A California medical marijuana patient facing up to 10 years in prison in Alabama for possessing five grams of marijuana will now go free. In court proceedings in Anniston Monday, Michael Lapihuska agreed to a plea deal in which he was sentenced to two years of unsupervised probation, with no drug testing. He is now free to leave Alabama, and will most likely do so within a matter of days. (See our earlier feature article on Lapihuska and his travails here.)

[image:1 align:left caption:true]An Alabama native, Lapihuska left the Heart of Dixie several years ago after serving 13 months in prison for possessing five grams of marijuana in 2003. Lapihuska, who suffers from depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), headed for greener pastures in California, where he became a card-carrying medical marijuana patient, but came home last December for a holiday visit.

On December 15, 2009, he was stopped by a police officer and accused of hitchhiking as he walked down a road. The officer demanded he be allowed to search Lapihuska, and Lapihuska complied. The search came up with a prescription bottle containing one gram of marijuana. Lapihuska explained that he was a registered California medical marijuana patient and produced a patient ID card.

But Alabama justice doesn't recognize medical marijuana, and Lapihuska was charged with his third marijuana possession offense, this one worth between two and 10 years in state prison. Under Alabama law, a first marijuana offense is a misdemeanor, but a second possession offense is a felony punishable by a year in prison. A third possession offense is a felony punishable by two to 10 years in prison.

Lapihuska's predicament soon won him the support of Alabama drug reform activist Loretta Nall and Alabamians for Compassionate Care, who unleashed a media campaign in the local press to gain support for Lapihuska and to try to shame local prosecutors into reducing the charges.

Lapihuska didn't make it easy. Determined not to once again be caught up in the tender mercies of the Alabama criminal justice system, Lapihuska rejected a a plea deal that would have seen him sentenced to probation, but also subject to drug testing. He told the Chronicle he would fail such a test because he continues to use marijuana to treat his symptoms.

At the Monday court hearing, prosecutors lowered the felony marijuana count to a misdemeanor and allowed Lapihuska to plead guilty to that count and an original misdemeanor possession count. Lapihuska must pay a $250 fine on each count, but that is effectively it.

"We beat them down," said Loretta Nall, Lapihuska's most effective and energetic backer. "They didn't want the media attention. They just wanted him out of there. The judge even asked if he was really going back to California."

Nall added that Lapihuska was going to get out of Alabama if she had to buy his plane ticket herself.

Even in Alabama, a little activism can go a long way. What looked like an obscene 10-year prison sentence has now been transformed into a token conviction, a token fine, and an invitation to go home.