HELENA, Mont. – A Montana medical marijuana provider staring at an 80-year prison sentence has become something of a martyr among pot advocates, but he’s not finding much support for his constitutional challenge of the federal raids that landed him in jail.

Chris Williams was the only provider among those indicted after the 2011 raids on more than a dozen medical marijuana operations across Montana who rejected multiple plea deals and insisted on a jury trial on the eight drug trafficking and weapons charges he faced.

Williams also is the lead plaintiff in a civil lawsuit that claims he and the other providers were following Montana’s medical marijuana laws and the raids were an unconstitutional usurpation of local government and police powers by the federal government.