RustyWhite's Blog

Texas Patient Wins Landmark Acquittal in Medical Marijuana Case
March 27, 2008

http://www.newsli.com:80/2008/03/27/texas-patient-
wins-landmark-acquittal-in-medical-marijuana-case/


(Long Island, N.Y.) A Texas patient who uses medical marijuana to treat the
symptoms of HIV won acquittal on marijuana possession charges March 25 based
on a "necessity defense." Though such a defense - which requires the
defendant to establish that an otherwise illegal act was necessary to avoid
imminent harm more serious than the harm prevented by the law he or she
broke - has rarely been successful in Texas, the jury took just 11 minutes
to acquit Tim Stevens, 53. The trial was hotly contested.
Stevens had never been in trouble until Amarillo police arrested him for
possessing less than 4 grams of marijuana. As a result of his HIV infection,
Stevens suffers from nausea and cyclical vomiting syndrome, a condition so
severe that he has required hospitalization and blood transfusions in the
past.

Extensive research has established medical marijuana as an effective
treatment for nausea and vomiting associated with HIV/AIDS and cancer
chemotherapy, uses recently acknowledged by the prestigious American College
of Physicians. Key in establishing Stevens' medical necessity was the
testimony of Dr. Steve Jenison, medical director of the Infectious Diseases
Bureau for the state of New Mexico's Department of Health.

"This case proved to be a testing ground for public attitudes toward medical
marijuana," said attorney Jeff Blackburn, who represented Stevens. "Even in
a very conservative part of a very conservative state, jurors were willing
to listen to the facts about medical marijuana and give Tim a break, and I
hope this case will help to create a trend in Texas."

"The common sense and decency exhibited by this Amarillo jury is typical of
what we see from voters around the country," said Ray Warren, director of
state policies for the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C., and a
former North Carolina Superior Court judge. "The American public doesn't
want to see seriously ill patients arrested and jailed for simply trying to
stay alive with the help of medical marijuana. It's time for legislators in
Texas and around the country to follow the public's lead and take action to
protect patients, so that no one battling a life-threatening illness has to
live in fear of arrest."