POT EXHIBIT AT SCHOOL SCIENCE FAIR GOES BUST UNDER CRUSH OF ATTENTION

Calif. (AP) - A shy seventh grader's hotly disputed medical marijuana
science fair project wilted Wednesday as she was too embarrassed to
present her pot-laced products alongside less controversial entries.

The young girl's entry, dubbed "Mary Jane For Pain," met science fair
guidelines, school officials decided, but the Mission Hill Junior
High School student opted not to attend the fair and scaled back her
display.

She refused to be interviewed about her project that originally
featured literature regarding medical marijuana alongside faux
pot-laced muffins and real marijuana-infused rubbing alcohol.

The watered-down version of the medical marijuana project, a few
newspaper clippings of pot club busts fixed to black cardboard,
failed to place among the finalists at the science fair. The entries
were judged by scientists from NASA and the University of California.

"Even though she didn't win and she didn't place, she learned more
out of this project than all the kids at that science fair combined,"
said the girl's aunt, Jackie Fitzhenry.

The muffin never had the real stuff in it anyway, Fitzhenry said.
"The muffin was yellow cake mix with food coloring," Fitzhenry said,
who admits to baking the item. But she acknowledged placing a note on
the muffin that read "This is for exhibition only."

Fitzhenry works at a nonprofit organization that dispenses real
marijuana muffins and other cannabis-laced goodies to people
suffering from terminal illnesses.

The community roiled after the girl she brought her display to school
for approval. School administrators initially sent the pot props back
to the girl's home and said her medical marijuana display could be
shown - only without the marijuana.

"She had some good questions," said Mission Hill's principal Cathy
Stefanki-Iglesias. "The value is in what the student learned from the
scientific process."

The girl's father, Joe Morris, agreed that his family had indeed
learned from the experience.

"You know what? Nobody is doing anything wrong here. She came up with
a hypothesis and a conclusion and, you know what? We learned
something," Morris said. "Medical marijuana isn't a bunch of people
sitting around taking payments from the government to smoke
marijuana."

The girl's schoolmates buzzed around the fair, parents in tow, and
talked less about the blue ribbon entries and more about medicinal
marijuana - the sort of attention such an exhibit was designed to
bring all along.

One mother, Stephanie Raugust, came to the science fair to see her
13-year-old's entry. Raugust said she didn't have a problem with the
medicinal marijuana subject matter, but added she didn't think
"glorifying drug use was the best thing to do."

Eighth-grader Amelia Telt, 13, said she wouldn't be allowed to tackle
such a thorny issue as medical marijuana for a science project.

"My mom would freak out. She'd probably send me to boot camp," Telt
said as she circled among the dozens of displays.

The next science project might be different for the girl who worked
three months researching the benefits of medical marijuana for AIDS
patients and cancer survivors.

"We're talking about a volcano or something real simple," Fitzhenry said.