2 CASES PUT PROP. 215 UNDER JUDICIAL SPOTLIGHT

Two medical marijuana trials-one federal,one local-that are at very
different phases this week could have a significant impact on how, or
whether, Prop. 215, California's medical marijuana initiative passed by
voters in 1996, will ever be properly implemented.

B.E.Smith, a patient with a doctor's recommendation, is due to be sentenced
in a federal case in Sacramento on Friday for growing marijuana. And Steve
Kubby's trial for growing marijuana with intent to distribute is finally
under way, with jury selection begun, in Auburn in Placer County.

B.E.Smith's case hit the news briefly a few months ago when actor Woody
Harrelson exploded in the courtroom, saying to the judge, "I'm wondering
why you're keeping the truth from the jury."

Mr. Smith, a decorated Vietnam veteran who lives in Trinity County,
discovered some years ago that marijuana gave him relief from
post-traumatic stress disorder. After the voters turned Prop. 215 into part
of the state Health and Safety Code, his doctor wrote him a prescription.
In May 1997, after announcing his intentions to the local sheriff, district
attorney and Board of Supervisors, he started growing 20 plants in his
front yard.

Soon he heard from other patients who couldn't grow their own. "He was
always compassionate, perhaps to a fault," his wife Mary told us Wednesday.
Nine of them designated him their primary caretaker; he eventually had 87
plants. He talked openly about what he was doing.

In September 1997 federal agents arrested him and destroyed his plants. His
defense attorneys, noting that he was the first person in Northern
California ever prosecuted by the feds for fewer than 100 plants, are
convinced he was singled out because he was so open and aboveboard.

U.S.District Judge Garland Burrell Jr. presided over the trial. He didn't
allow the state's Prop. 215 or the term "medical marijuana" to be mentioned
to the jury in this federal trial. As far they knew this was just a guy
growing a lot of pot without a good explanation for it. They found him guilty.

The Smith case demonstrates the unreasonableness the federal judicial
system has shown in dealing with the will of California voters as expressed
in Prop. 215.

Things could go differently, though, in Kubby's case, brought by the local
district attorney and in which the judge already announced he will allow a
Prop, 215 defense; the case could set important legal precedents and affect
attitudes of citizens and officials alike - especially is the jury is
allowed to hear the whole story.