Pubdate: Wed, 09 Jan 2002
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2002 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: John L. Mitchell, L.A. Times Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)

WOMAN WITH SICKLE CELL ANEMIA FIGHTS FOR RIGHT TO GROW POT FOR MEDICINAL USE

Trial: The Marijuana Grower's Case Will Test Prop. 215, Passed In 
California In 1996.

For years, Somayah Kambui argued that she had a medical right to use 
marijuana--a drug of choice for many like her who suffer from the 
debilitating and painful disease sickle cell anemia.

So the 51-year-old founder of a cannabis club, Crescent Alliance Self Help 
for Sickle Cell, said she got a doctor's prescription and began growing her 
personal stash of marijuana in her South Los Angeles backyard.

But police officers challenged Kambui's claim in October when they raided 
her garden and confiscated, by their estimate, a stash that was somewhat 
more than personal: 200 pounds of marijuana plants. "She had a farm back 
there," said Deputy Dist. Atty. John Kildebeck.

Kambui was arrested, spent 60 days in jail awaiting trial and now--because 
of two prior felony convictions--faces the possibility of life in prison 
under the three-strikes law. The two previous convictions, involving 
illegal-firearms possession and explosives, came in the 1970s when she was 
active in the Black Panther Party.

Fearing the worst, she appeared Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, 
where prosecutor Kildebeck and Kambui's attorney both called for a delay in 
the start of her trial.

Robert A. Welbourn, Kambui's court-appointed attorney, told his client she 
would be taking a chance if she went ahead with a trial so soon. Kambui 
refused his advice and asked the judge for a speedy trial. He complied, 
setting a Jan. 18 date.

"Let things fall where they need to fall," Kambui said later.

Her case is another test of Proposition 215, the medical-marijuana 
initiative passed by California voters in 1996. The measure allowed medical 
use of marijuana but did not set limits on how much could be grown or 
consumed--a gray area that has surfaced in several criminal cases.

Last year federal agents shut down a West Hollywood cannabis club, 
uprooting 400 plants, seizing indoor growing lights and hauling off 
computers listing the names and medical histories of the center's patients 
who allegedly used marijuana to ease the pain or help with nausea caused by 
chemotherapy or AIDS.

California is among a handful of states that legalized medical use of 
marijuana, putting it in conflict with federal statutes that make pot 
illegal for cultivation, sale and use. That dispute escalated this year 
with a U.S Supreme Court ruling that upheld federal law.

Kambui said her use of marijuana eases the pain of sickle cell anemia, a 
disease in which the blood cells become deformed when oxygen levels are 
low, creating painful blockage of blood vessels and causing organ damage.

Kambui said the marijuana grown in her backyard--on a block of 
single-family homes and apartments near the Los Angeles Memorial 
Coliseum--was not for her use alone but was to be shared with the dozen or 
so members of her club who also suffer from sickle cell anemia. She said 
the effects of marijuana were far less harmful than the morphine she had 
been prescribed.

But since 1998, she said, she has been under scrutiny because of her 
plants. Police seized her stock that year, and she spent two weeks in jail. 
She beat that case, however, and her confiscated plants were returned.

Her club continued to operate without problems until last year, when 
police, with helicopters hovering overhead, searched her two-story home.

"I was sitting having a cup of coffee with a little hemp oil when they 
broke down the door," she said. "I said, 'I'm legal, I have a doctor's note 
and I'm compliant with the law.' "

She said the officers told her they thought she had too much to be for 
personal use only.

"I said 'OK, why don't you take what you think I don't need and leave me 
the rest?' " she recalled. "They took it all."

She disputed law enforcement's estimate of her stash.

"That is 200 pounds wet, with dirt and stalks," she said.

Kildebeck said he doubted that Kambui would be tried as a third-strike 
defendant because the current charge does not involve violent conduct. 
"We're trying to do the right thing too," he said.

Her neighbors also seemed sympathetic.

Mario Mercado said Kambui should be allowed to use marijuana if it is for 
her personal use and not for sale in the neighborhood.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager