POT-GROWING AILING MAN LOSES SUIT AGAINST POLICE

SIMI VALLEY -- Police acted legally when they arrested a 64-year-old
diabetic, who said he uses marijuana to relieve pain, for growing 13 pot
plants in his back yard, a jury ruled.

Rex Dean Jones sued the Police Department and three officers for false
arrest, illegal searches and illegal seizures in violation of the
Compassionate Use Act of 1996.

Proposition 215, the voter-approved measure allowing seriously ill
Californians to cultivate marijuana for medical purposes, didn't specify
the number of plants a user can grow. But then-state Attorney General Dan
Lungren issued strict recommendations on cultivation, saying each plant
yields one pound of pot and growing more than two plants would be illegal.

Simi Valley police were working under those guidelines when they arrested
Jones, who had gone to police before his arrest to tell them he was growing
marijuana to treat symptoms of diabetes, high blood pressure, skin cancer,
back pains and migraines. He also showed authorities a doctor's note.

Criminal charges against Jones were eventually dropped and police returned
the confiscated plants, although they were dead. Jones was reimbursed for
the loss by his insurance company.

Attorney J. David Nick told jurors that police willfully disregarded the
state's medical marijuana law, saying, "Their attitude is resistance to the
existence of the law."

Attorney Martin R. Berman, representing the city, said the trial was about
whether it was a legal arrest and not about medical marijuana or deciding
how many plants a medicinal user can grow.

"This is about the police doing their job," Berman said. "There are no
standards, yet we ask police officers to make a judgment every day."

Jurors deliberated two hours before returning their verdict Thursday.

Nick said he'll appeal the verdict, claiming Superior Court Judge Kent
Kellegrew erroneously refused to allow a marijuana expert to testify on how
many marijuana plants should be legally grown by medicinal users.

The decision came the same day the Department of Justice pledged in a San
Francisco federal courtroom to continue resisting California's medical
marijuana law.

The government has the right to penalize doctors who recommend cannabis by
revoking their licenses to dispense medication, federal lawyers said.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit against the government
contending its position violates doctors' free speech rights, and that many
doctors now resist recommending pot for fear of losing their federal right
to prescribe medication.

U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup was expected to rule within weeks.