Photos: (from left) William David Bowen and David Lekin
Two men in their 70s appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday and pled guilty to charges of growing marijuana.
Seventy-year-old William David Bowen and 74-year-old David Lekin were both put on probation for three years in the unrelated cases. Both men were arrested in early September during a “drug eradication” effort staffed by a number of agencies.
Spotters working from a National Guard helicopter directed officers to Bowen’s address along State Highway 178 West in Midway and to Lekin’s home along County Road 289.
Once on scene at Bowen’s residence, the officers contacted him, and he took them to a concrete pad about 15 yards from the house. According to the probable cause affidavit, there was a fence around the pad with black plastic attached. Bowen told officers there were six or seven plants growing in buckets or pots on the pad.
Bowen said he grew the marijuana because he suffers from glaucoma.
Glaucoma is one of the qualifying conditions under which a state resident can obtain a medical marijuana identification card and legally purchase the drug from a licensed dispensary. Officers said they told Bowen despite his stated use for the marijuana he grew, it was still illegal to cultivate marijuana in Arkansas outside of the regulated medical marijuana framework.
Bowen was wearing a portable oxygen concentrator as he stood at the podium during Thursday’s court session, prompting Circuit Judge John Putman to comment, “Surely, you are not smoking the stuff while on oxygen …. seems it would be better to make brownies.”
At Lekin’s address, officers found 17 marijuana plants. The roots of the plants were covered with burlap and were being watered with a hose connected to the residence.
Both men had originally been facing the more serious crime of manufacturing a controlled substance, but the charges were amended to the lesser offense of possession.
Kerry Chism, 14th Judicial District deputy prosecuting attorney, said the reduction in the charges was made since the marijuana in both cases was intended only for personal use.
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