WANTED - THE RIGHT TO SMOKE SOME POT

'It Helps Me To Sleep, Mainly,' Man Says

A Roanoke man charged with marijuana possession says he needs the drug for
medicinal purposes.

Pitches for escort services, bankruptcy lawyers and private detectives have
some new neighbors these days in The Roanoke Times' classified
advertisements section.

Five ads have cried out for two months on behalf of legalizing medicinal
marijuana and against "evil people" posing as "concerned citizens." One of
the ads compares the United States to Nazi-era Germany and Communist China.

The declarations are more than small-print punditry. C.J. "Jay" Lynch says
he is using them to help him avoid 30 years in prison on a marijuana
manufacturing charge.

He's determined to fight the charge but hasn't been able to settle on a
lawyer he can agree with, he said. That has forced postponements of his jury
trial, now scheduled for Feb. 8 and 9. A circuit judge assigned the public
defender's office to his case. Still, Lynch said he is inclined to represent
himself.

"Instead of paying five to ten grand for an attorney, we'll put an ad in the
paper," Lynch said. "Maybe we'll get some good public opinion out there."

On a cold Monday night, Lynch stood on his back porch with a friend and a
scampering Shar-Pei, drinking a can of Busch beer and discussing his case.

"I don't look at myself as a criminal," said Lynch, who works at a cemetery
and is a part-time entertainment promoter. "I just look at myself as someone
who needs medicinal marijuana, and smokes it."

Local law enforcement disagrees. In September 1999, city police arrested
Lynch, saying they had seized more than 100 mature marijuana plants after
executing a search warrant at his Westside Boulevard Northwest home.

They first charged him with manufacturing with the intent to distribute, but
the commonwealth's attorney's office dropped that case. A grand jury
indicted him that October on a charge of manufacturing or possessing
marijuana with the intent to manufacture it for others' use.

Lynch said police made a gross overstatement of his supply, from which he
has never dealt. He uses it only for medicinal purposes since a 1992 car
crash ruined his back, he said. Pain pills messed up his stomach, made his
hair fall out and turned his skin a macabre pale, he said. So he turned to
pot for pain relief.

"I just smoke it at night," he said. "It helps me to sleep, mainly."

He runs ads on a variety of other subjects, including one promoting local
blues singer Bill Hudson. His focus, though, is on the pending case, and he
plans to spend $2,000 in an attempt to make his point.

One ad lists states that have passed medicinal marijuana laws. Two address
the "concerned citizens" or "anonymous tipsters" police use to make cases.
The most recent ad, which compares the United States to totalitarian
regimes, complains about the fact that people convicted on drug charges can
lose their driver's licenses.

Lynch, echoing another of the ads, said crack cocaine is the country's real
problem. Law enforcement should focus on heroin, ecstasy and other drugs -
not his beloved herb, which he says he uses responsibly.

"I don't condone it for kids," he said. "I don't condone it, really, for
anybody. But it works for me."

He faces at least one problem. Virginia law does not allow for medicinal
marijuana use, much less for owning the 20-some plants he said were growing
in his back yard when police showed up.

Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Wes Nance, who is prosecuting Lynch, would
not discuss the case.

"Suffice it to say, the Roanoke Valley, and the city in particular, has a
problem with all illegal narcotics," Nance said.

Lynch said he is especially upset with the two "concerned citizens" who
tipped police. He knows who they are, and he knows they had a grudge against
him, he said.

After receiving the tip, police began to monitor the house, checking how
much electricity was consumed there, according to court documents. Police
found the consumption was high compared to neighboring houses, but recovered
no indoor-growing equipment in their search, court documents state.

In a May 23 ruling, Judge Jonathan Apgar denied Lynch's motion to suppress
evidence from the warrant, and refused to force the prosecutor's office to
identify the informants.

Anonymous tips rightfully protect the tipsters, Nance said. If police were
forced to surrender informants' names, "that investigative tool would dry up
for the investigator," he said.

Lynch filed another motion in October, asking to suppress a videotape that
includes footage of a partially naked woman watering "plants that appear to
be marijuana plants." In the motion, Lynch's then-lawyer Charlie Phillips
said the tape is irrelevant and prejudicial to the case.

If convicted, the 39-year-old Lynch faces five to 30 years in prison and a
fine of up to $10,000. There is no mandatory minimum sentence, though, Nance
said. Since 1992, state law has required that judges suspend driver's
licenses for six months with narcotics convictions, but it also allows for
restricted licenses for driving to school, work and child care, Nance said.

If not for the prospect of losing his license, he'd just plead guilty to
possession, he said, but it has become a matter of principle.

"I've pretty much lost friends" over the bust, he said. "It just leaves more
weed to smoke."