Medicalmarijuana grower to be retried

SAN RAFAEL (AP) A Nicasio podiatrist who claims he was growing 135 pot
plants as medical marijuana will be retried, his attorney said.

The Marin County district attorney's office will make an announcement
Tuesday to retry Dr. Alan Ager, who claims he suffers from chronic back
pain and grew the marijuana for his own use, according to lawyer Laurence
Lichter.

The DA's first attempt to convict the Nicasio man ended in a 102 hung jury
last month. Conviction requires a unanimous decision.

Representatives from the DA's office have yet to comment.

His case tests California's socalled Compassionate Use Act, which passed
in November. The law allows people to use medical marijuana with a doctor's
recommendation.

Ager is facing one count of cultivation. If convicted, Ager could be
sentenced to three years in prison.

Sheriff's deputies seized the pot plants from his yard last September
two months before the state's new medical marijuana law was passed.

In his first trial, prosecutors had argued that 135 plants were more than
anyone needed for medical use. Lichter said prosecutors should not retry
Ager.

``I don't think a jury in Marin will convict him. His medical condition is
so terrible that he needs a lot (of marijuana) to avoid surgery,'' Lichter
said.

Lynette Shaw, executive director of Marin Medical Alliance for Marijuana,
an advocacy group in Fairfax that supplies medical marijuana to sick
people, said she was disappointed that the district attorney's office
planned to retry the case.

``I think it's because of political reasons,'' she said. ``I think it's
because (Attorney General) Dan Lungren wants to make two plants per patient
the legal guidelines. Two plants per patient is an incredibly small amount
and could never supply enough for a year.''

Published Sunday, September 14, 1997, in the San Jose Mercury News