FEDS BUST MEDICAL POT PATIENTS IN COURTROOM

California medical marijuana activists are outraged over the arrest last
week of two medical marijuana patients who face potential life sentences on
federal drug charges after being turned over by local authorities. David
Davidson, of Oakland, California and his partner Cynthia Blake, of Red
Bluff, California were arrested in a state courtroom in Corning, California
on January 13 as they were seeking to dismiss state charges of marijuana
cultivation and distribution.

Davidson and Blake, both 53, have doctor's recommendations to grow and
consume medical marijuana under California's 1996 Compassionate Use Act
(Prop. 215). While their defense attorneys were meeting in the judge's
chambers to discuss the case with Tehama County assistant district attorney
Lynn Strom, Strom announced that she was dropping the state charges because
Davidson and Blake were being arrested in the courtroom on a federal
indictment.

One of the major flaws of California's medical marijuana law is that it
does not specify how many plants a patient can grow or how much marijuana
they can possess. Each county or city sets its own guidelines and law
enforcement around the state has widely ranging interpretations of how much
marijuana patients should have.

The Sacramento U.S. Attorneys office did not return calls seeking comment
on the case. But Tehama County assistant district attorney Jonathan
Skillman argues that Davidson and Blake were growing too much medical
marijuana for their personal use. Skillman said prosecutors came to this
conclusion after a raid on Davidson and Blake's homes allegedly netted
1,803 plants and over 60 pounds of "processed marijuana."

"He had plans to supply the entire West Coast," Stillman claimed. "It is
not in the realm of peronal use."

But Davidson says prosecutors inflated the number of plants seized, which
he says is reflected in the charges. He and Blake have been charged with
manufacturing more than 100 marijuana plants and conspiracy to cultivate
more than 1,000 marijuana plants. The first charge carries a five-to
40-year prison sentence. The second is punishable by a mandatory minimum
sentence of 10 years and a maximum of life in prison.

Davidson said Cynthia Blake was growing 33 plants when the Tehama County
sheriff's deputies raided her home in July. Skillman acknowledges that the
county has no official plant limit for medical marijuana patients. But
prosecutors used this information to secure a warrant to raid Davidson's
house in Oakland, where he said he grew about 400 plants, mostly single
leaf cuttings. Oakland patients are permitted by local ordinance to grow 72
mature plants and 32 square feet of marijuana garden canopy.

In last year's highly publicized federal case of Oakland medical marijuana
grower Ed Rosenthal, jurors declined to include cuttings in the count of
mature plants. As with that case, Davidson and Blake will likely be barred
from arguing that their marijuana was for medical purposes since federal
law does not recognized Prop. 215.

A Spiteful Investigation

Davidson contends that his lawyers were winning his case in state court,
which prompted Strom to turn it over to the federal prosecutors.

Skillman denies this charge and says there was nothing improper about how
Davidson and Blake were arrested. Davidson disagrees.

"Our attorneys were lured into the judge's chambers and as soon as the
doors were closed, the deputies took us in a car as fast as they could all
the way to Sacramento where we spent four hours chained in the county jail
and held 24 hours before we could speak to counsel," Davidson said. "Now
I'm facing 10 to 15 years in prison and I'm 53 years old. It's unbelievable."

Steph Sherer, executive director of the national medical marijuana
coalition, Americans for Safe Access, disputed the allegation that Davidson
and Blake possessed 60 pounds of processed marijuana. Sherer says discovery
in the case indicates that prosecutors weighed sticks, stems, leaf cuttings
and even root balls to arrive at the 60-pound figure - a tactic employed by
some investigators to inflate the weight of seized marijuana.

"This appears to be a spiteful investigation on behalf of the DA, paid for
by the taxpayers of California, and if Strom would like to keep her job,
she should respect the laws of the state," said Sherer. "If she did not
believe this was a medical case she should have taken it to state court,
and not handed over two citizens of California to the federal government
for a 10-year mandatory sentence."

Sherer adds that Davidson and Blake's cases fall under a recent ruling by
the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which found that if the marijuana
is not purchased, transported across state lines, or used non-medically,
the federal government has no jurisdiction to prosecute medical marijuana
patients in California and other states.

Davidson, who says he's never been arrested or sold marijuana, is currently
free on a $50,000 federal and $20,000 state bail, as is Clark.

"I've worked my whole life as a retail business owner and I was set for
semi-retirement and now I'm ruined," Davidson says. "I am nearly flat broke
and I will be before this is done."