In a case being watched by medical marijuana advocates across the country, cancer patient Benton Mackenzie received three years of probation rather than a prison term for his conviction in July on drug charges. Mackenzie had grown marijuana plants on his parents’ property in order to extract cannabis oil, and his wife and son also faced drug charges. At the trial, District Court Judge Henry Latham did not allow Mackenzie’s attorney to tell the jury that the defendant was trying to treat his angiosarcoma. Yesterday, the same judge sentenced both Mackenzie and his wife Loretta Mackenzie to probation, in line with the prosecutor’s recommendation in the case. After the jump I’ve posted excerpts from Brian Wellner’s report for the Quad-City Times and Grant Rodgers’ report for the Des Moines Register. Libertarian candidate for governor Lee Hieb, a medical doctor, attended yesterday’s hearing and afterward called for a change in public policy to give people “the right to choose our own cancer care.” Mackenzie expressed hope that he will be the “last person” to be prosecuted under similar circumstances.

The Mackenzie family wants to move to Oregon, where a doctor has approved Benton Mackenzie for participation in that state’s medical marijuana program. Probation officers in Iowa would have to sign off on the move before the family could leave the state. Mackenzie also plans to appeal “in an effort to get the Iowa Supreme Court to reconsider its decision in a 2005 case that bars Iowans from using claims of medical necessity as a defense to growing marijuana.”

I still think it was a waste of taxpayer money to prosecute a critically ill person for growing marijuana intended for personal use. Iowa lawmakers should make cannabis more accessible to people who can demonstrate a medical need for it.

LATE UPDATE: Judge Latham sentenced Benton Mackenzie’s close friend Stephen Bloomer to five years in prison for helping the cancer patient buy materials for growing marijuana. Bloomer is free on bond pending consideration of his appeal. Scroll to the end of this post for more details on that case. What a travesty.

From Brian Wellner’s report for the Quad-City Times:

As a habitual offender due to prior drug convictions, Mackenzie faced 15 years in prison, with a mandatory three years before he would be eligible for parole. His wife faced five years in prison.

The couple had prepared for a prison sentence, even sitting down with Lisa Ann Warner at the Lederman Bonding Co. across the street from the courthouse an hour before their hearing. Warner advised them how to post an appeal bond.

At the hearing, in a courtroom full of supporters and the news media, Latham suspended the prison terms and sentenced both Benton and Loretta Mackenzie to three years of probation on Class D felony charges of manufacturing marijuana. He also suspended a one-year jail term for their 22-year-old son, Cody, and sentenced him to probation for misdemeanor possession of marijuana.

“I understand you suffer from a form of cancer,” Latham told Benton Mackenzie in court. “But I took an oath to uphold the laws of this state.” […]

Assistant Scott County Attorney Patrick McElyea recommended probation for both Benton and Loretta Mackenzie, as did their probation officers in sealed records that were filed before the hearing. […]

Latham said he could not ignore the size of the Mackenzies’ marijuana-growing operation. In 2013, Scott County Sheriff’s deputies seized 71 marijuana plants from the family’s Long Grove home. The judge said no state, not even those with medical marijuana laws, allow patients to grow that many plants at home at one time.

From Grant Rodgers’ report for the Des Moines Register:

Mackenzie was unapologetic in front of District Judge Henry Latham during his sentencing. Authorities had charged Mackenzie with four felonies after a raid last year uncovered 71 marijuana plants that Mackenzie admitted he grew on his parents’ property north of Davenport. He was found guilty of the charges during a trial this summer.

Before his sentence, Mackenzie told the judge that he believes in “law and order.” But Iowa’s laws against his use of medical marijuana put his life in danger, Mackenzie said.

“I have a form of cancer that is not very survivable and I have had tumors disappear under treatment with cannabis oil,” he said. “As far as saving my life, that was the only option I had. … I’ve proven the decision I made was the right one to save my life.” […]

As he sentenced Mackenzie, Latham said he “sympathized” with the family, but that Mackenzie’s actions were clearly illegal.

Even in states where medical marijuana is allowed by law, growing the number of plants that Mackenzie had for personal use would be illegal in “a vast majority” of those states, Latham said.

[…]

“There is every reason to send you to prison today, but what purpose would that serve here today?” Latham said.

Latham’s sentence came after prosecutor Patrick McElyea recommended that the judge choose probation rather than prison. Mackenzie faced a mandatory minimum of three years in prison because of his two previous drug convictions.

From Brian Wellner’s September 18 report for the Quad-City Times:

The 49-year-old Davenport man pleaded guilty to charges he helped Benton Mackenzie grow marijuana at home. But whereas Scott County District Judge Henry Latham suspended Mackenzie’s 15 years in prison and put him on probation, Latham sentenced Bloomer to five years in prison.

“I was morally justified in what I did,” Bloomer said afterward, able to walk out of the courthouse in street clothes as the judge allowed him to report to prison Monday morning. “I don’t regret it. He’s alive now.”

Bloomer said he helped buy materials to grow marijuana at the Mackenzie family’s Long Grove home because Benton Mackenzie, his friend since childhood, is dying of cancer. He added the two researched and found a strain used to treat cancer patients in other states. […]

Latham cited Bloomer’s “substantial” criminal record that includes a 2004 conviction for growing marijuana to which he was sentenced to probation. […]

Facing a multiple-count indictment, Bloomer pleaded guilty to a single count of manufacturing marijuana half-way through the first day of jury selection in the Mackenzie trial this summer.

At the time, Assistant Scott County Attorney Patrick McElyea said he wouldn’t seek an enhanced sentence based on Bloomer’s prior drug convictions so long as Bloomer agreed to give truthful testimony against Benton Mackenzie, 48, his wife, Loretta Mackenzie, 43, and son Cody Mackenzie, 22.

Bloomer was not called to testify. That’s because he would have testified that Loretta Mackenzie had nothing to do with her husband’s pot-growing operation, Bloomer told the Quad-City Times before Thursday’s sentencing.

“She wasn’t involved,” Bloomer said. “It was wrong that she was ever charged.”