Pubdate: Wed, 20 Jan 2016
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2016 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Milton J. Valencia
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/people/Bill+Downing

COURT OFFICIAL HEARS ALLEGATIONS AGAINST MARIJUANA ACTIVIST

Downing Says He's Being Singled Out Over Cannabis-Oil Sale

One of the state's leading proponents for the legalization of 
marijuana - who now faces possible criminal drug distribution charges 
for selling a cannabis-based oil - told a clerk magistrate Tuesday 
that he believed he was selling a legal product known as CBD, 
recognized across the country for its medical benefits.

"I [believed it] then, and I still do now," a defiant Bill Downing 
said under questioning during a hearing at Boston Municipal Court in Brighton.

Boston police have sought to charge Downing, 57, with nine counts of 
distribution of a Class D drug, marijuana, or a Class C drug, THC, 
out of a store he operated in Allston, called CBD Please. Downing 
sold a liquid form of CBD by the gram to undercover Boston police 
officers on several occasions in late 2014 and early 2015.

When Downing testified, he cited the manufacturer's guide for the 
product he was selling, which reads, "100 percent legal in all 50 
states." His lawyers argued that police singled Downing out, even 
though other companies in Massachusetts have sold the same product.

State chemists who tested the CBD sold by Downing to the undercover 
officers found traces of THC, the psychoactive element in marijuana, 
but chemists differed on whether to classify the product as a Class C 
or a Class D drug.

Bill Downing's lawyer says it's retaliation for criticism of the 
state's regulation of the medical marijuana industry.

Clerk Magistrate Stephen Borelli will now decide whether police had 
probable cause to charge Downing, and whether the case should proceed in court.

During a hearing Tuesday, Lawyers for Downing said Boston police 
targeted their client for his loud criticism of the state's medical 
marijuana industry. Downing formerly operated the Reading-based 
Yankee Care Givers to provide cannabis products to medical marijuana 
patients, but state officials shut that business down, saying he 
could not provide the products to more than one patient under medical 
marijuana laws approved in 2012.

Downing, a member of the board of directors for the Massachusetts 
Cannabis Reform Coalition, has also helped organize the annual 
marijuana rally on the Boston Common, and he is the treasurer for Bay 
State Repeal, one of the groups that pushed to put a marijuana 
legalization measure on the 2016 ballot.

In December 2014, Downing opened CDB Please to sell non-psychoactive 
cannabis-based products for medical use. He said in press releases 
and in published news reports at the time that he wanted to provide 
as much support for medical marijuana use that is allowed under state law.

Kenneth Conley, a Boston police detective, testified during the 
hearing Tuesday that his superiors wanted him to investigate Downing 
after reading about the business in the Boston Globe in December 2014.

Conley said he went to the store in an undercover role, and inquired 
about CDB oil.

"I told him I wasn't feeling well, lower back pain," Conley said. "I 
told him I was having trouble sleeping and I didn't like smoking 
marijuana, and he told me the best thing for me was the oil."

Conley said he paid $40 for the gram of oil. On other occasions, 
undercover police officers paid $30, or $25.

Conley said a state chemist detected THC when testing the oil. 
Authorities later seized hundreds of grams of oil and other products, 
such as hemp shampoo and conditioner, during a raid of Downing's 
business and home.

Lawyers for Downing argued that the THC levels in the products are so 
minimal that the products are exempt from the state law that 
criminalizes products containing more than 21/2 percent THC. One of 
the lawyers, John Swomley, noted that the chemists had to test nearly 
the entire gram of liquid oil each time to detect any THC.

Another lawyer, Stephen Epstein, said the CDB Downing sold came from 
Colorado, and it would not be classified as a controlled substance 
under US law.

"It's speculation . . . to believe there was any useable amount of 
[THC] in anything that tested positive for THC," he said. Downing 
"was undertaking a lawful business. What he was doing was perfectly 
legal, and no crime was committed."

Borelli invited the lawyers to submit further legal arguments in 
writing, and said he could issue a decision next week.
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