POT CLINIC TRIAL RESET FOR APRIL

Federal Bar on State Law to Hinder Defense

Two Modesto men who ran a medical marijuana clinic on McHenry Avenue
will have a difficult time mounting a defense against federal drug
charges if they cannot talk about the pain relief the drug can
provide or their efforts to ensure that the California Healthcare
Collective complied with state laws.

But they won't have to go to trial Nov. 13 in U.S. District Court in
Fresno. Judge Lawrence J. O'Neill on Wednesday pushed the trial back
to April 15, giving the defense a few more months to challenge a
prosecutors' contention that the voters' decision to legalize medical
marijuana has no place in federal court.

Ricardo Ruiz Montes, 27, and Luke Scarmazzo, 27, were arrested in
September 2006 after a 15-month investigation that included
surveillance and purchases by undercover agents who had prescriptions
for medical marijuana.

Their attorneys want to show that the collective had a business
license, paid taxes and cooperated with the City Council, which
eventually voted to ban such dispensaries.

They also say Montes, Scarmazzo and six other defendants who face a
host of drug and conspiracy charges are victims of entrapment,
because they called to verify prescriptions the agents presented, as
required by law.

"I want to show how these agents purchased this marijuana," said
defense attorney Anthony Capozzi of Fresno, who represents Scarmazzo.
"The government wants to leave all that out."

$40k Clinic Ballooned to $4.5m

The case has been closely watched because the collective raked in
$4.5 million between December 2004 and June 2006. Scarmazzo also has
drawn attention, because he released a rap-style music video in which
he shakes his fist at the City Council a few months before his arrest.

Montes started the collective with a $40,000 settlement he got from
an injury accident. His attorney said the collective would have
closed its doors if Montes thought he was doing anything wrong or
believed he'd face federal prosecution that could result in 20 years
to life behind bars.

"It wasn't a secret, clandestine lab," said attorney Robert Forkner
of Modesto, who represents Montes.

A 2005 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court said a 1996 initiative that
legalized marijuana for medical uses in California does not shield
people from federal prosecution.

U.S. Attorney Kathleen Servatius argues that the political debate
surrounding medical marijuana is out of bounds in federal court.

"Defendants cannot identify a single authorized federal government
official who erroneously told them it was permissible to sell
marijuana," Servatius said in legal papers.

Raids Have More Than Doubled

The collective was one of 20 pot clubs statewide raided in 2006 by
the Drug Enforcement Agency. Federal investigators have more than
doubled their efforts so far this year, raiding 45 pot clubs.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a
Washington, D.C.-based group, estimates that there are more than 400
medical marijuana dispensaries in California, and more than 150,000
medical marijuana users.

Three cases have gone to trial in federal courts in California since
the high court's opinion two years ago. Testimony about Proposition
215, the initiative that legalized medical marijuana in 1996, has
been banned each time.

"These cases in federal court are extremely difficult to defend,"
said Kris Hermes, a spokesman for Americans for Safe Access, a
nationwide medical marijuana advocacy group that is based in Oakland.