TUOLUMNE MEDICAL-POT USER WON'T FACE NEW TRIAL

SONORA - A Tuolumne County medical-marijuana user whose cultivation
and possession convictions were overturned earlier this year by the
California Supreme Court will not face a new trial.

Deputy District Attorney John Hansen said Thursday that his office has
decided not to seek a new trial for Myron "Carl" Mower, who has a
doctor's recommendation to use marijuana to help him cope with
diabetes and related ailments.

Hansen said it would not be cost-effective for the county to retry the
40-year-old Mower, because even if he were convicted, he could be
sentenced only to serve the rest of his original probation period,
which expires in March.

"That would be an expensive proposition," Hansen said. "It's not worth
it."

Hansen said that if Mower had been violating his probation while
awaiting the outcome of his appeal, "we'd probably be more interested
in trying the case. But he hasn't, and we have nothing to gain."

Mower, who was upfront about his medical marijuana use, was arrested
in 1997 in what proved to be the county's first case involving
Proposition 215, which passed in 1996 and gave people with certain
illnesses the legal right to use and grow marijuana with a doctor's
recommendation.

A jury convicted Mower of cultivation and possession of marijuana the
next year, and he was placed on five years' probation.

But he appealed his conviction, and the state Supreme Court ultimately
overturned it in July. The Supreme Court also ruled that in the
future, legitimate medical-marijuana users under Proposition 215 must
raise only a reasonable doubt that they meet the legal criteria to
avoid going to trial.

Mower has been waiting since that ruling to find out whether the
district attorney's office would seek to try him again on the
cultivation and possession charges.

He became alarmed this week when he received a letter from Superior
Court Judge Eric DuTemple ordering him to appear in court Oct. 1 for a
trial-setting conference.

Mower said DuTemple's letter also ordered District Attorney Donald
Segerstrom to prepare an order transporting Mower to the county jail
- -- a prospect that had Mower fearing for his life.

"If they put me in jail," Mower said before he learned Segerstrom's
office would not seek a new trial, "they'll surely kill me."

That's because Mower said the jail was not able to meet his medical
needs. He said he must take more than two dozen pills a day in
addition to the insulin he must inject to control his diabetes, which
he has had since he was 8.

But the transport order appeared in Mower's letter by mistake. Hansen
said that in most cases involving appeals, the transport order is
needed, because the appeal subject is in prison and must be sent back
to the county jail for processing and court appearances.

Mower said he was relieved to learn Thursday that he would not be
facing a new trial.

"I think this is the right thing to do," he said. "It's about time
they leave me alone."

Mower said that when he received the letter indicating he should
prepare to be transported to jail, he was alarmed. "It screwed up my
health," he said. "My blood sugar was all over the place because of my
emotions. I've been having a hard time keeping everything where it's
supposed to be.

"This is such a relief. You can't believe what a weight it is off my
shoulders."