DON'T REVIEW 'POT' CASE, MAGISTRATE RECOMMENDS

FAYETTEVILLE -- A U.S. magistrate recommended Friday that a federal
judge dismiss a request to review the case of a man who grew marijuana
for what he said were religious purposes. Tom Brown was sentenced in
federal court in 1995 to 10 years in prison for growing marijuana and
peyote on 40 acres of Antioch woodlands where he once presided over a
collection of tents he called "Our Church." A change in sentencing laws
later reduced the sentence to five years. He is now serving two years of
supervised release.

Brown argued in his request for review that he should have been allowed
to argue that the First Amendment protected his right to grow marijuana
and smoke it during religious ceremonies. He also said that the jury
never determined the number of plants seized by police and that the
government has no "compelling interest" to enforce drug laws.

In a report filed Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Beverly S. Jones noted
that Brown made similar arguments in his appeal, which was rejected by
the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in St. Louis in December 1995.