FEDS BACK DOWN IN MEDICAL POT CASE

Marijuana-Growing Supplies to Be Given Back to Aurora Man.

An Aurora man suffering from chronic pain won a major victory Thursday
when the federal government agreed to return all of his
marijuana-growing equipment.

The assistant U.S. attorney also told the lawyer for medical-marijuana
user Dana May that they will not prosecute May for any crime. But the
pot that the Drug Enforcement Administration and Aurora police seized
from May's Aurora home will stay in the possession of federal
authorities.

Supporters of medical marijuana said they believe it marks the first
time that the U.S. attorney has agreed to return growing equipment to
someone who has been cleared of wrongdoing.

"This case is precedent-setting and a very sympathetic case and just a
terrible example of the federal government not recognizing that this
is where the state of the law is going and where patients are going,"
Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said.

May and his lawyer, Robert J. Corry Jr., will appear at a hearing this
morning in Arapahoe County District Court where they will tell the
judge that they will drop their civil lawsuit against the Aurora
Police Department demanding that it return May's marijuana-producing
equipment.

May, 45, said he had feared a long, drawn-out fight with the U.S.
attorney's office and the DEA.

"I just about fell off my chair when my lawyer told me," he said. "I
thought he was joking. He said, 'We got a victory here,' and 'They're
going to give you your stuff back.' "

After today's hearing, May said he plans to notify the DEA that he
will pick up his equipment within 48 hours. Agents had confiscated 31
pieces of equipment from May's home, including transformers, water
pumps, cloning machines and exhaust fans that he used to grow marijuana.

He called it a bittersweet victory and complained that anti-drug
personnel should spend their resources and time pursuing cocaine and
heroin traffickers. "They would be better off going that route rather
than going after little pot growers like me," May said.

May said he will try to resume growing marijuana as soon as possible
at an undisclosed location.

"I think this is a big step because with the DEA giving my equipment
back they know what I'm going to do with it, and it's like they're
condoning it," he said. "There aren't any options about what I'm going
to do with it. I'm not going to grow tomatoes."

Jeffrey Dorschner, spokesman for the District of Colorado U.S.
attorney, said federal prosecutors decided not to pursue a civil
forfeiture case against May after concluding that his equipment had
minimal value.

May's doctor signed the legal forms required for May to grow and smoke
pot in 2002. May suffers from chronic pain in his legs and feet as a
result of a 1995 accident.