A Stevens County judge said Friday that AIDS patient Cecil Lotief is entitled to smoke pot under Washington's 1-1/2-year-old medical marijuana law, but she sent him to jail for 15 days for going about it the wrong way. Lotief, 35, had no doctor's authorization when he was arrested last year, and authorities said the 40 marijuana plants he had were too many for medical use.

Now, though, a doctor has recommended marijuana to alleviate symptoms of Lotief's HIV infection, and Superior Court Judge Rebecca Baker said Lotief may continue to use the otherwise illegal drug.

However, Baker said Lotief and his doctor must come up with "at least some understanding" of how much marijuana he needs for the 60- day supply Initiative 692 allows.

"I have to do that?" Lotief incredulously asked his attorney, Frank Cikutovich, outside the courtroom after the sentencing.

One of the biggest problems with Initiative 692 is that there is little scientific information on medical marijuana dosages, and no one knows what a 60-day supply is - much less how many plants are needed to produce that amount. Still, Cikutovich said he thought the sentence was fair.

"I think it was very compassionate of the judge," Cikutovich said. "But it's unfortunate that the county has to pay to put him in jail." Baker converted 15 additional days in jail to community service, but said there was nothing she could do about the mandatory $2,610 in court fees he must pay.

Deputy Prosecutor Al Nielson urged Baker to give Lotief three months in jail, the minimum standard sentence for his guilty plea to manufacturing marijuana. However, Nielson agreed as part of a plea bargain not to appeal any shorter-than-standard sentence.

As part of the deal, Nielson dropped marijuana manufacturing charges last month against Lotief's brother, Christopher "Louis" Lotief, 28.

The younger Lotief was accused of helping grow the 40 plants sheriff's deputies found last year at Cecil Lotief's rural Colville- area home.

Nielson cited a couple of drug-related arrests and a 1991 cocaine- possession conviction in Louisiana as evidence that Lotief's interest in marijuana isn't purely medical. "I see someone here who has a long history" of drug abuse, Nielson said.

"Nine years ago and before, yeah, my past was pretty rocky," Lotief told Baker.

But he said that was before he was diagnosed with the AIDS virus in 1996.

Since then, he said, his conduct has been "like driving in the middle of the day with your lights on" for safety.

Baker asked Lotief how marijuana helps his AIDS symptoms, and he said it helps him sleep, relieves his depression and improves his flagging appetite.

Cikutovich said Lotief has lost 45 to 50 pounds in the past year. The prospect of legal medical marijuana prompted Lotief to move to Colville from Las Vegas shortly after Initiative 692 was approved in November 1998, Cikutovich said.

He said Lotief's father gave him a small trust fund and a small parcel of land where he could live with his girlfriend and grow the marijuana he needs.

Cikutovich said Christopher Lotief came to help, and the two brothers were "completely candid" with the sheriff's officers who arrested them.

Their intent was to grow enough marijuana to last Cecil through the winter, Cikutovich said.

He said Cecil Lotief "is not in any way a protester or someone who wants to be in the newspapers. He just wants to be left alone."

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