MARIJUANA POSSESSION DEFENDANT LEAVES COURT VOICING ANGER AT LAWYER

WASHINGTON - Renee Emry Wolfe's trial on marijuana possession just
won't end, and she blames her attorney for it.

An angry Wolfe left U.S. Superior Court Friday claiming that her
court-appointed attorney, Jeffrey Orchard, was fumbling the case
because he wasn't getting paid enough money by the court. The trial,
which began Thursday, resumes Monday.

"My lawyer is my lawyer, but if he don't start treating me like a
human being, then I'm going to fire (him)," said the 39-year-old Ann
Arbor resident. "He says he's only getting paid for 24 hours, and he
doesn't like that. He doesn't want to do this anymore."

Wolfe was arrested in September 1998 for lighting a marijuana
cigarette in the Capitol Hill office of U.S. Rep. William McCollum,
R-Fla., an opponent of medicinal marijuana use. She said the act
wasn't part of any protest, but rather an attempt to ease the muscle
spasms caused by multiple sclerosis.

Orchard said he hasn't shirked his responsibilities to his client. He
said trials sometimes take longer than defendants like them to take.

"I can only imagine what it must be like to be a defendant," said
Orchard, who said he has put in more than 240 hours on the case. "It's
got to be horrible to have your liberty and your future up in the air,
to look at the possibility of 180 days in a cage."

The maximum penalty for marijuana possession is six
months.

Wolfe said the delay over the weekend was an imposition on her and her
family. She has a husband and two small children at home.

"I can't afford to stay here (in Washington) this weekend," she said.
"I don't have any money. I don't have a change of clothes. I'm still
nursing my baby. I can't believe I'm stuck here."

The Marijuana Policy Project, a national group supporting the right to
medicinal marijuana for ailing patients, paid for her flight to
Washington. She is spending the weekend at a friend's house.

On Friday, the court heard from Dr. Denis Petro, an Arlington, Va.,
neurologist. He explained that the chemical properties of marijuana
are effective in treating muscle spasms associated with multiple
sclerosis, which is a chronic disease of the nervous system. Wolfe
says she takes two or three puffs of a marijuana cigarette every two
or three hours to ease the spasms.

"I waked and baked this morning, as I wake and bake every morning,"
she said, describing her use of the drug. "What am I going to do now?
I'm not going to have enough of it for the weekend."

Wolfe said there's only one reason to go back to court on Monday the
chance to testify.

"I'm not afraid of the government, because I'm not afraid of the
multiple sclerosis," she said. "But I've learned my lesson. Rep.
McCollum's office was not the place to have a spasm attack or to treat
it."