[420 Girl]

Long-time Maine medical marijuana and marijuana legalization advocate Donald Christen is innocent of marijuana cultivation and trafficking, a jury found last week as it acquitted him of the charges. The verdict could have far reaching effects in the state, according to Christen's lawyer, Walter McKee.

"We had raised the affirmative defense that the marijuana being cultivated or being furnished was medical marijuana," McKee told the Kennebec Journal after the verdict. "Don acknowledged that he cultivated marijuana and he acknowledged that he possessed it with the intent to furnish it, but indicated that what he was cultivating and what he had possessed with the intent to furnish was medical marijuana, for one patient in particular."

The jury's acquittal came after Justice William Anderson told jurors Christen had met the criteria for medical marijuana under the state statute. Christen was arrested on the charges in December 2004 when police raided his home, which had served since the previous October as the Medical Marijuana Distribution Center. He was growing plants for a handful of patients. Under Maine's medical marijuana law, there are provisions to protect patients from prosecution, but none for allowing them to obtain their medicine. Christen filled that gap, and now he has broken new ground with his acquittal.

This is just the latest poke in the eye of Maine authorities from Christen. The veteran gadfly has bedeviled police and politicos in the state for more than a decade as founder of the legalization group Maine Vocals and organizer of the annual Maine Hempstock celebration. Don't count on him to rest on his laurels now.


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