STATE COURT OVERTURNS MEDICAL POT USER'S CONVICTION FOR DEALING

A person who carries a small amount of marijuana with a doctor's note
allowing medical use can't be convicted of dealing the drug just
because police thought he was a dealer, a state appeals court ruled Friday.

In overturning an Orange County man's conviction for possessing
marijuana for sale, the Fourth District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana
said the prosecutor needed more evidence of sales than the opinion of
a sheriff's deputy who specialized in investigating narcotics dealers.

The defendant, Christopher Chakos, was arrested in December 2004 in
Rancho Santa Margarita near the medical office where he worked as a
phlebotomist, drawing blood for lab tests. Officers found seven grams
of marijuana in his car, along with a doctor's note recommending pot
for his pain and depression.

They found more marijuana, in varying amounts, in a search of his
apartment, along with a digital scale and a closed-circuit camera system.

The marijuana totaled about 6 ounces, less than the 8 ounces that
medical marijuana patients can possess under state law. But Chakos
was convicted of possession for sale based on expert testimony by
Deputy Christopher Cormier, who conducted the search and said he had
concluded Chakos was a dealer. Chakos was placed on probation for three years.

Cormier based his conclusion on the exact amount of marijuana in the
car, which he said was typical of dealers, and the presence of the
scale and the camera system at the apartment, despite defense
testimony that the camera system belonged to Chakos' half brother.

Cormier said he had taken part in more than 100 drug investigations,
but acknowledged that none involved a medical marijuana patient with
a doctor's note.

The appeals court relied on a 1971 state Supreme Court ruling
overturning a possession-for-sale conviction of a man who was using
Methedrine, a trade brand of a type of methamphetamine, with a
doctor's prescription. The court in that case said the arresting
officer, who concluded the man was a dealer, lacked experience in
cases involving the medical use of otherwise illegal drugs.

In this case, likewise, the deputy's apparent unfamiliarity with
medical marijuana cases made him unqualified as an expert witness,
the court said. The justices said some of the evidence Cormier cited
could have been explained by the difficulties a medical marijuana
user often encounters in obtaining the drug, and by the need to
comply with the legal 8-ounce limit.

"The record fails to show that Deputy Cormier is any more familiar
than the average layperson or the members of this court with the
patterns of lawful possession for medicinal use," Presiding Justice
David Sills said in the 3-0 ruling.