FELONY CHARGES IN POT CASE

Ukiah--Yvette Rubio, the woman arrested last fall for growing marijuana she
said was for the Ukiah Cannabis Buyers' Club, has been charged with felony
counts of possession and cultivation of marijuana for sale.

Rubio, 31, is scheduled to be arragned Monday in Northern Lake County
Municipal Court. If convicted, she could be sentenced to three years in
state prison.

In September, authorities seized 51 plants from Rubio's property, which is
on the western border of Lake County. The plants were surrounded by fences
with copies of contracts identifying the crop as a supply for a medical
marijuana club.

At the time, Rubio was acting as the primary caregiver for Cherrie Lovett,
the founder of the Ukiah club, according to her attorney Dave Nelson.
Lovett also uses marijuana as treatment for a medical condition.

"Their intentions were good, and nobody disputes that," Helson said.

But according to prosecutors, the recent ruling against Dennis Peron, the
founder of San Francisco's Cannabis Cultivators' Club, makes clear marijuna
cannot be grown in any way as a commericial enterprise.

Proposition 215, the measure legalizing medical use of marijuana approved
by voters in 1996, does not offer blanket protection to people who provide
the drug to patients, said Stephen Hedstrom, Lake County district attorney.

"That proposition didn't create a huge loophole in the marijuana laws,"
Hedstrom said.

Hedstrom waited for resolution of the Peron case before deciding whether to
pursue charges against Rubio, he said. The state Supreme Court endorsed an
appellate court ruling on Feb. 25.

Hedstrom refused to talk about the Rubio case but said that the Peron
ruling applies. The ruling says anyone who sells or gives marijuana to a
patient or primary caregiver authorized to acquire it still violates the
law. The proposition allows patients to grow their own cannabis or a
primary caregiver to furnish it to a patient, Herdstrom said.

The problem with Proposition 215 is it allows medical use of marijuana
without spelling out how patients should get it, Nelson said. Rubio's case
differs from Peron's because she was growing marijuana as a caregiver, he
added.

When Rubio was arrested, she was following the law as she knew it, Nelson said.

"What we don't like is the felony prosecution," Nelson said. "She's got
plans in her life. She wants to go to school. It's a killer."