JUDGE HOLDS FIRM ON POT SENTENCE

Confessed marijuana grower Daniel E. Collins gets to keep his withheld
judgment, and he can smoke marijuana while on probation, as long as he
does it somewhere that it's legal.

Such was the ruling Monday by Judge Robert J. Elgee following
arguments in 5th District Court on a motion filed by the Blaine County
Prosecuting Attorney's Office questioning Collins' sentence, imposed
by Elgee last month.

Elgee acknowledged nonetheless that he erred earlier by not making
legally required findings in granting Collins a withheld judgment, a
provision that allows a conviction to be removed from a defendant's
record upon successful completion of probation. Elgee made the
findings Monday and ruled that Collins deserved a withheld judgment
anyway.

Collins, serving the third week of a 21-day jail sentence, was brought
into court in orange jail attire with arms and legs bound with cuffs
and chains. He carefully shuffled to and from the defendant's table,
looking tired and less alert than at earlier court hearings.

Collins, 65, is a Vietnam War veteran who claims he smokes marijuana
to relieve pain from a back injury he received while serving aboard
the USS America aircraft carrier. The case against him arose in
September when the Blaine County Narcotics Enforcement Team raided his
home at Hulen Meadows north of Ketchum and seized a half dozen
marijuana plants, three of them still growing and the others drying or
ready for smoking.

Originally charged with felony manufacture of a controlled substance,
Collins pleaded guilty in May to a lesser charge of felony possession
of marijuana. At sentencing on June 21, Elgee gave Collins the jail
sentence and withheld judgment and placed him on probation for three
years. One of the terms of probation is that Collins not use illegal
drugs.

Collins moved from the Ketchum area after his arrest and is now living
in Las Vegas, Nev., where he says he has a temporary permit for
medicinal use of marijuana.

The prosecutor's "motion to clarify sentence" was filed a few days
after sentencing. In the motion, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Matt
Fredback wrote that Elgee had failed to address findings as legally
required in granting Collins the withheld judgment. Specifically,
Fredback wrote that the law requires that a defendant have no prior
felony convictions and cooperated with police and that a judge have an
"abiding conviction that a defendant will successfully complete probation."

Elgee said in court that he was "grateful to the state for pointing
that out." In making the findings, Elgee determined that Collins has
no prior felony convictions, that no evidence has been presented that
he didn't cooperate with police and that Collins will likely abide by
the terms of probation as long as he doesn't smoke marijuana where
it's illegal.

"I would say he's led a law-abiding life for most of it," Elgee said.
"If he moves to a state that allows medical marijuana use, I wouldn't
have any doubt at all that he was abiding by the terms of probation."