MARLOWE SAYS MARIJUANA CHARGES WILL BE FOUGHT

Medical marijuana advocate Jean Marlowe says recent marijuana charges
against Steve Marlowe will be fought and the fight will cost the
taxpayers of this county thousands of dollars.

Jean Marlowe wrote a letter to the editor (see pg. 8) saying that she
is one of the patients for whom Steve Marlowe grows marijuana. She
questions the informant that the Polk County Sheriff's Office used to
execute warrants and says the county faces potential lawsuits in the
case for unnecessary destruction of one property and abuse to another
individual, who was hit with a gun, knocked out and had to spend the
night in the hospital.

Last Tuesday night, the Polk County Sheriff's Office executed search
warrants at the home of Steve Marlowe on Coopers Trace Road in Sunny
View, where officers seized about 60 marijuana plants being grown
there, according to sheriff's office reports. Steve Marlowe was
charged with maintaining a vehicle/dwelling/place for a controlled
substance, manufacturing marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

He appeared in Polk County District Court last Wednesday; the case
was continued until Dec. 12.

Although only Steve Marlowe was charged last Tuesday, Jean Marlowe
says her advocacy for the use of medical marijuana has resulted in
her being arrested and prosecuted in the past. She uses marijuana
medicinally because she was born with a defective liver, which makes
her allergic to any type pain reliever. Several of her cases in the
past (in 1996 and 1998) have been dismissed by the district attorney
or reduced to a misdemeanor. Her most recent case in Bryson City in
May was also dismissed.

She says 14 states have now passed laws to protect patients and when
this case is over she will work for N.C. Legislation to protect
patients and their caregivers from prosecution. She says Congress has
passed the "Right To Be Pain Free Act," which provides some
protection on a constitutional level.

In her letter, Jean Marlowe questions the tactics used to execute the
warrants against Steve and says the sheriff's office did not find
large amounts of marijuana and cash as the informant had advised.

But sheriff's officers say there were 60 plants with special lights
and that the growing operation was one of the biggest and most
professional they'd seen.

Polk County Sheriff Chris Abril says the informant was local and his
office was simply trying to do its job and enforce the law.

"(Marijuana) is still illegal in North Carolina," Sheriff Abril said.
"All we are doing is trying to do our jobs and enforce the law."