L.A. JUDGE RULES NO PRISON FOR THREE MEDICAL MARIJUANA CENTER WORKERS

LOS ANGELES -- A federal judged cited a "lesser harm doctrine" when he
ruled Monday that three men who pleaded guilty to running a West
Hollywood medical marijuana center would receive no prison time.

U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz expressed admiration for the men's
work in helping sick patients during the sentencing hearing in which
he ordered they serve only one year of probation and up to 250 hours
of community service. The each also were ordered to pay a $100 fee,
but their bail of $25,000 was exonerated.

"Though it was hard to keep faith in the system throughout this
process, I know mine was restored today," defendant Scott Imler said
as he thanked Matz for his leniency and prosecutors for treating him
with "dignity and respect."

Matz conceded he was navigating "somewhat uncharted shoals" in making
the downward departure from sentencing guidelines, but was resolute in
ruling that Imler, along with Jeff Yablan and Jeffrey Farrington
"committed a crime to avoid the harm of the greater suffering of
patients" by giving them medical marijuana.

"They didn't do it for money or political leverage," Matz said during
an emotional sentencing hearing attended by many of the defendants'
supporters, including former patients of the Los Angeles Cannabis
Resource Center.

Imler, Yablan and Farrington faced up to 30 months in federal prison
after striking a plea bargain with prosecutors. They ran the medical
marijuana center for five years until 2001 when federal agents raided
the center and shut it down.

During that period, Matz said the men 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, however, 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.

Matz cited letters from local authorities, including county Sheriff
Lee Baca and Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, who noted
that Imler, the president of the Cannabis Resource Center, openly
discussed the center's operation with them. The center was providing
marijuana to about 960 patients suffering from AIDS, epilepsy,
glaucoma, cancer and other serious illnesses before it was shut down,
said Imler's attorney, Ronald Kaye.

Matz also read "heartfelt" letters from former patients and friends,
including one from a friend of Imler who said he made "a difference in
lives that amounted to little else than loneliness, grief and
premature extinction." He mentioned a letter from Imler's doctor, who
said he was diagnosed with advanced stage lung cancer and was
scheduled to undergo surgery next week.

The judge said the entire prosecution was "badly misguided" and he
said he was baffled and disturbed that the Drug Enforcement Agency and
prosecutors wasted so much time and money in prosecuting the case.

He admonished prosecutors for calling Imler's medical condition "not
an extraordinary impairment."

"I don't know these prosecutors, but to say this is not an
extraordinary impairment shows that this person has had no direct
experience with cancer," he said.

"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 ... all
of us whether we agree with those rules or not need to abide by them."