MEDICAL MARIJUANA ON COURT'S DOCKET

PORTLAND, Maine -- The Maine Supreme Judicial Court will hear
arguments Wednesday in the first challenge to the state's medical
marijuana law.

Donald Christen, 55, of Madison is appealing his April 2007
conviction by a Somerset County jury of aggravated cultivation of
marijuana. The long-time advocate for legalization of marijuana was
sentenced in August 2007 to 14 months in prison with all but six
months suspended and two years probation after representing him-self
in the three-day trial.

He has remained free on bail pending the outcome of the appeal.

Ironically, Christen was found not guilty last December by a Somerset
County jury on the same charge and a charge of furnishing marijuana,
according to a story published in the Portland Press Herald. Walter
McKee, the Augusta attorney who represented Christen in the more
recent case, told the paper it was the first time a defendant had
proved he was growing and distributing marijuana legally under the
state's medical marijuana law.

Peter Bickerman, the Augusta attorney representing Christen in the
appeal of the 2007 conviction, argued in his brief that Superior
Court Justice Kirk Studstrup incorrectly instructed the jury about
the state's medical marijuana law. Bickerman also claimed that
Christen was denied a speedy trial because it took place 27 months
after he was indicted.

Voters passed a referendum in November 1999 and the Legislature
amended it in 2002 to allow the medical use of marijuana. The law
allows a designated caregiver to possess 21/2 ounces of harvested
marijuana for the benefit of a patient eligible to receive medical
marijuana plus a total of six plants, of which no more than three
could be mature, flowering plants, according to Bickerman's brief.

Since the enactment of the law, people have asked Christen to be
their caregiver once they have received the necessary medical
permission to use the drug medicinally from their physicians.
Bickerman argued that Christen was following the law when Somerset
County sheriff's deputies, armed with a warrant on Nov. 10, 2004,
seized 13 marijuana plants from his residence.

Christen, according to Bickerman's brief, had the proper paperwork to
show that he was acting legally as a caregiver to at least six
people, including his wife, Pamela Christen, 45, of Madison, who was
suffering from ovarian cancer.

Efforts last week to obtain a copy of the brief filed by the Somerset
County District Attorney's Office were unsuccessful.

Assistant District Attorney James G. Mitchell is expected to argue
that Studstrup correctly interpreted the medical marijuana law and
properly instructed the jury on how to apply it, according to
information on the judiciary's Web site.

A bill that seeks to make it easier for qualified patients in Maine
to obtain medical marijuana will go to referendum in November. The
Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee in April rejected a
citizen initiative that would have had the state issue identification
cards to qualifying patients and allow licensed nonprofit
dispensaries to provide marijuana to those patients.