POT TRIAL FOCUSES ON REASON FOR GROWING

From the prosecution's point of view, greed and profit were the heart of
an 899-plant marijuana farm in Petaluma, not kindness and compassion for
medical marijuana users.

As the trial for two employees of a medical marijuana buyers club got under
way Tuesday, a prosecutor told the jury it was a straightforward drug sales
case -- not a debate over the use of pot for medical reasons.

In stark contrast, defense attorneys portrayed the two defendants as doing
noble work, helping sick and dying people in San Francisco get marijuana to
ease suffering from AIDS, cancer and other ailments.

"Ken Hayes was potentially doing God's work," Hayes' attorney, William
Panzer, said in his opening statement. "That's why it's an honor to
represent him."

Panzer, co-author of the 1996 initiative that authorized medical use of
marijuana, said the evidence will show Hayes, 33, was not getting rich, or
even breaking even, but losing money on the pot farming operation off King
Road.

Hayes, 33, was the executive director of CHAMP -- Cannabis Helping
Alleviate Medical Problems -- and says he was the caregiver for more than
1,200 people who obtained marijuana at the facility in the Castro district
of San Francisco.

He and the ex-general manager of the club, Michael S. Foley, 34, are
charged with marijuana cultivation, possession with intent to sell and
possession of a pound of hashish.

In her opening statement to the jury, prosecutor Carla Claeys said the King
Road pot farm was large and sophisticated.

"The defense will be that they were primary caregivers under the
Compassionate Use Act," she said. "This case is not about a cannabis club
in San Francisco, or politics in San Francisco, or whether it should be
used for medical purposes, or not. This is a sales case."

Hayes and Foley face up to five years in prison if convicted, but Panzer
said he believes by the time the trial is over, the jury will be angry that
prosecutors pursued the case against the pair.

Panzer said the club made every effort to conform to the law when it came
to dispensing marijuana, including consulting with San Francisco District
Attorney Terence Hallinan, who is expected to testify for the defense.

"There were not sales out the back door to high school kids," he said.

Although some court rulings have held that caregivers can be compensated
for their expenses and services in providing marijuana, Claeys said Hayes
had no paperwork to show itemization of costs.

"They were straight out selling marijuana for money," she said.

She said the pot farm was worth a half-million dollars. It consisted of six
small greenhouses and a hydroponic operation using artificial lights inside
the barn. Authorities also seized a .22-caliber rifle, but the defense says
Hayes was using it to guard the chicken coop against raccoons.

Rebutting arguments that Hayes does not qualify under California's medical
marijuana law as a caregiver, Panzer said Hayes' club did more than simply
furnish marijuana.

He said the club, with Hayes at the helm, also provided social programs,
dinners, massages and a place to go for sick people who otherwise would be
sitting at home.

After taking the reins of the club in 1998, Panzer said Hayes decided it
would be cheaper for the club to grow its own marijuana and had that in
mind when he rented the two-acre property on King Road.

Although prosecutors said last week that Hayes had been arrested for
growing 50 marijuana plants in Marin County in 1997, Claeys acknowledged
Tuesday that that information was incorrect and Hayes was neither arrested
nor charged in connection with that case.

Hayes said a neighbor complained about his growing operation in Marin
County, but the police who investigated were satisfied the plants were for
medical purposes.

The trial, which began Tuesday in the courtroom of Sonoma County Judge
Robert Boyd, is expected to last two to three weeks, with most of the
testimony from defense witnesses.