CONVICTIONS UPHELD FOR COUPLE WHO GREW MEDICAL POT

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court has upheld the drug
convictions and five-year prison sentences of two Northern California
medical marijuana activists who grew pot for themselves and their
fellow patients.

Attorney Dale Schafer began growing marijuana for his wife, physician
Marion "Mollie" Fry, on their property in the town of Cool (El Dorado
County) in 1998. She had secured a doctor's recommendation for the
drug to ease the effects of chemotherapy after breast cancer surgery.

Schafer later started using medical marijuana for back pain and other
ailments. The couple began distributing the drug to other patients in
1999 and contacted sheriff's deputies, who let them continue under
California's medical marijuana law.

Agents Raid Home

In September 2001, however, federal agents and local officers raided
their California Medical Research Center and their home with a
warrant under the U.S. drug law that bans using, growing or selling marijuana.

Schafer and Fry were indicted in 2005 and convicted in 2007 of
conspiring to grow at least 100 plants.

U.S. District Judge Frank Damrell of Sacramento called it a "sad day"
when he sentenced them to the mandatory five-year terms in March
2008. He allowed them to remain free on bail during their appeal.

Schafer said the couple ran a humanitarian enterprise that served
more than 10,000 patients from 1999 to 2005. But prosecutors said the
couple collected between $750,000 and $1 million in fees for
marijuana recommendations during the two years and two months covered
by the charges.

In their appeal, defense lawyers challenged Damrell's refusal to let
the couple present evidence that two sheriff's officers had entrapped
them. They said the officers had told Schafer and Fry that their
operations were legal while allegedly working undercover for the
federal government.

Pair 'Were Not Misled'

But the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said
Monday that the clinic had told patients in writing that marijuana
remained illegal under federal law. That showed that Schafer and Fry
"were not misled into believing that their conduct was permissible,"
Judge Richard Tallman said in a 3-0 ruling.

Schafer, 56, and Fry, 54, said they would appeal to the U.S. Supreme
Court. Schafer said the couple probably wouldn't have been raided or
prosecuted under the Obama administration's year-old policy of not
interfering with medical marijuana operations that comply with state law.

They said they had turned down a pretrial offer from prosecutors that
would have sent Schafer to prison for two years and allowed Fry to
avoid imprisonment while permanently surrendering her medical license.

"I was driven by the calling that I felt, to help the dying and the
sick and the disabled," Fry said.

U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner issued a statement deriding
California's "so-called 'medical' marijuana law." He said the ruling
reaffirmed that the federal drug law is "separate and distinct from
the state law."