Thought you might be interested in these particular stories.
    I forgot to set the followups on the regular DWC posting to
talk.politics.drugs but this one is so set

Drug War Chronicle, Issue #502 -- 9/21/07
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, psmith@drcnet.org
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/502

A Publication of Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)
David Borden, Executive Director, borden@drcnet.org
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"

Massive increases to our web site traffic have increased our
costs -- will you help us continue it?
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/502/massive_increases_in_web_site_traffic_have_increased_our_costs

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8. Pain Patients: Florida Prisoner Richard Paey is Pardoned
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/502/florida_pain_patient_richard_paey_granted_pardon

Richard Paey, the wheelchair-bound Florida pain patient
sentenced to 25 years in prison as a drug dealer for seeking
desperately-needed medications, may be a free man by the time
you read this. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) granted Paey a
full pardon on Thursday after a brief hearing in Tallahassee.
Paey and his family had only sought clemency.

Paey was severely injured in a 1985 auto accident. A New Jersey
physician provided him with prescriptions for necessary pain
relievers, but when Paey moved to Florida he took pre-signed
prescription forms with him. He was arrested in 1997 and charged
with illegally possessing and trafficking in about 700 pain
pills obtained with those prescriptions.

Under Florida's draconian drug laws, persons in possession of
that amount of pain medication are treated as drug traffickers.
Standing on principle, Paey refused plea offers from the state
and was ultimately convicted and sentenced to the mandatory
minimum 25-year sentence.

Paey's case became a cause celebre for the country's growing
pain patient and doctor movement. In August, the governor's
office announced that it would grant a waiver allowing Paey to
seek clemency. In most cases, inmates cannot seek clemency until
they have serve 1/3 of their time.

Thursday, Gov. Crist and three members of the Florida cabinet
heard Paey's appeal for clemency. Though the state's parole
commission had recommended against granting time-served, Crist
went further, granting him a full pardon and ordering he be
released immediately. According to the St. Petersburg Times
(http://www.sptimes.com/2007/09/20/Pasco/Paey_given_full_pardo.shtml),
Crist allowed Paey's attorney, John Flannery to speak for nearly
30 minutes -- the usual time limit is five minutes, then allowed
Paey's wife, three children and a family friend to speak as
well.

Crist then commented, "I want to move that we grant a full
pardon," continuing, "We aim to right a wrong and exercise
compassion and to do it with grace," the governor said.
"Congratulations... and I state he should be released today."

For further information on the Paey case, click here
(http://www.painreliefnetwork.org/in-the-spotlight/about-richard-paey/).

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9. Medical Marijuana: Bryan Epis Re-Sentenced to 10 Years in
Federal Prison
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/502/bryan_epis_resentenced_for_medical_marijuana

Bryan Epis, the first California medical marijuana provider
tried in federal court for growing marijuana, was sentenced last
Friday to 10 years in federal prison -- again. Epis was
convicted in 2002 of growing more than 1,000 marijuana plants
and served 25 months of his original 10-year sentence before
being released on appeal bond.

The US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had ordered the lower court
to reconsider Epis' conviction, but it found him guilty again.

Epis argued all along that he was a medical marijuana patient
who worked with other patients within California law at a
medical marijuana grow in Chico. But prosecutors portrayed him
as an entrepreneurial mastermind with plans to distribute
marijuana across the state.

In an ususual move, Circuit Court Judge Frank Damrell refused
prosecution requests to immediately take Epis into custody,
noting that the 9th Circuit had earlier ordered him released
"without comment," a move Damrell described as "unprecedented in
my experience. The law requires such an action be supported by
exceptional circumstances, so I can only assume that they found
exceptional circumstances," Damrell said. "My suspicion is the
9th Circuit would grant bail again," the judge added.

Damrell set an October 22 hearing date for a forthcoming motion
for bail pending appeal.

Epis' attorney, Brenda Grantland, has argued that prosecutor
Samuel Wong and DEA agents intentionally misinterpreted
documents seized at Epis' home when it was searched in June
1997. Wong described the documents as a statewide marketing
plan, saying Epis' "goal was to go statewide and use Proposition
215 as a shield to manufacture and traffic marijuana."

Grantland told Damrell that the 9th Circuit was "very
interested" in her allegations of prosecutorial misconduct and
perjury by narcotics officers in the case. Damrell agreed that
the appeals court "may have some interest" in the issues
Grantland raised.

For his part, Epis told the court he was a martyr for medical
marijuana.
"If Proposition 215 had not passed, I wouldn't be standing here
today," Epis told Damrell. "I'm being prosecuted because I have
a heart. I've seen too many people suffer and die from cancer
and AIDS not to try to help them. I'm not ashamed of what I did,
but I am sorry for my family."

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    later
    bliss -- C  O C O A  Powered... (at california dot com)

--       
bobbie sellers - a retired nurse in San Francisco
 
     "It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
     It is by the beans of cocoa that the thoughts acquire speed,
     the thighs acquire girth, the girth become a warning.
     It is by theobromine alone I set my mind in motion."
        --from Someone else's Dune spoof ripped to my taste.