COURT CHARGES POT GROWER

Prosecutor Refiles Cultivation Charge At David Zink's Preliminary
Hearing

A 55-year-old medicinal marijuana activist from Long Beach was
arraigned Monday on three felony drug counts.

David Zink pleaded not guilty in Long Beach Superior Court to
cultivating marijuana, possessing marijuana for sale and manufacturing
hashish, a controlled substance. Long Beach Superior Court Judge James
Wright dropped the cultivation charge at a preliminary hearing Aug. 28,
but prosecutor John Harlan refiled the count. Zink's attorney, J. David
Nick, is expected to bring a motion to dismiss the count at an Oct. 11
pretrial hearing in Judge James Pierce's courtroom.

"I feel like I'm being harassed at this point," Zink said after
Monday's arraignment.

Police raided Zink's home Aug. 10 and dug up 30 marijuana plants from
his back yard. Zink told police that two friends and he, all of whom
had doctors' notes permitting marijuana use, were growing the plants
for personal use.

The District Attorney's Office has alleged that Zink is responsible for
all the plants. Prosecutors said he possessed equipment used to make
hashish, as well as a scale and baggies, items sometimes used to sell
pot.

Proposition 215, passed in 1996, allows patients and patients' primary
caregivers to possess or cultivate marijuana "for the personal medical
purposes of the patient upon the written or oral recommendation or
approval of a physician."