'THIS IS MY MEDICINE'

But DA's Office Says Man's Pot Use Is A Crime, Plain And Simple

During last fall's campaign for Dane County District Attorney, Brian
Blanchard told a forum his office "doesn't target marijuana use as a
criminal event." Stephanie Rearick of Progressive Dane's drug policy task
force adds that, in discussions with her, he gave "qualified support" for
the concept of letting people use medical marijuana.

You couldn't prove it by Steve Wessing.

Wessing, 41, is facing two misdemeanor criminal charges as the result of
being busted last October with a half-pound of pot and 30 grams of hashish.
His Madison home was raided after Customs Agents allegedly intercepted more
than a dozen packages of hash addressed to him from Amsterdam, which he had
visited.

Wessing's defense, advanced by Madison attorney Peter Steinberg, is that he
uses marijuana medicinally to control chronic pain, muscle spasms and
headaches stemming from congenital spina bifida occulta and other ailments.
Last November, two weeks after the raid on his home, Wessing was examined
by Dr. Phillip Leveque, an Oregon physician sympathetic to medical
marijuana patients. Leveque concluded that marijuana "gives the best pain
relief" to Wessing, who has used it since age nine.

"I've made it clear over the years that this is my medicine," says Wessing,
who receives SSI payments on account of his disability. "I don't use any
other drugs. I almost never even drink."

Indeed, Wessing uses marijuana precisely it doesn't entail the debilitating
narcotic effects of other medications, like Oxycodone and Darvon, that he
could legally obtain. Marijuana, he says, "relieves my pain, relieves my
muscle spasms, reduces my headaches." But it doesn't leave him unable to
function.

Wessing, who has lived in Madison since 1990 and has no non-traffic
criminal record, has given up pot for months at a time, proving to himself
that he is not addicted. But, he says, "my muscle spasms get worse and I
have more headaches."

Angela Chase, Wessing's "significant other," is a licensed social worker
who has 15 years' experience dealing with mental-health and
drug-and-alcohol-abuse issues. In her opinion, Wessing does not have a
substance-abuse problem, because he does not use marijuana as an
intoxicant. "He uses is to treat a medical problem. He uses it to decrease
his pain. It's his method of pain management."

But Blanchard's office is seeking to shut down Wessing's defense. Assistant
District Attorney Jason Hanson recently filed a motion seeking to bar "any
evidence of the defendant's medical conditions or medical use of
marijuana," deeming this to be "irrelevant." The only issue, argued Hanson,
is that THC is a controlled substance, and Wessing knew it.

Blanchard, who knows of no other local case in which a defendant has sought
to present a medical marijuana defense, says his office isn't buying it in
this case because Wessing only sought a diagnosis after his arrest. And
then he went to Dr. Leveque, who Blanchard calls "a semi-retired osteopath
who specializes in handing out marijuana prescriptions." (Leveque, a doctor
of osteopathy and longtime professor of pharmacology, has approved medical
marijuana use for more than 2,000 patients, while rejecting some requests.)

If Wessing's claim to marijuana use for pain management were valid,
Blanchard thinks there should be other physicians willing to say so besides
"this guy in Oregon." He even suggests doing so would be in keeping with
their Hypocratic Oath.

But Steinberg, who a few years back ran for DA on the promise that he would
not prosecute marijuana cases, says patients with a valid medical need for
marijuana must turn to physicians like Leveque because others are not as
courageous.

"I'm not aware of any doctor around here who's prepared to take those
risks," says Steinberg, adding that physicians' fears of repercussions may
be well-grounded. "We're dealing with a federal government that's made it
plain it intends to stop this concept of medical marijuana. There's no
reason to assume it won't be heavy-handed."

Besides, says Steinberg, Dane County prosecutors have signaled that having
a second opinion wouldn't matter anyway: "By filing a motion which says
it's not a defense, they've basically said they won't accept the position
of any doctor."

Blanchard demurs, saying this motion was filed only because his office does
not accept that Wessing has a medical need. He says he never meant to
suggest, during the campaign, that his office does not treat some pot
offenses as crimes, only that it does not make such cases a priority. The
prosecution against Wessing is proceeding, explains Blanchard, because of
the quantities and circumstances: "This case is not just someone who has a
few joints in his ash tray."

Steinberg says the quantity with which Wessing was caught is consistent
with medical marijuana use. He's obtained an statement from Texas resident
George McMahon, one of a handful of U.S. citizens whose use of marijuana
for medicinal purposes in legally recognized by the federal government.
McMahon goes through a half-pound of Uncle Sam's stash per month.

"This is a medical case," says Steinberg of Wessing's circumstance. "It's
nothing but a medical case. And the district attorney chooses not to treat
it as such."

Wessing, who uses marijuana three to five times a day, the level Leveque
agreed was appropriate, says he has never sold or provided marijuana to
others. The reason he had such a significant quantity is that supplies are
never guaranteed: "I'm afraid of running out. Any time I have an
opportunity to get marijuana, I get it."

In January, the DA's office offered what Blanchard calls a "very
reasonable" plea bargain. Wessing could avoid jail time if he agreed to 24
months probation and "the usual drug conditions," which includes regular
testing. Steinberg rejected the deal, arguing that Wessing is
"constitutionally entitled to make personal medical choices without
interference from the state." He urged the office to dismiss the charges
"on compassionate grounds."

Wessing is also intent on rejecting any deal that requires him "not to use
my medicine. That's not in the cards for me. I don't plan to stop using
marijuana."

The case is set for trial on Aug. 28.