SUIT DISMISSED OVER MARIJUANA RAID

Doctor to Appeal, Says Agencies Targeted Him Because of Pot Stance

A federal judge has dismissed a Redding doctor's First Amendment
lawsuit in which he accused law enforcement officials of targeting
him because he was an outspoken cannabis advocate who recommended
marijuana to patients.

Dr. Philip Denney says he plans to appeal the decision handed down
recently by Senior Judge Lawrence K. Karlton of the U.S. Eastern
District Court in Sacramento.

"We feel this is definitely not over," Denney said. "We feel that the
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is going to be very interested in
reading the matter."

Denney claims that federal law enforcement officials teamed with
Redding police, the Shasta County District Attorney's Office and
others to target him during their investigation of Dixon Herbs, a
marijuana dispensary that agents busted and shut down in December 2005.

In a suit filed in November 2006, Denney alleged an informant and an
ATF agent visited his office on separate occasions, gave false
identification, reported chronic

pain and received written recommendations for marijuana.

Denney said the agents wrote in their report they debated wearing a
wire to their sessions with the doctor.

The agents then went to the Redding herb store and bought medical
marijuana, according to court documents.

Denney alleges that his practice was targeted because he's a vocal
medical marijuana advocate who frequently recommends the drug.

Being targeted by agents because of his advocacy is a violation of
rights protected by the First Amendment, the state law that legalized
medical marijuana and a Ninth Circuit ruling that guaranteed a
doctor's right to recommend it to patients, he said.

Lawyers for the various law enforcement agencies named in the suit
said Denney was never the target of the investigation.

Rather, his office was chosen because of convenience and because
employees at Dixon Herbs had recommended the informants go there to
get a doctor's recommendation for medicinal cannabis.

"We were not out to get him," Redding police Capt. Peter Hansen said
Friday. "What he was doing, even though we may not agree with it, was
in compliance with the law. He wasn't the focus of the investigation."

In his ruling late last month, Karlton agreed that there wasn't
enough evidence to show that the agents went to the doctor's office
because he was so outspoken, nor was there enough evidence to say
they singled him out from other physicians who also prescribed medicinal pot.

But Denney said he thinks judges on the Ninth Circuit might see the
issue differently, considering they were the ones who originally
ruled that doctors could discuss the drug with their patients and
recommend its use.

"If he wants to continue taking it up, we'll continue fighting it
because they're absolutely no merit to his claim," said Shasta County
District Attorney Jerry Benito.

Doctors have been able to recommend marijuana in California to
patients since 1996, despite federal laws that say it's illegal.

Doctors may be able to "recommend" the drug in written form, but they
are forbidden from writing a formal marijuana prescription, nor can
they assist patients in obtaining marijuana or grow it for their
patients to use.