MERCED POT ADVOCATE ORDERED HELD

FRESNO -- A federal judge ruled Wednesday that a Merced medical
marijuana activist must remain in jail without bail because he is a
flight risk and a potential danger to the community.

Magistrate Judge Sandra M. Snyder said she empathizes with Dustin
Costa, 58, but federal law forces her to treat suspected drug dealers the same.

Many of Costa's supporters groaned when Snyder made her ruling in
U.S. District Court in Fresno. Others had jeered prosecutor Karen A.
Escobar, who argued that marijuana was not only illegal, but had no
medicinal value.

The supporters, who came from Merced, Sacramento, Los Angeles, San
Diego and elsewhere, vowed to return when Costa has his next hearing
on Aug. 29.

Since his arrest on Aug. 11, Costa, president of the Merced Patients
Group, a private cannabis club in Merced that claims 230 members, has
become the focal point in the local debate about medical marijuana.

A three-count indictment charges Costa with growing more than 100
marijuana plants, equivalent to nearly nine pounds, in February 2004
with the intent to distribute. Costa also faces a charge of
possession of a firearm "in furtherance of drug trafficking crime."

The case against Costa, who is known as the Rev. D.C. Greenhouse, is
not clear-cut, legal experts said.

In November 1996, California voters approved Proposition 215, the
Compassionate Use Act, which gives ill people the right to use
marijuana for medicinal purposes when deemed appropriate by a doctor.
The state law also allows possession or cultivation of marijuana by
the patient or by the patient's "primary caregiver."

In June this year, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled California
voters, saying the federal government can prosecute people who use
marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Costa's lawyer, Robert Rainwater, told Snyder that his client is not
a criminal because he had a reasonable belief that he was growing and
distributing marijuana while it was still legal under state law.

In arguing for Costa's release on $1,000 bail, Rainwater told Snyder
that his client is a primary caregiver, as well as a user who was
legally prescribed marijuana for his diabetes, nervous disorder and
other ailments.

Snyder said: "The court is well aware of the medical, philosophical
and spiritual arguments," but in this case federal law prohibits the
cultivation, possession and trafficking of marijuana.

"I'm sitting in a federal court," Snyder said.

In her ruling, Snyder said Costa is a flight risk because of the
seriousness of the charges and the potential punishment of a long
prison sentence and a hefty fine.

The federal case against Costa repackages the same marijuana
cultivation charges that he fought in Merced County Superior Court
for more than a year.

Back then, Costa was represented by William McPike, who said
Wednesday that Merced Superior District Attorney Gordon Spencer
dropped the charges and handed the case to federal prosecutors once
he learned that a medical marijuana defense was going to be used in
state court.

McPike called Spencer a chicken for not allowing Merced County
residents the right to hear the evidence and rule on it. "People have
a right to choose, a right to medicate themselves," McPike said.

Spencer said the District Attorney's Office had always planned to
turn over the case to federal prosecutors.

"Residents of the United States must follow U.S. law," Gordon said.

John Bain, vice president of the Merced Patients Group, said Costa
isn't a flight risk. "He's proud to stand up and fight for the
people" who desperately need marijuana to relieve their pain.

Mike Gray, chairman of the Common Sense for Drug Policy in Los
Angeles, said Costa's case will be closely watched because it is
making criminals out of law-abiding citizens.

Gray said the problem is that marijuana is classified by law
enforcement to be as dangerous as heroin. Legislators, he said, must
change the classification.