SMOKE BUT NO FIRE IN MARIJUANA CASE

El Dorado County Sheriff's deputies confiscated 12 marijuana plants in
October from a South Lake Tahoe motorist who said the plants were for
medicinal use. Two months later, the marijuana remains in an evidence
locker.

Patrick McMahon, 30, of San Mateo, Calif., was ticketed for transporting
marijuana after a deputy got a tip from another driver that McMahon's red
Blazer was carrying suspicious plants.

McMahon's Dec. 3 court date was vacated and he has not yet been charged with
a crime because El Dorado County District Attorney's Office is still
investigating the incident. They want to determine if McMahon is eligible
for protection from the law under Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use
Act, which passed in 1996.

The district attorney's office has been in contact with McMahon's attorney,
William Panzer, and received some of McMahon's medical records but still is
awaiting additional information.

Deputy District Attorney Lisa Serafini said the marijuana will not be
returned even if 215 is a viable defense because federal law prohibits
possession or cultivation of marijuana. She said if McMahon was able to
obtain a court order that demanded the plants be returned the order still
would be in violation of federal law.

Deputy Mike Sukau stopped McMahon Oct. 18 on Blackwood Road driving 43 mph
in 35-mph zone. McMahon showed Sukau an identification card from Oakland
Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative and said the plants were "straight from the
cannabis club." Sukau said McMahon told him he was en route to deliver the
marijuana to a friend who was a medicinal marijuana patient.

The Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative is a business in the Bay Area that
issues identification cards and sells hemp products but does not dispense
marijuana. The cooperative's marijuana dispensary was shut down by the
federal government in 1998.

Panzer could not be reached for comment because he is on his honeymoon.