Monica Ginn was found guilty yesterday in a trial of denial where justice was indeed blinded by the truth. Monica was arrested for growing medical marijuana in 2001, before she had a doctor's recommendation. Police threatened to charge her husband, a non-user, so Monica pled guilty and spent many months in prison on that charge. Once out of jail on work release, Monica became a legal caregiver to a man named Bob who was very ill with Multiple Sclerosis. An ethnobotanist, Monica felt she was within her rights to grow marijuana for Bob. She felt so confident, she even notified the authorities and asked them to come and register her garden.

Monica showed great courage, but also ignorance, when confronting the law. Her work release was revoked and she returned to serve the remainder of her sentence. At the end of her sentence, she consulted a physician who recommended marijuana to treat a back injury, and Monica became a qualified medical marijuana patient.

During her trial in mid-January of 2004, the Judge heard testimony from Monica's recommending physician who affirmed his support for her medical use of cannabis. The court was also treated to a summary review of medical marijuana research underway at the University of Washington and other labs. A third expert was qualified on patient use and cultivation of cannabis in medical use. But the afternoon of testimony was overruled by Judge McPhee. In a startling move, the Judge ruled that Monica's recommendation was invalid because her physician had failed to take an X-ray or research Monica's medical records. The physician had insisted that his physical examination and the verbal medical history he had taken were sufficient to render an appropriate medical opinion. Judge Mcphee decided his legal authority was superior to the medical opinion of that licensed physician. Adding to her plight, MS patient Bob had died the previous year, so Monica was denied the medical defense entirely.

Unable to speak the truth, Monica's attorneys ran out of options. She was convicted on all counts. Because of her prior conviction, the middle aged woman now faces up to 7 years in prison. And even though Judge Mcphee ruled that Monica could remain free until her appeal was decided, Jack Jones, the laughing state prosecutor, had her arrested while she was leaving the courthouse. The charge that she had failed to appear in 2001 seems rather thin considering her freedom had been completely uncontested until the trial put her story on the front page of the state capitol's newspaper.

Attorneys continue to work on freeing Monica, but there is little hope of an immediate resolution. The Judge barred Monica's medical defense through what is called 'the Shepherd Ruling", an appellate decision that requires precise wording of medical marijuana recommendations as well as practical dosage information-a judicial order that puts doctors and patients in a legal bind because scientific and legal determinations on medical marijuana dosing are not yet published. Medical marijuana expert attorney Douglas Hiatt (206-262-9699) is now preparing Monica's appeal-a lengthy process that might bring this issue to the State Supreme Court along with several other medical marijuana cases where the Shepherd Ruling has been used to deny qualified patients the legal protections established in The Medical Use of Marijuana Act.

More information on Monica's sentencing will be released as soon as possible.