CHARGES DISMISSED AGAINST JAILED MEDICAL MARIJUANA PATIENT

Prosecutors have dismissed criminal charges against a 51-year-old
medical marijuana patient, who lingered in county jail for months
after being arrested for growing a dozen of the controversial plants.

Deputy District Attorney Rosa Clark announced the news Friday at an
unscheduled hearing for Don Kevin Lawrence in San Bernardino Superior
Court, the same day The Sun ran a story featuring Lawrence's case.

Prosecutors dropped three felony counts alleging Lawrence had
cultivated and possessed marijuana for sale and maintained a place to
sell the drug. He was released Monday, his family said.

"I think it was the right thing to do," said Lawrence's lawyer James
Gass during a brief interview Monday.

Lawrence wasn't even in the courtroom to hear the news at the
unscheduled hearing, Gass said. Prosecutors just brought in the case
file and made a motion to dismiss the charges, he said.

Clark could not be reached for comment.

Lawrence's next scheduled appearance had been this coming Friday, at
which time San Francisco-based lawyer Zenia Gilg had said she was
going to substitute in as the defense lawyer on the case.

Gilg has represented clients from San Bernardino County in other
medical marijuana cases. She recently represented 66-year-old Richard
McCabe, who was arrested with his wife, JoAnn Cates, in August 2007
after sheriff's deputies reportedly found a greenhouse with 120
marijuana plants in various stages of growth on the couple's property
in Johnson Valley.

Prosecutors dropped the marijuana-related charges against McCabe and
Cates just before a preliminary hearing in March 2009 in Joshua Tree
Superior Court.

Lawrence's supporters and family say he was a patient at THCF Medical
Clinic in Riverside when San Bernardino police arrested him and his
two sons in October at home. The defendant reportedly had 12
marijuana plants, an amount police said exceeded state guidelines.

However, a doctor at THCF clinic reportedly gave Lawrence an "exceeds
limit recommendation" to grow as much marijuana as he medically
needed, beyond state guidelines of six mature or 12 immature plants
and eight ounces of processed marijuana. Lawrence suffers nerve
damage in his back and nephrosis of the kidneys, his family said.

Lawrence and his sons posted bail after their arrest, but the court
later increased his bail to $500,000 after prosecutors alleged prior
offenses going back to 1994 and 1987.

Activist Lanny Swerdlow questioned why county officials allow law
enforcement to continue to pursue cases against medical marijuana
patients and dispensaries in light of state law and recent court decisions.

"It's just unbelievable," Swerdlow said. "They never win these cases,
so why in the world are they still pursuing this stuff?"

Swerdlow is director of the Marijuana Anti-Prohibition Project, an
Inland Empire-based medical marijuana patient support group and law
reform organization.

Lawrence still has an unrelated misdemeanor case that Gass believes
they will be able to resolve.