JUDGE CITES PROBLEM WITH SEARCH

KEY WEST -- Prosecutors have dropped their case against the director of a
medicinal marijuana club, arrested after he accepted a package with pot
mailed from Switzerland.

Joe Hart, an AIDS patient who says he smokes 8 to 10 joints a day to
increase his appetite and get rid of stress and nausea, no longer faces
three criminal charges of possession of marijuana and paraphernalia.

It's a bittersweet victory, he said.

He was ready for his day in court next month. He is free now, but he still
can't legally buy his medicine, Hart said.

"They know I'm not going to stop smoking pot, so I'm going to be busted
again," he said.

He and his friends must still turn to dealers in downtown Key West street
corners for marijuana.

"They force us to deal with these high-priced bandits who know they have us
under their thumbs," he said.

Hart, 50, is founding director of the Medical Cannabis Buyers Club, which in
1995 set up shop in a storefront across from the Monroe County Courthouse.
It was closed down after police arrested members on drug charges.

He was arrested in 1995 after a New York mail handler noticed several
packages from Switzerland smelled of marijuana. One was headed for Hart's
Key West home.

A postal inspector dressed as a carrier delivered the package. Minutes
later, federal agents and police officers were at his door again, this time
with a search warrant.

Inside, they found the opened package on Hart's bed, more marijuana in small
bags in the freezer, and pipes.

The case was scheduled to go to trial in February. The defense planned to
bring down a Harvard University professor to testify on the medicinal use of
marijuana.

Hart has had AIDS for 15 years, but he hasn't been sick in the last seven
years and hasn't taken any AIDS medications in two, he said. He credits
marijuana for his survival.

Last week, a judge determined that prosecutors could not use the evidence
found in Hart's house because when officers knocked on his door to serve the
warrant, they didn't give Hart enough time to respond.

The dismissal leaves several issues unresolved, agreed Assistant State
Attorney Rolando Castineyra. But he added, "I feel confident that we would
have won at those issues."

Assistant Public Defender Jiulio Margalli called the dismissal a victory.

"He's basically shown people that you can defend this type of case," he
said.

Hart, who advocates legalization of marijuana only for medicinal uses, is
circulating a petition to put the issue on the ballot next year and is part
of a pending federal lawsuit challenging marijuana laws.

"I'm sure I'll get busted again," he said. "I'm not going away."