under Prop. 215.

Based on his law enforcement training and conversations with other growers,
Klein told Rogers' jury Monday that the Paradise grow site was capable of
producing "conservatively" 86.5 pounds of marijuana per year, "far
exceeding" personal use, in his opinion.

Even if the jury discounts the ridge plants, those found growing at Rogers'
home could still yield up to 10 pounds of pot annually, far more than the
2.5 pounds that even a "heavy user" would require, Klein asserted.

Those picketing outside the courthouse Monday said Prop. 215 lacks clear
guidelines regarding how people are to legally obtain marijuana and in what
amounts.

"We want our legal rights set so the government and the police will leave
the sick alone," said Dinah Coffman of Chico.

The demonstrators, two of whom also picketed the arrest last week of a Yuba
County cancer patient caught with 38 pot plants, say they plan to join a
much larger protest outside the state Capitol in Sacramento today.

According to a printed handout, the protesters are upset that the public
was not informed of a meeting scheduled today between state Attorney
General Bill Lockyer and prosecutors from Sacramento, El Dorado, Yuba,
Placer and Amador counties, allegedly seeking to enforce a six-plant limit
for medical marijuana users in those counties.

By contrast, Coffman notes, Sonoma County currently allows up to 99 plants
per patient.

Asked by Rogers' attorney Monday whether Klein felt that the Sonoma
guidelines are "in error," the former Butte County sheriff's deputy replied
quietly: "Yes."

But the officer conceded that was a law enforcement - not a medical - opinion.

Rogers, who says he has a doctor's recommendation to smoke pot for pain
associated with a spinal injury he sustained in a college wrestling match,
is "hopeful" the jury will acquit him of the pot sales charge.

"The way the (medical marijuana) law reads now, someone has to break the
law in order that others may take advantage of it," observed the Cohasset man.