PROSECUTORS WANT TO DISALLOW MEDICAL-MARIJUANA DEFENSE FOR HIGHLANDS RANCH MAN

Prosecutors are asking a federal judge to eliminate Chris
Bartkowicz's medical-marijuana defense before his upcoming federal
trial on marijuana-cultivation charges.

In a motion filed Tuesday, prosecutors contend Bartkowicz should not
be allowed to use Colorado's medical-marijuana laws as a defense or
try to argue that he was singled out or didn't know he would be
subject to prosecution.

"The provisions of state law cited in the Government's brief
demonstrate the quagmire of Colorado state law and its medical
marijuana provisions, and further demonstrates that none of those
provisions have relevance to the federal prosecution of the
Defendant," the motion says.

Bartkowicz was indicted on charges of possessing marijuana with
intent to distribute 100 or more plants, using a place to manufacture
a controlled substance, and distributing marijuana within 1,000 feet
of a Highlands Ranch elementary school.

The charges came in February after Bartkowicz did an interview with
9News in which he discussed his marijuana-growing operation.

He faces life in prison because he has prior felony convictions.

Defense attorney Joseph Saint-Veltri would not comment on the
government's motion until he had a chance to read it.

Saint-Veltri has filed his own motion to dismiss the case, arguing
that his client didn't know he was breaking the law because the
Justice Department issued instructions to federal prosecutors to use
their resources to go after drug traffickers and not
medical-marijuana users who are complying with state law.

The October 2009 Justice Department memo is commonly referred to as
the "Holder Memorandum."

"The defendant was acting pursuant to Amendment 20 to the Colorado
Constitution and the so-called Holder Memorandum," the motion to
dismiss says. "The defendant's good faith belief that he was
complying with the law, as it was understood by him, should have been
submitted to the Grand Jury, especially because, upon best
information and belief, this is the first federal prosecution
involving Amendment 20."

Saint-Veltri also expressed concern over the amount of prison time
Bartkowicz is facing, calling it "cruel and unusual punishment."

"A sentence of ten years or twenty years or sixty years or, as the
government propounds, life imprisonment is not only unconscionable
but grotesque," he wrote.

Prosecutors say Bartkowicz had more plants -- 224 of them -- than
allowed per patient and he was out of compliance with not only
federal law but Colorado's medical-marijuana laws.