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Maine
State Patients For Medical Marijuana Cannabis Coalition
MEDICAL MARIJUANA ON MAINE COURT'S DOCKET
PORTLAND, Maine -- The Maine Supreme Judicial Court will hear arguments
Wednesday in the first challenge to the state's medical marijuana law. Donald
Christen, 55, of Madison is appealing his April 2007 conviction by a Somerset
County jury of aggravated cultivation of marijuana. The long-time advocate for
legalization of marijuana was sentenced in August 2007 to 14 months in prison with
all but six months suspended and two years probation after representing him-self in
the three-day trial. He has remained free on bail pending the outcome of the appeal.
Ironically, Christen was found not guilty last December by a Somerset County jury on the same charge and a charge of furnishing marijuana, according to a story published in the Portland Press Herald. Walter McKee, the Augusta attorney who represented Christen in the more recent case, told the paper it was the first time a defendant had proved he was growing and distributing marijuana legally under the state's medical marijuana law.
Peter Bickerman, the Augusta attorney representing Christen in the appeal of the 2007 conviction, argued in his brief that Superior Court Justice Kirk Studstrup incorrectly instructed the jury about the state's medical marijuana law. Bickerman also claimed that Christen was denied a speedy trial because it took place 27 months after he was indicted.
Voters passed a referendum in November 1999 and the Legislature amended it in 2002 to allow the medical use of marijuana. The law allows a designated caregiver to possess 21/2 ounces of harvested marijuana for the benefit of a patient eligible to receive medical marijuana plus a total of six plants, of which no more than three could be mature, flowering plants, according to Bickerman's brief.
Since the enactment of the law, people have asked Christen to be their caregiver once they have received the necessary medical permission to use the drug medicinally from their physicians. Bickerman argued that Christen was following the law when Somerset County sheriff's deputies, armed with a warrant on Nov. 10, 2004, seized 13 marijuana plants from his residence.
Christen, according to Bickerman's brief, had the proper paperwork to show that he was acting legally as a caregiver to at least six people, including his wife, Pamela Christen, 45, of Madison, who was suffering from ovarian cancer.
Efforts last week to obtain a copy of the brief filed by the Somerset County District Attorney's Office were unsuccessful.
Assistant District Attorney James G. Mitchell is expected to argue that Studstrup correctly interpreted the medical marijuana law and properly instructed the jury on how to apply it, according to information on the judiciary's Web site.
A bill that seeks to make it easier for qualified patients in Maine to obtain medical marijuana "Via Non Profit Dispensary's" will go to referendum in November. The Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee in April rejected a citizen initiative that would have had the state issue identification cards to qualifying patients and allow licensed nonprofit dispensaries to provide marijuana to those patients.
Pubdate: Mon, 15 Jun 2009
Source: Bangor Daily News (ME)
Copyright: 2009 Bangor Daily News Inc.
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