MEDICAL POT ADVOCATES TURN OUT FOR GROWERS' HEARING

Medical marijuana patients filled a Sonoma County courtroom Thursday to
support three defendants who claim they are unfairly being prosecuted for
growing medical pot.

Kenneth Hayes, Cheryl Sequeira and Michael Foley face charges of
cultivating and possessing marijuana in connection with the seizure of more
than 800 plants, about 20 pounds of dried marijuana and one pound of dried
hashish confiscated last May at their King Road home in Petaluma.

Hayes, 32, executive director of a San Francisco-based cannabis club,
contends the operation was a cooperative that provides medical pot for more
than 1,000 seriously ill people in the Bay Area.

Sonoma County authorities, however, are attempting to portray the growers
as driven by profit, no different from other illicit marijuana growers.

The court case could help settle the question about marijuana co-ops in the
wake of Proposition 215, the initiative approved by California voters in
1996 allowing the use of medical marijuana. While the initiative legalized
its use, it did not specify how people were supposed to get the drug.

Sonoma County District Attorney Mike Mullins has taken actions to allow
patients with doctor approval to grow plants for personal use. But he says
nothing in the generally worded law allows people to grow large amounts of
marijuana to sell or distribute.

William Panzer, Hayes' attorney and a co-author of Proposition 215, said
higher courts have recognized the right of a caregiver to grow marijuana
for more than one patient.

Hayes' organization, CHAMP, or Cannabis Helping Alleviate Medical Problems,
has been commended for its work by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors
and Mayor Willie Brown in resolutions passed last year.

Chris Andrian, the Santa Rosa attorney representing Sequeira, said, "We
have a situation where the city and county of San Francisco were lauding
them and the County of Sonoma is condemning them."

On Thursday, the long-delayed preliminary hearing got under way in Judge
Frank Passalacqua's courtroom in front of about 40 medical marijuana
advocates who rode up on a chartered bus from San Francisco.

In three hours of testimony Thursday, Sonoma County sheriff's narcotics
deputy Steve Gossett detailed the number of plants that were seized at the
King Road home and greenhouse, along with a loaded .22 rifle and $3,300 in
cash.

Gossett testified that some of the written records, or "pay-owes," he
seized from the house convinced him the marijuana was for the purposes of
sale and resale.

But Panzer told the court the defendants were going to be reimbursed for
their growing and costs.

The hearing continues today.