COUNTYWIDE JUDGE OKS PARDON FOR POT CONVICTION

Superior Court judge on Wednesday approved a medical marijuana activist's
request for a pardon for a 1991 conviction for cultivating pot.

After a brief court hearing, Judge Steven Hintz approved Andrea Nagy's
request and forwarded it to Gov. Pete Wilson.

"I have rehabilitated myself," said Nagy, the owner-operator of the
county's only medical marijuana clinic, which was recently shut down by
court order. "And the activity I committed is no longer proscribed by the
state."

Nagy was referring to the fact that under 1996's Proposition 218, it is
legal to use marijuana for medical purposes. The Thousand Oaks resident
argues that the handful of marijuana plants found in her house in 1991 were
grown to treat her chronic migraine headaches. A deputy district attorney,
who opposed Nagy in court, calls that revisionist history, saying Nagy did
not mention any medicinal use during her arrest seven years ago.

Prosecutor Robin McGrew contested the petition because of Nagy's previous
probation violations. Nagy is no longer on probation. "She didn't complete
her probation without a violation," McGrew said after the hearing. "She
tested positive for drugs."

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