JUDGE AMENDS BAIL TO OK MARIJUANA USE

FARMINGTON - A judge has amended bail conditions for a New Vineyard
man charged with growing marijuana to allow him to continue to use it
for medical reasons.

District Judge Robert E. Mullen's decision, likely the first in which
a judge has amended bail rules to allow medicinal use of marijuana,
stipulates that Leonard Ellis, 62, must comply with Maine's new law.

The law allows those with a doctor's certified recommendation to
possess six growing plants and 1 ounces of processed marijuana for
medical use. Ellis is accused of having 83 plants and several ounces
of processed marijuana at his New Vineyard home.

Federal law, which supersedes state law, still bars possession of
marijuana for any reason.

The ruling came after Ellis' lawyer, David Sanders, asked to court to
approve the release of a legal amount of the marijuana seized during
the Aug. 9 raid at Ellis' home.

Ellis suffers from muscular dystrophy and says he uses marijuana to
help him relax his deteriorating muscles so he can sleep. After his
arraignment, he said he would call friends to help him find more of
the drug.

"I'm fighting for my life," he said. He added that his condition is
worsening and that he often is too weak to get out of bed. He grew
extra marijuana this year in case he was too ill to do it in future
years, he said.

Assistant District Attorney James Andrews disagreed with the ruling,
but also commended the judge for his compassion and his effort to act
within the spirit of the new state law, which voters approved last
November.

"If I agreed, it would mean I was agreeing that (Ellis) could possess
what would be contraband under federal law," he said. "The (medical
marijuana) law is well-intentioned, but it creates a huge mess as far
as enforcement goes."

The Ellis case is not a test case of Maine's new law because the
amount being grown was so beyond the limit, he said.

The Ellis case shows that obtaining medical marijuana presents
problems for those the law is intended to help, Sanders said. Many are
not likely to have the resources or ability to set up indoor growing
operations or acquire marijuana year-round, he said. Instead, they
turn to the black market.