| DrReefer.com |
| Activist Pierre Werner, center, at the federal courthouse on November 17 for his mother’s sentencing. Werner himself was sentenced on Monday to 41 months in federal prison. |
Former marijuana activist Pierre Werner — known as “Dr Reefer” after one of the dispensaries operated by his family — on Monday was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison.
U.S. District Judge Philip Pro also ordered Werner to pay $27,438 in restitution and placed him on three years of supervised release once he gets out of prison, reports Jeff German at the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Werner, 39, has until January 9 to surrender to federal prison officials.
Judge Pro last week sentenced Werner’s mother, Reynalda Barnett, to four months in prison and four months of home detention for her role in running the marijuana dispensary once known as Dr. Reefer. Pro had earlier placed Werner’s younger brother, Clyde Barnett, on three years of supervised release.
| Craig L. Moran/Las Vegas Review-Journal |
| Pierre Werner’s mother, Reynalda Barnett, and younger brother, Clyde Barnett, leave court in June after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute marijuana. The operated Dr Reefer, a Las Vegas medical marijuana dispensary raided in September 2010. |
Werner, his brother, and his mother each had pleaded guilty on June 30 to one count of conspiracy to distribute less than 50 kilograms of marijuana.
Werner, a three-time felon, also pleaded guilty to one count of failure to disclose information affecting Social Security benefits.
The three family members were among 14 people arrested in a January 6 roundup resulting from a federal investigation into marijuana sales at Las Vegas dispensaries.
The January arrests followed the September 2010 raids of several dispensaries, including Dr. Reefer, once operated by the Barnetts at 8975 South Pecos Road in Las Vegas.
Storefront medical marijuana dispensaries are not recognized under Nevada’s Medical Marijuana Act, and the U.S. Attorney’s office has said it is illegal to sell marijuana in Nevada. Medical marijuana patients and caregivers in the state are required to grow their own, even though that’s a cruel joke for those patients who are too ill to do so.
Dr. Reefer already has served two stints in prison for possession of marijuana with intent to sell. After he completed his second prison sentence in 2008, he launched a medical marijuana dispensary in Colorado, where it is legal to sell cannabis to state-approved patients.
But after Colorado passed a law barring convicted felons from owning a dispensary, Werner returned to Las Vegas, where his involvement with marijuana had made headlines since 2004.
| 3Geezy |
| The “Dr Reefer” billboards that Werner rented around Vegas last year became a flashpoint of controversy. |