Search Results: federal prison (316)

Jennifer Cappuccio Maher/San Bernardino Sun
Aaron Sandusky, president, G3 Holistic: “I had four patients in there and they were all handcuffed and interviewed”
 

Justice Department denies defendant ability to show evidence of state law compliance at trial; Sandusky could face life in prison
The operator of three state-compliant medical marijuana dispensaries will be tried in federal court this week in Los Angeles. Aaron Sandusky, 42, who operated facilities in Upland, Colton and Moreno Valley, was raided by federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents last November and was charged with six felonies, including manufacturing marijuana, possession with intent to distribute, and conspiracy.
Five others were similarly charged in the raid, but they have since accepted plea deals and may be called to testify against Sandusky. If convicted on all counts, Sandusky could face life in prison. Jury selection begins at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday in a trial that is expected to last all week.
“This trial is nothing more than a cynical attempt by the federal government to intimidate dispensary operators in Los Angeles and undermine the implementation of California’s medical marijuana law,” said Kris Hermes, spokesperson for the medical marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA). “The Justice Department holds all the cards in federal court and uses that leverage to terrorize the medical marijuana community.”

Speckled Axe
Judge Richard A. Posner: “I think it’s really absurd to be criminalizing possession or use or distribution of marijuana”

Most-Cited Judge In America Criticizes Drug War As ‘Absurd’

A widely respected federal judge called for the legalization of marijuana in a lecture at Elmhurst College in Illinois on Thursday.

Judge Richard A. Posner of the influential Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago “is an intellectual giant who is the most-cited judge in America,” reports Larry Bodine at Lawyers.com. “His call for legalization is considered significant because Posner is considered a legal conservative,” Bodine wrote.
“I don’t think we should have a fraction of the drug laws that we have,” Posner said. “I think it’s really absurd to be criminalizing possession or use or distribution of marijuana. I can’t see any difference between that and cigarettes.”

Billings Gazette
Richard Flor, 68 died Wednesday night after having two heart attacks while being transported to federal prison to serve a five-year sentence for medical marijuana

A former medical marijuana provider in Montana died in federal custody while being transported to federal prison Wednesday night. Richard Flor, 68, was being sent from a private prison to a federal prison when he had two heart attacks and passed away, Toke of the Town has learned.

Flor, of Miles City, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison on April 19. He had asked for leniency because he suffered from numerous physical and mental ailments.
Flor, his wife, Sherry, 55, and their son Justin, 35, all pleaded guilty to drug charges related to a medical marijuana operation run out of their home.

Americans for Safe Access
This photo was taken in 2003, at the time the first “Truth in Trials” Act was introduced. Rep. Sam Farr is depicted with Ashley Epis, the daughter of Bryan Epis, who is a patient convicted without a defense and currently serving out a 10-year sentence in federal prison.

Congressional Medical Marijuana Bill, the ‘Truth In Trials’ Act, Would Correct Unfair Federal Trials 


Late on Tuesday, U.S. Representative Sam Farr (D-CA) and 18 co-sponsors (15 Democrats and three Republicans) introduced HR 6134, the “Truth in Trials” Act, bipartisan legislation to allow defendants in federal criminal prosecutions the ability to use medical marijuana evidence at trial, a right not currently afforded them.
Because of a June 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Gonzales v. Raich, the government has the discretion to enforce federal marijuana laws even in medical marijuana states. The Raich ruling also allows federal prosecutors to exclude all evidence of medical use or state law compliance in federal trials, virtually guaranteeing the convictions of medical marijuana patients and providers.

Asian American Bar Association
Federal judge Donna Ryu ordered a defendant to stop taking the legal prescription drug Marinol because it causes the court a problem on drug tests

A medical cannabis activist has been ordered by a judge to find another legal drug than Marinol to treat his chronic back pain.

Jose Gutierrez’s doctor, Frank Lucido, testified at a pretrial detention hearing that he had prescribed Marinol because it is the best legal drug for his condition, but the federal magistrate Donna Ryu objected that it caused her a “problem” because drug tests cannot differentiate it from marijuana, which is illegal under federal law.
In fact, there does exist a test that can discriminate between Marinol and marijuana, according to Dale Gieringer of California NORML, but it is not available through the particular laboratory that has been hired by U.S. Pretrial Services.
“The bottom line is that a US court is asking a defendant who has not yet faced trial to give up legal cannabinoids in favor of addictive opiates because of the inadequacies of its own laws and drug detection technology,” Gieringer said.
Gutuierrez faces felony charges for “assaulting a federal officer” stemming from a scuffle in which he was beaten to the ground by federal agents during the Oaksterdam University raid in April. The offense carried a prison sentence of up to five years.

Green Wellness
Marc Emery: Two years to go

Marc Emery, the self-proclaimed “Prince of Pot” who is doing time in a United States federal prison, now has just two years left of his five-year sentence for selling marijuana seeds to American customers from his headquarters in Canada.

His wife, Jodie, who has spearheaded the Emery empire in the Prince’s absence, is marking the occasion with him in Mississippi, reports James Lewis at Vancouver’s CKNW radio.
“Eighty-five percent of the five-year sentence — that’s July 9, 2014 (when) he would be released,” Jodie said. “But we know that next year, Marc is eligible to apply for transfer to Canadian prisons, and he’ll be doing that in April.

THC Finder

Federal Court Judge Acknowledges Authority of a State Medical Marijuana Law

By Philip Dawdy
Cannabis Activist
A recent federal district court ruling in Spokane, Washington is something of which every medical cannabis attorney, patient, provider and advocate needs to be aware — not only in Washington State but throughout the entire Ninth Circuit.
The ruling is also something of a victory for Washington’s recently changed medical cannabis law, because for the first time a judge has ruled in a way that gives quasi arrest protection under the state medical cannabis law and has likely set an interesting precedent on probable cause and cannabis. And the ruling came from a federal court judge. It was also a bit of a slap to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Eastern Washington.

Opposing Views

A Montana landlord with no criminal history has been sentenced to a year in prison for a medical marijuana operation run by his tenants.

Jonathan Janetski, 36, of Flathead Valley, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy on Monday to 12 months and one day in prison, reports The Associated Press.
“GREAT we get to support this guy for a year,” commented “home stretch” on the Billings Gazettes website. “Another 80000 dollars down the tubes, and for what? How does this help?”

Huffington Post
A fanatical supporter of “Prince of Pot” Marc Emery has been arrested for repeated death threats to Emery’s federal prosecutors

An unhinged Canadian man with a diaper obsession has been charged with sending a series of death threats to federal prosecutors in Seattle just before “Prince of Pot” Marc Emery’s extradition to the United States to face marijuana charges.

Paul George Cartier, 50, has “a history of other threats,” according to the U.S. Secret Service, reports Keegan Hamilton at the Seattle Weekly, including once having mailed a letter to the White House containing white power labeled “anthrax.”
Emery, the B.C.-based marijuana seed millionaire, pleaded guilty in 2008 to exporting cannabis seeds to the U.S. After having been indicted in Seattle, Emery almost worked out a deal under which he could have served his time in a Canadian prison, but when that fell through, the feds were busily working to get the Prince of Pot on the American side of the border.

Billings Gazette
Richard Flor, 68, was sentenced to five years in prison for growing medical marijuana in Montana

A former medical marijuana provider in Montana is appealing his five-year federal prison sentence on charges of maintaining “drug-involved premises.”

Richard Flor, 68, of Miles City, pleaded guilty and was sentenced on April 19. He had asked for leniency because he suffers from numerous physical and mental ailments, reports the Associated Press.
Flor will be evaluated to determine the federal facility “best suited for him” to serve the sentence, at least if U.S. District Judge Charles Lovell’s recommendations are followed.
1 2 3 4 5 32