THE SPACE BETWEEN MS AND A BLACK ROBE

Matthew Barber has multiple sclerosis, a disease he says carries with
it pain, spasms, dizziness, brain lesions and a host of other symptoms.

Barber, 31, a veteran of the first Gulf War, said he smokes marijuana
to ease his pain and alleviate other woes associated with the disease.

Police arrested Barber in June when they allege he possessed two
ounces of marijuana while riding in his wife's car. Marijuana is
illegal in Michigan, and has no medicinal-use exemption here.

Barber said he won't seek a plea bargain and plans to fight the
charges. Grand Traverse County Prosecutor Dennis LaBelle, meanwhile,
said he plans to forge ahead with the case against Barber.

"(Medical marijuana) is not really something to be tried in the
courts," LaBelle said. "Let him pick it up with the Legislature, not
us."

Fair enough. LaBelle's taking a stand that's well within his rights
and duties.

We can't help but recall, however, LaBelle's silence in the wake of
district Judge Thomas Gilbert's own marijuana use scandal. Gilbert
admitted smoking pot at a rock concert - after a witness fingered him
- - and later acknowledged in documents provided to the state Supreme
Court that he was a regular marijuana user, even as he sentenced
others for the same type of drug offenses.

LaBelle didn't have a public word of outrage for the pot-smoking judge
and as far as we know, no local police agency, including the Traverse
Narcotics Team, probed the judge for the source of his stash or his
knowledge of the local drug trade.

Perhaps that's Barber's problem: multiple sclerosis apparently doesn't
generate the same level of compassion as does someone afflicted with
black robe disease.