LUPUS PATIENT CASE DROPPED

Medical marijuana patient Nancy Maffei's case was dropped December 17 on
the condition that her caregiver Bob Sullens plead no contest to an
infractionpossession of less than an ounce of marijuanaand pay a $100
fine. Sullens grew cannabis plants for Maffei who is in constant pain from
lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and leg and foot injuries.

District Attorney Mike Mullins said the compromise was appropriate because
it means that the defendants "have accepted some responsibility for growing
too much."

Maffei disagrees: "Bob only agreed to plead no contest because the stress
of the case was making me so sick. We didn't do anything wrong."

According to her attorney, Sandy Feinland, Maffei is "exactly the person
the voters had in mind when they passed this law (Proposition 215)," and
that having Sullens cultivate 24 marijuana plants under a canopy of trees
off a quiet country lane was the most reasonable thing she could have done
under the law.

Not even the district attorney argues with Maffei's qualifications as a
patient: she has the required approval of her physician, and there is no
question about her illness being serious.

Maffei described lupus in layman's terms: "It's like a civil war in your
body. Your white blood cells start attacking your your joints, your
tissues, your internal organs. Twice they have given me six months to
live."

When marijuana is available Maffei is able to use less of the drugs her
doctor prescribes, including morphine. "Then I can have more of a life, do
some housework and be up and around more."

Maffei had 24 plants, but officers took six and cut sample parts from
remaining plants, significantly reducing the size of her harvest. And
although law enforcement uses onepoundperplant as an official standard
to predict yield, her unsophisticated garden produced a only a small
fraction of that amount.

Chris Conrad, Bay Area author and recognized cannabis expert, was prepared
to testify that the couple harvested about two pounds from the remaining 18
plants. According to Conrad, it is only the rare plant that produces a
pound; more typical would be a few ounces.

"The standard of one pound per plant on the average is like saying the
average human being should be measured at 560 pounds," said a local
activist. "Sure, some humans could be that large, but it's by no means a
measure we should use as a standard."

Sonoma County activists Paul Klopper and Alan Silverman have been
petitioning local law enforcement, public health, private health care, and
elected officials to implement a plan to "provide for the safe and
affordable distribution of marijuana to all patients in medical need of
marijuana," as the new law encourages.

District Attorney Mullins has said he will not allow a cannabis buyers club
in Sonoma County, that patients or their caregivers must grow it. Mullins'
statementsin addition to the prohibitive price of marijuana at cannabis
clubs and on the streetleft Maffei and Sullens with no alternative to
growing and feeling confident that they were acting legally.

"If we thought were were doing anything illegal," said Sullens, "we would
have ripped the plants up when we saw CAMP fly over."

Life has been especially difficult for the couple since August 14, when the
CAMP crew in its fatigues and Sonoma County Sheriff's deputies raided their
garden. The initial shock produced by drawn guns, handcuffs and destruction
of part of their garden has been followed by several trips to court and the
possibility of losing three years of their freedom.

"It's been horrible. My pain was controllable before all this," said
Maffei. "I can't believe the taxpayers want their money spent to do this to
people's lives."