LAKE COUNTY DA STILL INVESTIGATING MEDICAL MARIJUANA CASE

No Charges Filed; Monday Court Appearance Canceled

By Jennifer Poole
The Daily Journal and Associated Press

The Lake County district attorney has still not filed charges against a pot
grower arrested for growing plants she says were designated for Ukiah's
medical marijuana club.

Yvette Rubio was scheduled to appear in court in Lakeport Monday morning
but the court date was canceled last week. Lake County District Attorney
Steve Hedstrom said there is no future court date set at this point. "I've
requested some further investigation" he said, "which includes some
materials from the defense."

Hedstrom said he requested the additional materials ''so we have all the
possible available evidence before we make a decision whether to file
charges. Asked if he could estimate when he might be filing charges, if
any, Hedstrom said no.

"We deal with about 4,000 cases a year up here and we turn them around as
quick as we can,'' he said. "what is important is that, as we make
decisions, we make sure we've carefully studied the issues and there are
issues that need to be studied here."

Rubio's attorney, David Nelson, said he believes Hedstrom is actively
looking at Rubio's case and that the district attorney would make a
decision within the next couple of months.

"We're not coming up against any time limits," Nelson said.

Hedstrom confirmed that in a felony marijuana cultivation case, the statute
of limitations is three years.

Rubio was arrested Sept. 26 at a ranch at the Lake/Mendocino county line,
and 51 marijuana plants were confiscated.

Cherrie Lovett, founder and director of Ukiah's Cannabis Buyers Club, said
Rubio is a "designated caregiver" for about 20 club members with physician
prescriptions for marijuana who are too sick to grow it themselves .

Copies of Rubio's contract with the club, both women say, were hanging on
fences surrounding the marijuana patches at the ranch.

The language of Prop. 215, the ballot proposition that legalized medical
marijuana in California last year, does allow for a sick person with a
doctor's prescription for pot to designate a caregiver to grow it for them.

Whether one grower can be designated as caregiver for a number of people;
however, is still unclear and has not been tested in court.

In San Mateo County last week county supervisors voted 50 to develop a
plan to distribute confiscated marijuana to sick people through public
health clinics.

Supervisor Mike Nevin, former San Francisco police detective, proposed the
idea.

"I'm trying to find a compassionate way of getting this drug that is now
legal to the sick and dying people who need it," he said.

As much as $200,000. worth of confiscated pot sits in San Mateo County's
evidence room on any given day, Nevin said. As many as 1,500 county
residents could be eligible to use it.

If Nevin's idea becomes reality, that confiscated marijuana would first be
photographed and cataloged for use in criminal trials, then shipped to
public health clinics where it would be tested for freshness and
contamination.

If the pot meets quality standards, it would be doled out by the clinics to
patients with a doctor's prescription, or their designated caregivers.
Users would have to be registered with the sheriff's department, as the law
requires.

Nevin said that although state Attorney General Dan Lungren hasn't said he
supports the idea, he has assigned a staff lawyer to help develop the
proposal.

The supervisors hope to have the plan ready by the first of the year, and
will then seek special legislation from the state Legislature to authorize
a pilot project.

Nevin said he hasn't calculated the cost of his proposed plan, but he
thought if San Mateo's program was successful, other counties would follow.
He said he's already has inquiries from San Francisco, Monterey and Santa
Barbara counties.