JUSTICES RULE ON TRANSPORT OF MEDICINAL POT

State high court decision protects patients who carry marijuana for
their own use. The action expands defense options, attorney says.

SAN FRANCISCO -- People charged with transporting marijuana may avoid
conviction if they can show that the drug was for their personal
medical use, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday.

In a 6-1 decision, the state high court said California's medical
marijuana law protects patients who transport even relatively large
quantities of the drug if they can show that the amount was
consistent with their medical needs and recommended by a licensed physician.

The court interpreted a 2004 law passed by the Legislature to address
uncertainties that followed voter passage of the Compassionate Use
Act of 1996. The attorney general's office said the ruling would
affect a handful of cases.

Monday's decision "expands the defenses that can be used for medical
marijuana," said Maureen J. Shanahan, who represented the defendant
in the case.

Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, said
prosecutors had hoped the court would make it more difficult for
marijuana sellers to use a medical defense but said the court's
clarification of the law was helpful.

The court reached its decision in the case of Shaun Eric Wright, who
was arrested in Huntington Beach in 2001 while carrying more than a
pound of marijuana in his truck. The stash included several small
baggies, two large bags and an electronic scale.

Wright was charged with possessing marijuana for sale and with transporting it.

Wright had asked that jurors be instructed that he did not commit a
crime if they determined the marijuana was recommended by a doctor. A
physician testified that he had recommended Wright use marijuana to
alleviate pain, abdominal problems and emotional stress.

The doctor said Wright preferred eating marijuana, which requires a
larger amount to get the same effect as smoking it. The doctor said
Wright needed a pound of marijuana every two to three months.

The trial judge ruled that the medical marijuana law passed by voters
did not apply because the amount was too large and Wright was
transporting it. But the judge permitted Wright to present evidence
of medical use to rebut the possession for sale charge.

Wright was convicted of transportation and possession for sale. An
appeals court overturned the conviction on the grounds that the jury
should have been given a medical marijuana instruction.

The California Supreme Court agreed that Wright was entitled to such
an instruction but refused to overturn the conviction. The court said
the judge's error was "harmless" because the jury had the option of
convicting Wright only of possession, a misdemeanor. Instead, the
jury "found beyond a reasonable doubt that he possessed the drug with
the specific intent to sell it," wrote Justice Carlos Moreno for the majority.

Justice Marvin Baxter wrote separately, saying he agreed that
Wright's conviction should stand but disagreed that Wright was
entitled to a medical marijuana defense.

"The overwhelming evidence that defendant possessed the marijuana
with the intent of selling it precluded a reasonable doubt as to its
personal medical purpose," Baxter wrote. "This evidence prominently
included the electronic scale, the presence of which the defendant
never explained."