ST. HELENA MAN GOES PUBLIC WITH MEDICAL MARIJUANA USE

2H0613694.

That's the number on the card issued to St. Helenan Grant Carter by the
Division of Health in Napa County authorizing his use of marijuana.

The marijuana, he says, calms the rage within him that he says has been
there since 1968, when, as a 9-year-old, he discovered his father dead on
the floor from a heart attack. Carter likened his condition to
post-traumatic stress for war veterans.

"I was mad," he said. "I watched every boy have a father but me. I was a
violent child. I was acting out and I didn't care. I was in foster homes
and reform schools all over the United States and I got in a lot of legal
trouble. Robbery, auto theft ... " At age 14, he said he ran away from
home and hitchhiked across the U.S. At age 21, he became a convicted felon
for holding up a liquor store and served time in Tuolumne County before
his case was plea-bargained down to a five-year suspended sentence.

Carter said he didn't realize at the time that he was looking for
something but didn't know what it was.

"Then I found it ... marijuana," he asserted. "It's been a gift. I
gravitated toward marijuana and, as I grow older, I find that the reason I
do this is, it works. It takes the edge off the anger."

With his record, jobs have been hard to come by. He drove a cattle truck.
Before that, a lumber truck.

"I topped trees, I was a climber, a risk-taker," he said.

Finally, He's Legal

As Carter sat in his patio, a row of six healthy marijuana plants rooted
in buckets was in plain view. He said he wasn't worried about someone
stealing the plants because he has a 'round-the-clock surveillance camera'
trained on his patio.

"I've been doing it (marijuana) all my life. I've had to do it secretly
until recent years, but that's what worked for me. I had to live that
lifestyle," he said.

The card changed all that, he added, making it possible for him to speak
"legally and open" about his use of "pot." The plants in his patio were
purchased from a legal source in Lake County. Previously, he said he
brought his marijuana from illegal sources.

"More people are doing this around here than you realize, other people
like me," said Carter. "I just wanted to come out and say, 'Hey, it's
OK!'"

He would not find unanimous agreement on the OK part. Medically approved
or not, doctors and law enforcement officials continue to debate the
effects of marijuana use.

Carter said he got the medical authorization needed to obtain his card
from a doctor in Lake County.

"I don't wish to rub it in anybody's face, but I think we need a medical
(marijuana) dispensary right here in Napa County."

Cities Rule

That will not happen in Napa County any time soon.

Calistoga has enacted a moratorium barring a marijuana dispensary through
April 1, 2010, said Calistoga senior planner Ken MacNab, and will probably
establish a permanent ban before next April.

The American Canyon City Council voted 3-1 on April 21 to enact an
ordinance banning the establishment of a medical marijuana dispensary by
prohibiting any use illegal under either state or federal law.

St. Helena is just now looking into the issue. Police Chief Monty
Castillo, said planning director Carol Poole, recently attended a workshop
on the marijuana dispensary issue, but has yet to report back to the city.

St. Helena Police Sgt. Chris Hartley said he didn't know Carter, "but if
he is on medical marijuana, we have to honor his card."

Hartley said that St. Helena police abide by state law on the "medical
marijuana" issue, although the federal government has been known to arrest
and prosecute card-carrying users.

"If the feds want to come in and do their own thing, more power to them,"
said Hartley, "but we honor the California guidelines."

Gary Pitkin, commander of the Napa Special Investigations Bureau, said he
has never heard of Carter. But as a commander for an agency intensely
involved in tracking down illegal marijuana, he casts a jaundiced eye on
anyone cultivating the plant.

"In Napa County for the last seven years we have seen an exponential
increase in the amount of marijuana cultivated. We've gone from
eradicating 15,000 plants a year to over 100,000," Pitkin said.

Attendant with that growth, he added, has been an increase in
marijuana-associated crime.

Is Carter courting trouble with law enforcement by going public with his
use of marijuana?

"I don't know," Pitkin said. "We'll find out."