POT USER PLEADS NOT GUILTY

VENTURA -- A 62-year-old Simi Valley man who notified police he was growing
marijuana for his own medical use pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a
cultivation charge and plans to use Proposition 215 for his defense.

"I have my doctor's approval," said Rex Dean Jones, who is facing a felony
count of growing marijuana. "This insanity has got to stop. ... I am not
guilty of what they say I'm guilty of."

Following a brief arraignment, Jones recalled how he told Simi Valley
police he was growing marijuana in his back yard under provisions of
Proposition 215, in an effort to avoid just the sort of legal entanglements
in which he now finds himself.

Police searched his home and found 14 marijuana plants, which Jones said
supplies him with the cannabis to alleviate the diabetes, migraine
headaches, nerve damage, and high blood pressure from which he suffers.

Jones said that while his doctor, Carl Gross of Ojai, has not prescribed or
recommended marijuana, Gross has given both written and oral approval.

Jones said he has used marijuana medicinally for 20 years, buying it on the
street before becoming a client of the Rainbow Country Ventura County
Medical Cannabis Center in Thousand Oaks. But when that facility closed
earlier this year after the District Attorney's Office filed a civil suit,
Jones decided to grow his own.

"This was not something that was designed to invite police action," said
Jones' attorney, Stanley Arky. "It was designed in the first place to
prevent police action. I cannot imagine why they decided to do this. Rather
than investigate this and inquire, they decided to arrest him."

Andrea Nagy, a marijuana activist and operator of the marijuana dispensary
in Thousand Oaks, said Jones' arrest was outrageous. "I don't know how much
longer they're going to torture sick people," she said.

Following Jones' arrest, Simi Valley police said Jones is the first person
ever to notify the department that he intended to grow marijuana for
medical use and that the department looks at the incidents on a
case-by-case basis.

An early disposition conference on Jones' case is set for Tuesday, with a
preliminary hearing to follow June 16. Jones remains free on his own
recognizance.

Copyright 1998 Daily News Los Angeles