MAINE MAN'S POT CASE IN COURT THIS WEEK

In the cool of his small log cabin, Leonard Ellis reaches for his medication.

From a deep drawer next to his chair, he removes a small cough-drop
tin. He takes out a joint and lights it.

The column of marijuana smoke he draws in soothes the pain of his
muscular dystrophy. It's the only thing that does, he says.

Ellis, a 12-year member of the planning board and a longtime member
of the historical society, had doctors' notes recommending marijuana,
as required by state law. But he had more plants, and more pot, than
allowed. He said he needed that amount. And this week, he goes to
court to ask a judge to agree with him.

His attorney, David Sanders of Livermore Falls, said Monday's U.S.
Supreme Court decision that there is no exception in federal law for
people to use marijuana to ease their pain from illness will have no
effect on Ellis's case because he was arrested prior to the ruling.

Three doctors recommended marijuana over the years; Ellis has used it
since he was diagnosed with MD in 1983. He has tried all the
conventional drugs given to relax the disease's trademark muscle
spasms, but said he can't tolerate the strong medications. They make
him so sick he is "unable to do anything, unable to live," he said.

As the smoke curls from his lips, the lines that cut across his
63-year-old brow smooth.

"It makes my muscles relax so I can do things during the day, and it
allows me to sleep at night," Ellis said. "It's a God-given herb," a
temporary cure that gives him relief.

In 1999, 61 percent of Maine voters passed the Medicinal Marijuana
Act to allow patients suffering from serious diseases to possess
marijuana.

These patients must have notes from their doctors. They can have as
many as six plants. No more than three may be mature, flowering
plants. They may also have 1 1/4 ounces of harvested marijuana.

For Ellis, living month to month on disability checks, the medicinal
marijuana statute doesn't provide a way for him to grow enough of the
heat-loving plant to last from summer to summer.

"I just kept thinking, what if I can't make it through the winter?
What if next summer I can't garden?" So last summer he decided to
grow many more plants than the statute allows. Police say they
confiscated 83 plants from two secluded gardens. They said they found
3 pounds of processed marijuana.

Police and, now, prosecutors say Ellis was way over the legal limit.
For the misdemeanor marijuana cultivation charge, Ellis could face up
to one year in jail and a fine of up to $2,000. He said he fears a
jail sentence but cannot afford to pay a fine.

In a hearing scheduled for later this week, Ellis' attorney, Sanders,
will try to persuade Justice Kirk Studstrup that the case against
Ellis should be dismissed.

He said he will argue that the medicinal marijuana statute is flawed
because it allows patients to use marijuana, but doesn't allow them
to acquire a constant supply throughout the year.

Sanders said he will call to the stand Ellis's physician, Dr.
Christopher Smith of Kingfield. He also will call an experienced
marijuana grower, and Assistant Attorney General James Cameron, who
served on a 28-member task force to try to make the marijuana law
work.

District Court Judge Robert Mullen said that the only doctor's note
Ellis had at the time of the raid was written in 1983. Mullen said
the note did not technically meet the statute's requirements. Since
his arrest, Ellis has collected two more doctors' notes, just to be
sure.

"All this, the arrest and everything, has taken a big toll on my
life," Ellis said. "I'm not looking for pity. I just think there are
more important things the police need to take care of than me."