TERMINAL CANCER PATIENT FINED $2,000 FOR MARIJUANA

TV Official Guilty Of Lesser Drug Charge

LIHUE -- A cancer patient with a medical marijuana license from
California said he was relieved that he avoided jail time after being
sentenced last week for promotion of marijuana.

[Name redacted] of Kilauea was instead fined $2,000, despite using
the marijuana for medical purposes. [Name redacted] has asbestos
cancer in his stomach and esophagus, according to his lawyer.

[Name redacted] was arrested last year with 1.2 pounds of marijuana
that was shipped to him from the mainland. That is well above the
legal amount for someone with a medical marijuana license to legally possess.

Instead, he was charged with first-degree promotion of a detrimental
drug, a felony that has a imprisonment of up to five years. He
pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge, second-degree promotion, in August.

In [Name redacted] defense, lawyer Daniel Hempey said his client
"moved to Kauai to die" and should not be treated the same as a
recreational user.

He used it "to relieve pain and nausea and to allow himself to eat,"
Hempey added. "He ordered a large supply" so he would not have to buy
it in the street.

[Name redacted] has since sworn off all pain medication and
marijuana, Hempey continued, and has turned to acupuncture.

While Deputy Prosecutor Rosa Flores argued that [Name redacted]
admitted smoking marijuana well before his cancer diagnosis, she also
asked for no jail time.

Circuit Judge George Masuoka agreed but added that if [Name redacted]
was in his court again, he would have no problem sending him to spend
his last days in jail.

TV Official Guilty Of Lesser Drug Charge

The managing director of Kauai's public access television station
pleaded guilty to a petty misdemeanor marijuana charge yesterday.

[Name redacted], 53, who was originally charged with commercial
promotion of marijuana, had his charges dropped to a petty
misdemeanor after a plea deal with prosecutors. He paid a $150 fine.

His co-defendants, [Name redacted] and Nathan [Name redacted], also
received reduced sentences from the original promotion charges.
Prather pleaded guilty to a petty misdemeanor and paid a $150 fine,
but [Name redacted] faces up to five years in prison after pleading
to felony marijuana possession. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 23.

According to Daniel Hempey, [Name redacted]'s lawyer, the result was
a bit of vindication for his client, who had been accused of
harboring 10 pounds of marijuana in his house.

Hempey said that the box containing those drugs were never near his client.

According to police, [Name redacted] received the marijuana via mail,
in a post office box. Police said he later brought it to [Name
redacted]'s house and then to [Name redacted]'s Omao residence.

But, Hempey said, those drugs stayed in [Name redacted]'s car, and
[Name redacted] had no knowledge they were there.