[420 Girl]

JOSHUA TREE -- Charges of marijuana cultivation and sales pending against Rich McCabe and his wife, JoAnn Cates, since August 2007 were dismissed Monday by Judge Rodney Cortez before a preliminary hearing began at the San Bernardino County Superior Court here.

The Johnson Valley seniors faced three felony drug counts each and could have been required to register as drug offenders. They have contended they used the marijuana investigators found on their property to ease the symptoms of cancer treatment and other ailments.

The Marijuana Anti-Prohibition Project in Palm Springs hosted several events to raise money to help pay San Franciso-based defense attorneys Zenia Gillig and Danny Schultz.

Gillig said 90 percent of the cases she and Schultz take are associated with medical marijuana.

And while they came prepared with an armload of documents and two expert witness, Gillig praised San Bernardino County Deputy District Attorney Jamie Adams for being willing to listen. "That was most important," she said.

Nevertheless, Cates admitted the drawn-out process was a financial hardship.

It hurt us badly," said the 74-year-old cancer patient. "We still owe about $5,000 to $6,000."

When investigators from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department raided their mobile home over a year and a half ago, they found a greenhouse where the couple was growing marijuana.

A new microwave oven that Cates said she had just bought with a credit card was still in the box, and it was confiscated when she couldn't find the receipt. McCabe had $400 in his pocket from cashing his Social Security check, and that too was taken.

The couple will get their microwave and cash back, now that charges have been dismissed.

Cates and McCabe say they were cultivating and using marijuana under Proposition 215, passed by California voters almost 13 years ago.

The law allows marijuana to be used in various forms for medicinal purposes.

However, because it has seemed to undercut federal drug-enforcement laws that do not recognize the use of the plant for any legal purpose, many town, cities and counties have not upheld the tenets of the proposition.

The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court to have Proposition 215 declared unconstitutional.

A lawsuit, supported financially by MAPP, has been filed against the county by medical marijuana patient Scott Bledsoe to compel the county to start issuing state-mandated medical marijuana ID cards and to stop arresting medical marijuana patients.

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