POT CASE GETS SPLIT VERDICTS

A Beulah man's conviction 'sets up' patients, some charge.

A Pueblo jury took nearly eight hours Saturday to decide that a
Beulah marijuana farmer was innocent of cultivating marijuana, but
guilty of possessing it.

The 12 men and women were asked to settle the question of whether
Thomas Sexton, 55, was legally growing 128 marijuana plants on his
property off Siloam Road or whether he used the vague language of
Colorado's medical marijuana law to manipulate the system into
getting a higher plant count.

The past week was filled with testimony about the legality of
medical marijuana, the botany behind growing the plant and a growing
body of scientific evidence suggesting marijuana is useful for many ailments.

But for advocates looking to the Sexton case as a test for Amendment
20, they may have to look elsewhere.

"I think in regard to the medical marijuana law, there is so little
guidance for somebody who chooses to use medicinal marijuana and
cultivate it, it's almost a setup for failure for anybody who sticks
their neck out and tries," said Sexton's attorney, Karl Tameler.
Sexton expressed his own frustration, noting that he's followed
every piece of legal advice he's given to stay within the law.

"I don't know how to be any more impeccable than to follow the law,"
he said. "I've taken every step I know how to follow the law."

District Attorney Anthony Marzavas said he respected the jury's decision.

"They certainly put a lot of thought into this, that's for sure," he said.

He also noted the difficulty presented by the law's language and
said he hoped the Legislature would be able to clarify some of it.

Other's of Sexton's supporters were frustrated with
the contradiction of the verdict.

"How can you be found guilty of one and not the other?" said Robert
Love, one of three people whose extended plant counts were at the
center of the case.

"I feel like this sets up every state-registered medical marijuana
patient for prosecution," he said.

Tameler said he was disappointed with the outcome of the trial and
believed that he had presented sufficient evidence that each of
Sexton's plant would have been used for medicinal purposes.

The medical marijuana law allows patients and their caregivers to
possess up to 2 ounces of marijuana and six plants.

The law allows patients and caregivers to defend their possession of
greater amounts of marijuana if they can exhibit a justifiable medical need.

When Pueblo County sheriffs deputies raided Sexton's farm Aug. 14,
2007, Sexton provided them with a notebook containing medical
marijuana registry cards for seven people and three physician
recommendations allowing Sexton, Love and Angeline Medina to have
more than six plants.

Sexton was listed as caregiver to Love. Love was listed as caregiver
to Sexton and Love's wife was caregiver to Medina.

But Marzavas and Deputy District Attorney Steve Jones painted the
caregivers as a social group and suggested the added plant counts
were negotiated rather than medically justified.

They also argued that the medical marijuana garden was started
before Love, Medina and Sexton got recommendations for the extended
plant counts.

Sexton is scheduled to be in court March 1 to get a sentencing date.