Half-Year Lock-up For Marijuana Transporter Upheld


Robert Victor Wayman probably thought he was safe from prosecution for the 37 Ziploc baggies containing more than 117 grams of marijuana he was carrying in his vehicle when he was stopped in Orange County by the CHP in March 2008.

Wayman also carried a physician's certificate allowing his use of marijuana for a medical reason: back aches.
He told the officer the drug was solely for personal use, but the cop didn't believe him and charged him with transporting marijuana, possessing marijuana for sale, possessing concentrated cannabis and driving under the influence of alcohol.

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OC prosecutors and a jury didn't buy most of Wayman's story either, perhaps because he was also carrying electronic scales, metal screens and a stack of brown paper lunch bags. The fact that he owned Internet website addresses for pot delivery services might have wrecked his other story: He kept his marijuana stored in his vehicle not to make deliveries but to placate his roommate's demand that pot not be brought into their home. (His roommate was his mother.) 
Jurors convicted Wayman of transporting marijuana and of DUI, but found him not guilty of possessing concentrated cannabis and deadlocked on the possession for sale charge.
Wayman appealed claiming Superior Court Judge Lance Jensen had given jurors a faulty instruction about marijuana transportation.
But this month, a California Court of Appeal based in Santa Ana rejected Wayman's argument by agreeing with Jensen (and the prosecutor) that “just because someone may be entitled to legally possess marijuana, does not necessarily mean they're entitled to legally transport it.”
The justices said medical marijuana users do not “have an unfettered right to take their marijuana with them wherever they go.”
To allow such conduct would be “a sort of 'open Sesame' regarding possession, transportation and sale of marijuana in this state,” they opined.
As a result of the ruling, Wayman's 180-day jail sentence remains valid.
–R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly 

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