ARCHITECT FACES JAIL FOR GROWING MARIJUANA

Summerland Activist Pleads No Contest To Felony Count Of Growing Pot At His
Home.

Summerland architect and community activist Jerome White claims dozens of
marijuana plants found growing at his home were for medicinal use by his
ailing mother. However, he faces a six-month jail sentence, after pleading
no contest Wednesday to cultivating the illicit crop.

Under plea bargains reached with the District Attorney's Office, a
no-contest plea to a felony drug count was also entered by David Pryor, a
friend of White and co-defendant in the case. Pryor's punishment is to be
determined by Superior Court Judge Thomas Adams on Jan. 5, but it will be a
year or less in county jail, said Deputy District Attorney Brian Hill.
White will be formally sentenced that day to the predetermined six-month term.

His wife, Deniece White, 47, was placed on probation for three years but
spared any jail time when she pleaded no contest Wednesday to misdemeanor
possession of concentrated cannabis (flower tops from marijuana plants).
Her husband and Pryor also will be on probation for three years.

Sheriff's detectives arrested the trio in June 1998 after a search turned
up about 175 marijuana plants in a garage and an outdoor growing area at
the Whites' home on Lillie Avenue. At the time, Pryor, 53, was living in a
camper on White's property and helping him grow the marijuana, according to
court documents.

Outside the courtroom Wednesday, Jerome White, 47, claimed the marijuana
was for use by his 71-year-old mother. She suffers from rheumatoid
arthritis, osteoporosis, a degenerative spinal condition, and depression --
and has a doctor's permission to smoke marijuana for treatment of those
ailments, said White and his defense attorney, Dennis Merenbach.

However, White admitted to sheriff's detectives after his arrest that he
also was smoking marijuana and that he had sold quarter-ounce and
half-ounce quantities of his illegal harvest to some of his friends, noted
a court document filed by Pryor's lawyer. Deputy Public Defender Seymour
Weisberg contended Pryor didn't know any of the marijuana was being sold.

In exchange for Pryor pleading no contest to felony possession of
concentrated cannabis, more serious charges of cultivating and possessing
marijuana for sale were dismissed. Those counts carried a potential
sentence of up to three years in state prison. A possession-for-sale count
against the Whites was also dismissed.

If Pryor had gone to trial on the original charges, a defense of "medical
necessity" would have been raised on his behalf under Proposition 215, said
Weisberg. That measure, approved by California voters in 1996, allows
patients to smoke marijuana with a doctor's recommendation.

Weisberg said Pryor is a recovering alcoholic who uses marijuana to help
him keep from drinking.