Woman Wins Medical Pot Case

A woman who said she grew marijuana to treat the effects of sickle-cell anemia was acquitted of several drug charges Monday despite overwhelming evidence that her personal stash was for more than medical use.

Police testified that they found more than 200 pounds of marijuana plants in Somayah Kambui’s backyard when she was arrested Oct. 5. They believed she was using her medical condition as a ruse to run a distribution operation out of her South Los Angeles house.

Also seized were six pounds of marijuana in large glasses, an additional 13 pounds in packaging, 34 marijuana cookies, 32 small brown vials of hash oil, and a pot on the stove with three liters of oil.

But after six days of testimony, a Superior Court jury spent only three hours deliberating before finding Kambui, 51, not guilty on all five counts.

“The evidence was clear that it was a violation of the law,” said a disappointed Sean M. Carney, the deputy district attorney who prosecuted Kambui. “But she is a very sympathetic figure. She does have sickle-cell anemia, and the jury, I think, gave a nullification verdict.”

The case tested the state’s Proposition 215, the medical marijuana initiative passed by California voters in 1996. The measure allowed medical use of marijuana but did not set limits on how much could be grown or consumed.

Kambui said her house was merely a meeting place for the Crescent Alliance Self Help for Sickle Cell, a marijuana club she said she founded 20 years ago. Club members shared information on the uses of marijuana--making cookies and oils from seeds.

“I feel victorious, honorable and vindicated,” Kambui said after the reading of the verdict. “Now we have to see what can be done to get my property back and get the LAPD to stop raiding my house.”

Her court-appointed attorney, Robert A. Welbourn, said authorities “spent a lot of money and time trying to convict an innocent woman of a crime. Maybe they will leave her alone.”

After her arrest, Kambui spent 60 days in jail awaiting trial. Three years before, she had spent two weeks in jail after police raided her home and seized her marijuana. She beat that case, and her confiscated plants were returned.

Kambui, who was twice convicted of felonies in the 1970s when she was active in the Black Panther Party, faced a prison sentence of up to eight years if she had been convicted this time.

Kambui said her use of marijuana eases the pain of sickle-cell anemia, a debilitating disease in which the blood cells become deformed when oxygen levels are low, creating painful blockage of blood vessels and causing organ damage. Although she once shared her marijuana with others, she testified that she hadn’t been able to help anyone in the last year because she was too sick. The 27 marijuana plants and several gallons of hemp oil she kept at her two-story residence were for personal consumption, she said.

When the verdict was read, Kambui asked Judge Michael Johnson whether “anything could be done to stop any further raids on my house.”

Responded Johnson: “The case is concluded.”

The verdicts brought cheers of celebration from supporters outside the courtroom.

“We have reason to party now,” said Bill Britt, a 42-year-old Long Beach medical-marijuana activist. “This is wonderful.”

Kambui said she also was ready to celebrate. Standing with cigarette paper in her hand, she said: “I’ve got to roll me some medicine.”

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Times staff writer Gariot Louima contributed to this report.