JUDGE FREES MEDICAL-POT PATIENT, RETURNS STASH

SANTA CRUZ - Federal prosecutors might not respect the state law that
allows people to grow marijuana for medical use, but a judge in Santa Cruz
County does.

Medical-marijuana user Greg Brown walked out of the courthouse Wednesday a
free man with a legal bag of marijuana.

Superior Court Judge Kathleen Akao threw out two felony charges against the
Santa Cruz man after he proved he had a doctor's recommendation to use
medical marijuana. She ordered police to return Brown's pot.

Brown was arrested March 15 after police found 52 plants growing at his
house, 7 ounces of packaged marijuana and 3 ounces drying. He was charged
with cultivating and possessing marijuana for sale, both felonies.

Proposition 215, passed by voters in 1996, allows state residents to grow
and smoke marijuana if they have a recommendation from a doctor. A recent
decision by the state Supreme Court backed up that law, saying people
arrested on marijuana charges can use their doctor's recommendation as a
defense in court.

Brown's attorney, Ben Rice of Santa Cruz, said Brown has a doctor's
recommendation. He said Brown fell down cement steps 10 years ago and
suffers back problems from the accident. He said Brown's written
recommendation had expired when he was arrested in March, but he had a
valid oral recommendation from the same doctor.

Brown's non-jury trial started Wednesday, and ended the same day when Akao
agreed with Rice's motion to dismiss the charges.

The plants and the drying marijuana have been destroyed, but Brown got back
the 7 ounces of dried pot.

"I feel great, of course, I feel relief," Brown said.

Brown said he also suffers from hepatitis C, which leaves him with
heartburn and an upset stomach. The marijuana helps soothe his stomach and
increase his appetite, he said, as well as helping him deal with back pain.

Rice said marijuana seized in such cases often is not returned, even after
an acquittal.

"What I've started doing is when people hire me, I call the District
Attorney's Office and tell them not to destroy any of the marijuana so it
can be returned later," Rice said.

The U.S. government considers marijuana an illegal drug with no medicinal
value. The federal government considers medical-marijuana users to be drug
abusers, and those who provide the marijuana to be drug dealers, said Drug
Enforcement Administration spokesman Richard Meyer. State law will not
protect them in federal court, he said.

The DEA recently raided the North Coast farm of Wo/Men's Alliance for
Medical Marijuana, touching off a national controversy about the medicinal
value of the drug and the federal enforcement of pot laws in states that
allow its medical use. The furor culminated in a much- publicized
distribution of marijuana to patients by the alliance on the steps of Santa
Cruz City Hall.

Rice is also the attorney for alliance founders Mike and Valerie Corral.
Rice had intended to call one of them as an expert witness on the yield of
marijuana plants in Brown's case.

San Francisco attorney John Kecher has joined the team to help defend the
Corrals if the federal government decides to file charges in connection
with the raid earlier this month.