083140P.pdf   07/10/2009  United States  v.  Mitchell Johnson
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  08-3140
   U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas - Fayetteville   
   [PUBLISHED] [Gruender, Author, with Wollman and Melloy, Circuit Judges]
   Criminal case - criminal law and sentencing. Evidence was sufficient to
   show defendant was an unlawful user of marijuana; government proved
   defendant was an unlawful user of marijuana at the time he possessed a
   firearm, and this evidence was sufficient to support the jury's conviction
   on the charge of unlawful user of marijuana in possession of a firearm;
   even assuming that the district court procedurally erred in granting the
   government's motion for an upward departure, the error is harmless as
   the court would affirm the sentence based on the district court's
   alternative decision to impose an upward variance based on the 3553(a)
   factors.