WOODY HARRELSON BACKS FIRST MEDICAL POT GROWER TO HAVE TRIAL

SACRAMENTO (AP) -- The first Californian to fight federal drug charges
using the state's new medical marijuana law drew support Thursday from
actor Woody Harrelson, who says the judge and prosecutors are unfairly
using the case to try to defeat Proposition 215.

B.E. Smith was convicted on felony charges of possession and cultivation of
marijuana in May. He faces up to five years in prison at his sentencing
next Friday. Smith has said that he grew pot to help sick people. Such a
defense could offer the Trinity County resident immunity in a state court
because Proposition 215 allows for the growth and consumption of marijuana
for medical use.

A Vietnam veteran suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Smith, 52,
obtained a doctor's recommendation for marijuana when California voters
approved Proposition 215 in 1996.

``Are we living in a democracy when the federal government and a puppet
judge blatantly disregard a law created by the people?'' Harrelson said
Thursday.

The judge at Smith's May trial agreed with federal prosecutors arguments to
bar defense arguments relating to Proposition 215.

``Under federal law there is no such thing as a caregiver who can grow
marijuana,'' prosecutor Nancy L. Simpson, assistant U.S. attorney, said
Thursday in an interview. ``Proposition 215 is not a defense to federal
statues. The only question for the jury was whether he was cultivating it.''

Smith's attorney, Thomas J. Ballanco, called his attempts to defend Smith
under those conditions ``surreal.'' Ballanco and Harrelson spoke during a
telephone conference call on the case Thursday.

``All we could do was try to prove that B.E. Smith is truthful and law
abiding,'' Ballanco said.

In that effort, Harrelson -- who met Smith at environmental protests over
the Headwaters Forest in 1997 -- testified on Smith's behalf.

But Harrelson, frustrated at not being able to talk about medical
marijuana, clashed with the judge and accused him of ``keeping the truth
from the jury.''

At one point, U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. warned Harrelson,
who gained fame on the ``Cheers'' television show, that he might find
himself behind bars if he continued to defy the court.

Smith has made no secret of growing marijuana for himself and others after
passage of Proposition 215, Ballanco said.

In September of 1997, federal agents seized 87 marijuana plants which Smith
had planted on federal land in Denny. Two months later, Smith was charged
in a federal grand jury indictment.

Medical marijuana advocates have been closely watching Smith's case,
wondering if it could mark a new stage in the face-off between state and
federal authorities over the law.

But state officials said the case should not affect their efforts to
implement the voter's will.

``If Smith was on his own property, growing what he says was medicine for
medicinal use, then there might be an issue to raise about whether there
might be some enforcement clash between the state and federal government,''
said Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for state Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

``But if he's growing it on federal land it would be pretty unusual to
expect the U.S attorney to ignore federal law,'' Barankin said.