cannabisnews.com: Court Gives Weight To Weed Defense Court Gives Weight To Weed Defense Posted by CN Staff on September 02, 2004 at 08:56:05 PT By John McDonald, The Orange County Register Source: Orange County Register Santa Ana -- A Huntington Beach man caught with a pound of pot in his van who said he eats marijuana for medical reasons was wrongly convicted of intent to sell the drug, an appeals court ruled Wednesday. The case is the first of its kind in California and sets a legal precedent, allowing those accused of transporting more than a few ounces of marijuana to mount a medical marijuana defense. Huntington Beach police arrested Shawn Wright in September 2001. They found much of the marijuana wrapped in small plastic bags, and they found a scale – but no rolling papers, pipe or matches. Wright's lawyer said his client had long suffered pain from injuries and needed to eat the marijuana to counter his loss of appetite. "He'd cook it into butter and use the butter to prepare food, like brownies and cake," Greg Schreiber, the lawyer, said. "To prepare it that way you have to remove the stems and seeds, and a lot of it is lost in preparation.'' Orange County Superior Court Judge James Stotler had refused to allow Wright's lawyer to argue a "Compassionate Use" defense under the state's Proposition 215 law, which allows the smoking of marijuana for medicinal purposes. The opinion marks the first time the issue of a person eating marijuana, as opposed to smoking it, has been addressed in a published court of appeals decision, said Deputy California Attorney General Marc Nolan, who supervises all medical marijuana cases in the state. Stotler's decision was based in large part on the amount of marijuana Wright had. The judge ruled the amount was consistent with intent to sell, and outside of the parameters of Prop. 215. The judge found the eating- marijuana argument implausible. He sentenced Wright, 41, who works for a fencing company, to a year in jail but freed the Huntington Beach man after a few months behind bars. Snipped: Complete Article: http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/weight.htmSource: Orange County Register, The (CA)Author: John McDonald, The Orange County Register Published: Thursday, September 2, 2004 Copyright: 2004 The Orange County RegisterContact: letters ocregister.comWebsite: http://www.ocregister.com/Related Articles & Web Sites: Marijuana Policy Projecthttp://www.mpp.org/Medical Marijuana Information Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/medical.htmCourt of Appeal Throws Out Marijuana Conviction http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19421.shtmlCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Post Comment