Pubdate: Sat, 21 Mar 2009
Source: Tribune, The (San Luis Obispo, CA)
Copyright: 2009 The Tribune
Contact:  http://www.sanluisobispo.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/391
Author: Rob Hotakainen
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/topic/dispensaries
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/people/Charles+Lynch
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

TIME OUT OF JOINT FOR POT MERCHANT

The former operator of a marijuana dispensary in Morro Bay will find 
on Monday whether he'll do time in prison for violating a law that is 
no longer enforced

After California voters legalized medical marijuana, Charles Lynch 
opened his cannabis dispensary nearly two years ago in Morro Bay, 
getting a license from the city and joining the Chamber of Commerce.

Even Mayor Janice Peters showed up for the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

A year later, U.S. drug enforcement agents, with the help of the 
county Sheriff's Department, raided his business.

Now Lynch is worried that he'll get at least five years in prison 
when he's sentenced Monday in federal court in Los Angeles on five 
counts of distributing marijuana. Whatever happens, Lynch said, he'll appeal.

I don't feel like I deserve going through life as a convicted felon 
for doing things the state of California allowed me to do," he said.

However, the nation's medical marijuana users are breathing a little 
more easily these days, confident that such stories soon will be a 
thing of the past.

At news conferences last month and again on Wednesday, U.S. Attorney 
General Eric Holder said that there would be no more federal 
prosecutions of cases involving medical cannabis dispensaries. He 
said they would be left alone as long as they were complying with state laws.

Medical marijuana advocates predict that the issue soon will leave 
the public realm of politics and become a private issue between 
doctors and patients.

They also said that President Barack Obama had kept a promise that he 
made on the campaign trail last year.

Holder said the new policy would be "to go after those who violate 
both federal and state law."

To the extent that people do that, and try and use medical marijuana 
laws for activity that is not designed to comport with what the 
intention was of a state law, those are the organizations or people 
who we'll target," Holder said Wednesday. "And that's consistent with 
what the president said during the campaign."

The decision affects California and 12 other states that have 
legalized marijuana for medical purposes: Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, 
Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, 
Vermont and Washington state.

Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, who lobbied the new administration 
on the issue, called it "a welcomed shift" in federal policy, 
charging that the administration of George W. Bush "foolishly wasted 
precious federal resources" to prosecute law-abiding health care providers.

This new policy makes sense and is far more humane," said Capps, the 
new vice chairwoman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health.

Holder said that his department had limited resources and that its 
focus would be on people and organizations that were growing or 
cultivating "substantial amounts of marijuana and doing so in a way 
that's inconsistent with federal law and state law."

Stephen Gutwillig, California's state director of the Drug Policy 
Alliance, said the new policy would protect millions of Americans who 
benefit from the medicinal properties of marijuana.

Under the Obama administration, the federal government may finally be 
recovering from a long bout with 'reefer madness,'?" he said.

Hollow victory for Lynch

Any change in policy comes too late for Lynch, 46, who's already been 
convicted.

Lynch said he began using marijuana for medicinal purposes in 2005, 
when he was suffering bad headaches. He said the drug helped him a 
lot but that he had to drive a long way to get it.

Eventually, Lynch said, he began researching medical cannabis on the 
Internet and decided to open his own dispensary. He said he'd 
received nothing but support from Morro Bay officials, with the city 
attorney and City Council members stopping by.

Everybody liked the way I had set up the business," Lynch said.

Except for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the county 
Sheriff's Department, which assisted the federal authorities.

They came in; they took everything," Lynch said. "They took all the 
money. They froze my bank accounts. They began their propaganda war 
machine against me. They put my name up on the DEA Web site. They 
made it sound like I was selling drugs to children out in the schoolyard."

Federal authorities charged that Lynch used his business, the Central 
Coast Compassionate Caregivers marijuana store, as a front for a 
supersized retail drug-dealing center that sold more than $2.1 
million in marijuana over a year.

The customers included 281 minors and undercover DEA agents who paid 
two to three times the street value for their marijuana, authorities said.

A physician also was indicted, accused of writing marijuana 
recommendations for minors without conducting any physical evaluations.

Lynch's case is igniting debate over how far the government should go 
either in prosecuting or ignoring medical marijuana dispensaries.

Capps said the case "is an example of a big conflict," because Lynch 
was operating his business with the full authority of the California 
government but was prosecuted under federal law.

Federal law, which supersedes state laws, makes distributing 
marijuana a crime and offers no exceptions for medical use.

Capps said she wanted to respect the wishes of California voters, 
adding that the federal government has plenty to do -- such as 
protecting U.S. borders -- and should concentrate on crimes that 
don't conflict with state laws.

Lynch said he was forced to close his business when the DEA told his 
landlord that the property would be seized by the federal government 
if Lynch weren't evicted.

Months later, Lynch was arrested and taken to a federal detention 
center in Los Angeles, where his family posted $400,000 in bail to 
get him released.

Lynch isn't sure what to expect when he's sentenced Monday. He's not 
familiar with breaking the law.

I've got a spotless record," he said. "I've never even had a DUI. The 
only thing on my record is a seat belt violation here in the state of 
California.

You know, they've destroyed my life personally," he added. "I'm 
filing for bankruptcy right now. And friends are scared to talk to me 
because the federal government is breathing down my neck."

McClatchy Newspapers correspondent Marisa Taylor contributed to this report.

Rob Hotakainen covers federal issues affecting the Central Coast for 
The Tribune from the McClatchy Washington?Bureau.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom