A Stevens County man who says he needs marijuana for medical purposes apparently also needs food.

Arthur Camel Shepherd Jr., 50, ended a six-day hunger strike and was released from the Stevens County Jail on Thursday after agreeing not to have any illegal drugs.

Superior Court Judge Rebecca Baker sent Shepherd to jail Nov. 12 when he refused to promise not to use marijuana if released without bail pending trial on a marijuana-manufacturing charge.

Sheriff Craig Thayer said Shepherd may have eaten occasionally during the self-proclaimed hunger strike and was in good health when he walked out of the jail Thursday after signing a pledge not to possess illegal drugs before his trial on Dec. 13.

Shepherd was hauled into court on pot-growing charges for the second time this year after sheriff's officers flew over his home in early September and spotted what Thayer described as "a large number of very large, healthy marijuana plants." Shepherd's home is in the isolated Kelly Hill area in the northwestern corner of the county, inside the triangle created by the Kettle and Columbia rivers and the Canadian border.

Officers on the ground got a search warrant and seized 30 mature plants and 27 "starter" plants.

Shepherd and his Spokane attorney, Frank Cikutovich, couldn't be reached for comment Friday.

State voters approved an initiative last year allowing people to have a 60-day supply of marijuana if a doctor certifies they need it for medical conditions such as cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis or seizure disorders. But the law doesn't say how much is a 60-day supply.

Authorities said Shepherd hasn't told them what his medical problem is, but he definitely had more marijuana than he needed for medicine, Thayer said.

"In my opinion, there was considerably more than a 60-day supply, because we used pickup trucks to haul it off," the sheriff said.

Jeff Kildow, acting chief of the Seattle office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said 30 big, well-budded plants such as Thayer described would "very conservatively" produce 30 pounds of finished product, enough for 13,620 typical cigarettes.

In March, a sheriff's deputy spotted marijuana plants in Shepherd's home while investigating a poaching complaint. Deputies seized three mature plants and 11 starters, but Shepherd wasn't arrested or charged.

Instead, Shepherd petitioned for return of the plants on grounds that he was growing them as the legal caregiver for a Colville resident who needed marijuana for a medical condition. Superior Court Judge Larry Kristianson and Prosecutor Jerry Wetle treated the petition as a means of clarifying the medical marijuana law.

"We're kind of out here on our own," with few, if any, other cases around the state for guidance, said Chief Deputy Prosecutor Al Nielson. "So Judge Kristianson tried to fashion some guidelines of our own."

The man Shepherd claimed to be caring for has a psychological problem, Nielson said, but Kristianson found his medical need inadequately documented. Also, the judge ruled that Shepherd lived too far away to have a valid caregiver relationship with the man.

In addition to Shepherd's new test case, two more are waiting in the wings.

Brothers Cecil Lotief, 34, and Christopher "Louis" Lotief, 28, are to be arraigned Dec. 3 on marijuana-manufacturing charges. Nielson said both defendants, who also are represented by Cikutovich, have indicated they plan medical-marijuana defenses.

"For the time being, we are operating under the presumption that, if you have marijuana, it's not legal," Nielson said. "We're looking to the defendants to show how they come under the (medical- marijuana) initiative."

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