3 MEN GET LIGHTER TERMS IN CALIFORNIA MEDICAL MARIJUANA CASE

LOS ANGELES - Three men who pleaded guilty to distributing medical
marijuana to seriously ill patients received probation instead of a
federal prison term after a judge expressed admiration for their work
and called the prosecution "badly misguided."

Scott Imler, Jeff Yablan and Jeffrey Farrington received one year of
probation and up to 250 hours of community service. They faced up to
30 months in prison after striking a plea bargain with
prosecutors.

"Though it was hard to keep faith in the system throughout this
process, I know mine was restored today," Imler said Monday as he
thanked U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz for his leniency and
prosecutors for treating him with respect.

Matz said he was navigating "somewhat uncharted shoals" in making the
downward departure from sentencing guidelines, but the three men did
not distribute the marijuana for money or political leverage.

He also said they scrupulously adhered to rules established under
Proposition 215, the nation's first medical marijuana law, which
allowed Californians with cancer, HIV and certain other chronic
medical conditions to grow and use marijuana to ease nausea and other
health problems if a physician recommends it.

The 1996 state law conflicted with federal law banning the
cultivation, possession and use of marijuana, even for medical
purposes. The conflicting laws have led to numerous raids of medical
marijuana centers and lawsuits.

The men ran the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center for five years
until 2001, when federal agents raided it and shut it down. The center
was providing marijuana to about 960 patients suffering from AIDS,
epilepsy, glaucoma, cancer and other serious illnesses, said Imler's
attorney, Ronald Kaye.

Matz said the prosecution was "badly misguided." He said he was
baffled and disturbed that the Drug Enforcement Administration and
prosecutors wasted so much time and money in prosecuting the case.

"We don't contest the sincerity and good faith of these defendants,"
lead prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald told the judge. "But we do have a
legal regime in which a law was passed by Congress and I think =85 all
of us, whether we agree with those rules or not, need to abide by them."

Nine states have laws allowing the infirm to grow or smoke marijuana
with a doctor's recommendation. Those states are Alaska, Arizona,
California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.
Thirty-five states have passed legislation recognizing marijuana's
medicinal value, but federal law declares cannabis an illegal drug
with no medical benefit.