cannabisnews.com: Michigan Woman on Trial for Lighting Up Marijuana 





Michigan Woman on Trial for Lighting Up Marijuana 
Posted by FoM on January 20, 2000 at 19:55:14 PT
By The Associated Press
Source: Detroit Free Press
A Michigan woman lit up a marijuana joint in a congressman's Capitol Hill office in 1998 because she needed relief from muscle spasms caused by her multiple sclerosis, her lawyer said Thursday during opening arguments in her trial. However, prosecutors said Renee Emry Wolfe went to the office of Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla., and lit the joint to protest his resolution on the House floor that day that said marijuana is a dangerous and addictive drug and should not be legalized for medical use. 
Mrs. Wolfe, 39, a mother of four, is charged with possession of marijuana. If convicted after a short trial, Wolfe could face up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. The case has drawn attention to whether people with multiple sclerosis and other medical conditions should be able to use marijuana for medicinal purposes. Her lawyer, Jeffrey Orchard, is presenting a so-called medical defense for the Ann Arbor woman in a nonjury trial before Judge Stephanie Duncan-Peters in District of Columbia Superior Court. Mrs. Wolfe says that taking a few puffs of marijuana is the only way she gets relief in seconds when her muscles go into spasm from the disease she has had for about two decades. Orchard argued that Mrs. Wolfe "has been able to live a relatively fruitful life" because she has smoked marijuana to limit her muscle spasms, discovering it to be effective since she took it as part of a university study years ago. "Unfortunately, there is no way for (Mrs. Wolfe) to conduct her therapy legally," Orchard said as his client nodded while sitting in her wheelchair. Mrs. Wolfe went to McCollum's office on Sept. 15, 1998, to meet with the congressman and "give testimony to the medical benefits of marijuana," Orchard said. Mrs. Wolfe started to feel tense when McCollum's aides did not want to talk with her and she lighted the marijuana cigarette because she felt her symptoms returning, he said. When she gets attacks, her hands shake and she loses control of her legs. Mrs. Wolfe "medicated herself out of necessity in an extremely stressful environment," Orchard concluded, not as "recreation or symbolic protest." Prosecutor Alex Bourelly told the judge he intended to show the Mrs. Wolfe illegally possessed marijuana on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol. Sgt. Kathryn Stillman of the U.S. Capitol police testified that she saw Mrs. Wolfe holding something that smelled and looked like a joint when she responded to a call to the congressman's office. Another officer, James Pickett, said the substance was later verified to be marijuana. He also said Mrs. Wolfe was holding a black and white sign that said: "I use marijuana for medicinal purposes." The trial is expected to last at least one more day. On Friday afternoon, a witness for the defense, Dr. Denis Petro, is scheduled to testify about the medical benefits of marijuana for people with multiple sclerosis. WASHINGTON (AP) Published: January 20, 2000Copyright © 2000 Detroit Free Press Inc.Related Articles:Woman Faces D.C. Trial in Pot-Smoking Case - 1/20/2000http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread4397.shtmlMS Patient Faces Marijuana Trial - 2/09/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread468.shtml 
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