Pubdate: Wed, 14 Jan 2004
Source: Olympian, The (WA)
Copyright: 2004, The Olympian
Contact: http://www.theolympian.com/forms/lettrfrm.shtml
Website: http://www.theolympian.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/319
Author: Sharon Michael

WOMAN'S AIM TO USE POT LAW REBUFFED

OLYMPIA -- Monica Ginn says she grows marijuana for medical uses, but she 
wasn't allowed to use that defense at her trial on drug charges Tuesday. 
Judge Thomas McPhee ruled a day earlier that Ginn does not meet all of the 
requirements to justify using that defense against charges of growing and 
distributing marijuana, a controlled substance.

"They disarmed us yesterday," said Ginn, 53, as she sat in the courtroom 
late Tuesday, shortly after the jury began deliberations.

The jury resumes deliberations today.

The jury was instructed to decide whether Ginn of Olympia is guilty of 
manufacturing and possessing marijuana with the intent to distribute it.

Jurors also must decide whether Ginn qualifies for a more severe sentence 
because her growing operation was within 1,000 feet of a designated school 
bus stop. Ginn, who was the only defense witness, faces a five-year 
sentence if convicted.

Ginn admitted growing marijuana for her own use, for a Seattle man with 
multiple sclerosis who has since died and for the use of members of Green 
Cross -- a patient cooperative that provides medical marijuana to AIDS 
patients. She denies making a profit on her crop, but said she was 
sometimes reimbursed for expenses.

Her court-appointed attorney, Kevin Johnson, argued that the enhanced 
sentence is not called for because Ginn's operation was confined to her 
residence, did not involve anyone younger than 18 and was not for profit.

Patients must have a terminal or debilitating medical condition to qualify 
for medical marijuana, according to state law, which grew out of Initiative 
692, passed by voters in 1998. The judge ruled that Ginn's chronic back 
pain was not properly documented by her physician, who had been treating 
her for a short time and who had done no medical testing.

McPhee warned Ginn's attorney before closing arguments Tuesday that he 
would be in contempt if he tried to use the medical marijuana defense in 
final arguments to the jury.

Johnson said the medical marijuana issue was intertwined with the facts of 
the case.

Ginn would not have called the Thurston County Narcotics Task Force on 
April 28 to request that they inspect her marijuana growing operation if 
she thought she was doing something illegal, Johnson said.

"I wanted to notify the task force that I had a medical grow, and I wanted 
them to use whatever protocol they had to register it," she said.

Ginn said she'd been told that King County's narcotics task force conducted 
inspections of medical marijuana growing operations. But Thurston County 
Detective Rod Ditrich told her he was unaware of any such protocol and, 
when he came to inspect her operation on April 29, he said, he told Ginn 
that he was treating the visit as a criminal investigation.

Ditrich came back with a search warrant May 14 and confiscated 23 marijuana 
plants that were growing in an old green trailer next to the motor home 
where Ginn lives with her husband.

"You've got to ask yourself, who would call in an airstrike on themselves, 
unless they thought they were doing the right thing," Johnson told the jury.

Ginn pleaded guilty to the same charges April 1, 2002, and McPhee sentenced 
her to nine months of combined community service and jail time. She was on 
work release from that sentence the day Ditrich first came to inspect her 
growing operation.

After she returned to jail on May 14, she remained there until Oct. 10, 
when she completed her sentence.

Ginn agreed to the plea bargain in 2002 to protect her husband, she said.

"He had nothing to do with this," she said. "They said, 'If you fight this, 
we'll prosecute your husband, too.' "

McPhee substituted his judgment for the medical judgment of Ginn's personal 
physician, Ginn's supporters said.

But the judge said his decision was based on the standards defined by the law.

"My ruling is in no way a ruling that seeks to overturn the law," he said.

If Ginn is convicted, she plans to appeal. McPhee said it will be 
interesting to see what a higher court has to say.

"Initiatives are often loosely written," he said.

SIDEBAR

What the law says Qualifying patients with terminal or debilitating 
illnesses who, in the judgment of their physicians, would benefit from the 
medical use of marijuana shall not be found guilty of a crime under state 
law for their possession and limited use of marijuana. "Medical use" 
includes production, possession or administration for the exclusive benefit 
of a qualifying patient.
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