. >> donna weidenhaft is a public defender in new orleans. >> are the penalties severe here for marijuana possession? >> absolutely. you can get anywhere up to 20 years if you are caught with marijuana 3 times. and in some cases, you can even get life. >> bernard noble, one of weidenhaft's clients, was sentenced to 13 years in jail last year after he was stopped with 2.8 grams of pot - about 3 marijuana cigarettes. >> when bernard was riding his bike the new orleans police department saw him and they thought that he had swerved his bike onto the sidewalk to avoid them, almost hitting a car so they stopped bernard at that point and that's pretty much where bernard's nightmare began. >> noble was riding to a sweet shop. in the past he had been arrested for possessing small amounts of pot and cocaine. his most recent arrest was nine and a half years before. >> is bernard noble a drug dealer? >> bernard noble is not a drug dealer, no. >> was bernard noble ever arrested for violent offenses? >> bernard noble has never been accused of a crime of violence. >> the judge in noble's case assessed h