The first jury instructed to consider California’s medical marijuana law as an affirmative defense deadlocked yesterday on whether to convict a Marin County man for growing marijuana he allegedly used to treat chronic back pain.
Law enforcement officials arrested Dr. Alan Ager last September for growing 135 small marijuana plants. Ager’s lawyer, NORML Legal Committee member Lawrence Lichter, claimed his client smoked marijuana frequently to reduce back pain suffered in a 1978 car accident. Before the trial, Marin County Superior Court Judge Vernon Smith ruled that the jury could consider Proposition 215 retroactively as an affirmative defense in the case.
The jury decided 10 to 2 in favor of conviction after eight hours of deliberation. Judge Smith declared a mistrial after deciding that the two holdouts could not be swayed. Deputy District Attorney Teresa Leon has until September 3 to decide whether she will retry the case.
NORML Executive Director R. Keith Stroup, Esq. called the result a positive step for medical marijuana patients. “Courts and juries in California appear to be interpreting Proposition 215 in accordance with the spirit of the voters,” he said. “When there exists a gray area in the law, they are giving sick people the benefit of the doubt.”
Nancy Bernard, one of the two jurors who voted to acquit, told The San Francisco Chronicle that she believed there was sufficient evidence that Ager grew marijuana under the guidelines of Proposition 215. “I didn’t think there was enough information for me to say he didn’t use marijuana for medical reasons,” she said. “He has back pain. He had a doctor’s recommendation. Who’s to say what’s too much?”
Ager’s marijuana was supported in court by his sister, Dr. Phyllis Ager. Ms. Ager had previously conducted studies on the effects of marijuana on cancer patients, and testified that inhaled marijuana held therapeutic benefits unavailable in oral THC capsules.
Alan Ager currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana, a non-profit Cannabis Buyers’ Club.
For more information, please contact either Keith Stroup, Esq. of NORML at (202) 483-5500 or Lynette Shaw of the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana at (415) 256-9328.