POT GROWER TO RAISE MENTAL INFIRMITY DEFENSE AT TRIAL

A psychologist says bipolar disorder accounts for the medical
marijuana activist's zeal for weed.

Medical marijuana activist and otherwise law-abiding Glenville
resident Charles Andrew Homan got busted last year with more than 65
marijuana plants.

Wednesday, he goes before Judge John S. Kennedy in a bench trial for
possession with the intent to deliver marijuana.

He will be bringing a mental infirmity defense.

Homan, 59, is a longtime sufferer of a bipolar disorder. More than 30
years of various medications and treatment to control the disorder
were "without any lasting benefits," according to a defense filing in
York County Common Pleas Court.

Marijuana, Homan says, is the only thing that provides him any
relief.

In court documents filed in preparation for his trial, Homan is quoted
saying, "It feels like I had no choice. I could either remained
addicted to medication and suffer with side effects and withdrawal
symptoms or I could die or I could use marijuana as my medicine.

"If there was something else, I would do it. I am suffering like
crazy. My doctors don't know what else to do for me. This is a very
scary place to be. I don't want to lose my mind."

Through the years, Homan has been outspoken and held rallies promoting
the medicinal uses of marijuana.

A forensic psychologist who evaluated Homan said in her report that
Homan's "intense immersion into research, speaking out in
(news)papers, on-line and on television" is an indication of his
"impaired reasoning directly related" to his disorder.

"He is unable to fully recognize that his thinking and behaviors are
often driven by his illness," Dr. Amy L. Taylor, a Gettysburg
psychologist, said in her report. ". . . while knowing that growing
cannabis is illegal, he reasoned that he was not behaving in a
criminal manner."

Taylor contrasted Homan's condition to insomniacs who feel marijuana
helps them sleep, but do "not proceed with growing it, speaking out
about it, writing about it, drawing attention to oneself and risking
their freedom as Mr. Homan has."

According to Taylor's report, Homan maintains he grows marijuana "for
his personal 'medicinal' use and . . . would never consider selling
it."

Taylor also offered her opinion that Homan's growing of marijuana did
"not represent a danger to the safety of others."

"His actions were of a man who was acutely manic, vulnerable and
sleep-deprived who faced what he saw as inevitable harm to himself
without risk to society," Taylor stated.