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Busted for growing pot, man says it's his medication
WAVY.Com | May 21, 2006

A Newport News man who is behind bars for growing marijuana is defending his actions.

David Heydn says he and Aaron Cadman smoked pot to help with a medical condition.

Police arrested the pair and a woman, after finding almost one-hundred marijuana plants and Heydn's young son in his home.

Wearing an orange inmate jumpsuit, and handcuffs, 43 year-old Heydn admits he smokes marijuana on a regular basis, and does not deny growing it in his home.

"I'm making that stand and I'm making a stand for all people who smoke pot for medicinal purposes and we wouldn't have to smoke it if they would give it to us in pharmaceutical form", says Heydn

"I smoke marijuana avidly - I'm an advocate and I grow my own pot."

Newport News police seized 98 marijuana plants from his house on Nicewood Drive Wednesday morning.

They got a search warrant and once inside, confiscated the marijuana, which police say has a street value of more than $437,000

Heydn says he suffers from bi-polar disorder, and the marijuana is his only form of relief.

"My head spins so fast it's like a swirl of mud up there. Without medication, I can't grab a thought to think and I get irritated and annoyed and I get moody and I get frustrated and irritable" Heydn says

This father of three says his 20 year old daughter and his 15 month old baby girl were home when he was arrested. 28 year-old Aaron Cadman was also arrested and charged with possession of marijuana.

"He's bipolar also so I help him" Heydn told us.

Heydn's 24 year-old girlfriend who's the mother of the 15 month-old was charged with child neglect and released.

Heydn runs a tattoo shop on Mercury Boulevard. No one inside would comment.

Heydn says he has no plans to stop using what he calls his 'medication'.

"What is my lesson here - I won't grow where my children are. I'm still going to smoke until you get me a different alternative for my problem", he says.

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ke1n

props to him for standing up to this oppression but u gotta be on something besides weed to beleive you can convince a court that 98 plants are for personal use

walstmonky

ke1n, it seems you are under the impression that the plant count is accurate, that all plants are rooted, that all are female, and it also seems you're forgetting that there were two arrested, so it's more accurate to say "convince the court that 49 plants...".

I can think of a number of ways that 90+ plants for one person would be for personal use, and a reasonable person who is educated in growing person would agree.

But perhaps you were just referring to the futility of convincing a court though, in particular a VA court. Since I suffered a conviction for 'intent to distribute' in VA in 1989 I'd have to agree, since I was unable to convince the court then that my 2 (two) plants were for my personal use. They were both mature females, at least. But it bugs me to no end that a 'plant' is somehow considered a unit of measure. It is not by any stretch of the imagination. The 'plant' as a unit of measure was adopted by the legislature so that the police wouldn't be bothered by the nuisance of actually having to prove that there was any distribution going on. It's a shame to see people on our side give that validity.