JURY ACQUITS DISPENSER OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA

SAN DIEGO COURTS -- A jury acquitted a medical marijuana collective
operator of drug possession and sales charges yesterday.

The acquittal of Eugene Davidovich after two weeks of trial in front
of Superior Court Judge Kenneth So is the second time in the past
four months that juries have found medical marijuana operators not
guilty of drug charges.

In December, Jovan Jackson, who was the manager of a medical
marijuana dispensary in Kearny Mesa, was acquitted of five counts of
possessing and selling the drug. Davidovich's case had become an
important cause among medical marijuana proponents.

District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis has aggressively pursued medical
marijuana dispensaries and collectives that she contends are not
complying with Proposition 215, the voter-approved initiative that
legalized the drug for medical purposes.

Davidovich, a former software developer, was charged with selling the
drug to an undercover officer posing as a patient in November 2008
with a doctor's prescription for the drug. The transaction was
captured on videotape. Davidovich insisted he had done nothing wrong
and believed that the man he sold the marijuana to was a legitimate
patient and the purchase was part of the legal operations of the
collective. In phone conversations before the transaction he had
emphasized that the purchase was being done as part of the
collective's work and for no other reason, said Davidovich's lawyer,
Michael McCabe.

Jurors acquitted him of four charges relating to the transaction,
which was part of a larger investigation of medical marijuana
collectives dubbed Operation Green Rx, McCabe said.

"The jury saw this for what it was," McCabe said. "They thought it
was a trumped up case from the get-go."

Deputy District Attorney Theresa Pham could not be reached for
comment on the verdicts. Steve Walker, a spokesman for the District
Attorney's Office, said the outcome is "disappointing, but we respect
the jury's verdict."