JUDGE REJECTS MAN'S 'PRESCRIPTION' FOR MEDICINAL MARIJUANA

Must serve 90 days in jail.

Charles Palmer says he grew marijuana in the front yard of his Las Lomas
home to ease his hepatitis C symptoms.

Doctors agree he has the liver disease. They also agree marijuana may
offer relief from his nausea and chronic pain.

They won't, however, write him a prescription.

Palmer says the doctors have told him their hands are tied because federal
authorities have threatened to prosecute and revoke the medical licenses of
any doctor who prescribes medical marijuana.

As a result, Palmer was ordered Wednesday to serve 90 days in jail,
beginning April 17.

Palmer, 45, pleaded guilty in December to a negotiated misdemeanor charge
of possession of marijuana. He was sentenced in January to three years of
probation and 90 days in jail, but Superior Court Judge Jonathan Price said
he would review the case if Palmer returned to court with a doctor's
prescription or recommendation.

Passed by voters in 1996, Proposition 215 made it legal for people with a
doctor's recommendation to possess and grow small amount of marijuana for
medicinal purposes.

The law has attracted the wrath of federal authorities and, in some casees,
local law enforcement.

On Tuesday, federal prosecutors in San Francisco asked U.S. District Judge
Charles Breyera to order the closure of all of California's medical
marijuana clinics because they violate federal laws. Breyera indicated he
will not rule until after April 16.

That same day, the co-founder of San Jose's medical marijuana clinic, Peter
Baez, was arrested for allegedly selling marijuana to a client who did not
have a prescription. Baez and other employees of the clinic, which
previously had been allowed to operate untouched by local authorities,
maintain they had proper documentation from the client.

Palmer went to court Wednesday hoping that he, too, had proper
documentation. Appearing with his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Enrique
Martinez, he presented to Price a letter from Dr. Arnold Leff, medical
adviser to WAMM -- Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana -- in Santa
Cruz.

Leff wrote that he'd confirmed Palmer's condition and symptoms and said the
"nausea he describes as well as his symptoms of chronic pain are very
possibly relieved by marijuana."

"It might also be relieved by a couple of quarts of scotch," retorted
Deputy District Attorney Bob Hatton -- a remark that angered Palmer, who
noted later that drinking scotch in his condition would likely kill him.

Price said the letter did not qualify as a recommendation or prescription
and said he had no option but to impose the previous 90-day sentence.

He said he had already shown Palmer leniency by placing him on probation.
Because of a long history, Palmer was statutorily ineligible for probation,
but Price ruled his case was "unusual."

Price gave Palmer three weeks to arrange to serve his term on home
confinement. The Las Lomas man, who supports himself by painting adresses
on curbs for $5 a shot, says that is a luxury he cannot afford. Prisoners
on home confinement are charged about $10 day for the privilege.

"We don't have $900," said Cynthia Tipton, Palmer's live-in girlfriend.
"Do you know what three months in jail is going to do to him?"

Tipton said Palmer, who has no medical insurance, has been controlling the
disease with diet, keeping his appetite up by smoking pot to quell the
nausea.

In court Wednesday, Palmer said blood tests performed by his primary
physician confirmed that the high-calorie diet was working in controlling
the disease.

Neither Palmer's diet nor the medicinal pot will be available to him in
jail, Tipton said.

"I expected to get some kind of justice," Palmer said after the
proceedings, "and it really didn't happen."