RULING AIDS MEDICAL MARIJUANA PATIENTS

California Supreme Court Reduces Their Burden To Show They Have Valid
Prescriptions.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP)- Medical marijuana users can get some immunity from
criminal prosecution, the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday.

People who use medical marijuana and are arrested on drug charges can use
their status in their defense before a trial starts, and if their cases do
go to trial, the burden to show they have valid prescriptions is reduced,
the court ruled. The ruling also applies to primary caregivers of medical
marijuana users.

"For marijuana patients, it means they will be treated exactly the same as
patients of physicians who receive a prescription," said Gerald Uelmen, who
represented a medical marijuana patient convicted of possessing and
cultivating the drug. "The law for many years in California has been if you
are charged with unlawful possession of prescription drugs, all you have to
do is raise a reasonable doubt that you have a valid prescription."

That is a reduction in the degree of proof previously needed.

State Attorney General Bill Lockyer, whose office prosecuted the case, also
applauded the decision.

California in 1996 was the first state to approve medical marijuana with
the passage of Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act. Nonetheless, the
U.S. Supreme Court said last year that it's illegal to sell or possess
marijuana for medical use.

The ruling stems from the arrest and conviction of Myron Mower, who uses
marijuana to alleviate complications from diabetes. Mower was arrested in
1997 and convicted of possessing and cultivating marijuana. The appeals
court affirmed Mower's conviction.

The state high court sent the case back to the appeals court, ordering a
new trial for Mower.