I was sitting in my office, working to expand ASA’s Interactive Legal FAQ, when our Chief of Staff, Rebecca Saltzman, knocked on my door to share the unfortunate news.  Charles Lynch had been convicted on all counts this afternoon.  The counts specifically, were

• conspiracy to possess and
• possession with intent to distribute marijuana and concentrated cannabis,
• manufacturing (cultivating) less than 100 plants,
• knowingly maintaining a drug premises, and
• sales of marijuana to a person under the age of 21

You can read more about Charles Lynch and the federal government’s war against him on these previous blog posts.  What is apparent from these stories is that Charles is a member of the medical marijuana movement that was really trying to do everything right and according to state law; and look what he received for his efforts: a federal criminal conviction.  All Lynch wanted to do was help sick people get the medicine that they needed, and now he has to start calculating how much time he is going to have to spend away from his family, not able to earn a living, “paying his debt to society” in a federal prison with hardened criminals.

Let’s look at the facts:

Lynch ran a very well-run dispensing collective that attempted to stringently follow state, county and city medical marijuana regulations since it opened in April 2006. According to a testimonial I received when this all started, ­”Central Coast Compassionate Caregivers took precautions to inform its patients regarding the restrictions that applied to them by attaching a copy of the rules and regulations governing medical cannabis to their package upon receipt. Picture IDs were issued to prevent fraud. Not only were the letters of recommendation verified, they also looked up the doctors on the California Medical Board’s web site to make sure that the doctors were in good standing. The Morro Bay dispensary added video surveillance and a metal detector to further the safety of its patients and to discourage misuse. For the year that the CCCC was open, there were no problems or complaints reported to the dispensary. In fact, employees of neighboring businesses were dismayed to see them raided by law enforcement.”

More importantly, Lynch was led to believe by a whole bunch of official authorities that they were both aware that what he doing was in compliance with state law, and that they were totally ok with it.  The City of Morro Bay was actively aware of CCCC’s purpose, issuing him a business license for a “‘Medical Marijuana Dispensary” and a Cannabis Nursery Permit after a lengthy city conditional use permit process.  We even have an already iconic picture of Lynch cutting the ribbon at a Morro Bay Chamber of Commerce Welcome Party.  Indeed, Lynch, who unsuccessfully brought up the defense of entrapment by estoppel in his trial, testified that he went so far even as to call the DEA and confer with them about his enterprise.

CCCC operated for nearly a year without incident, providing safe access for Central Coast patients until March 29, 2007.  On that day, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Pat Hedges decided to flout the will of the voters, California law, the wishes of the City of Morro Bay, and patients across the state, and, instead of pursuing Charles on state charges that he knew would not stick, he took the cowardly way out and called in the DEA to do his dirty work for him.  The DEA raided Charles’ dispensary on March 29, 2007, and later arrested him on July 17.  Apparently, Sheriff Hedges felt he needed to make the infuriating point that “he didn’t believe in medical marijuana”, and that all Lynch could expect for his efforts at openness and transparency and playing by the rules, was a thank you for making it so easy to charge and convict him federally.

However, this isn’t just about cold, hard facts, and the good that Mr. Lynch tried to do on paper.  Charles Lynch is a real person.  I was working here when he was raided and arrested, and I have spoken and kept in touch with both him and his supporters and wished him luck countless times on his case.  He is a good man, and he does not deserve to be treated this way, and to face many years in federal prison (I count at least 5 felonies, some of which may have mandatory minimums).  I am really angry about this, and frustrated, and sad.

and so, in order to do something about this, I search for something, at least that I (we) can do on this sad day, to help empower ourselves amidst this federal War on the Sick.  First, I hope that members of the jury, now that they are free from their sequestration, will educate themselves on the story of the man they just convicted, and ideally, speak out as did the jurors of the Ed Rosenthal case, and call on Judge Wu to exercise his discretion.  Further, as members of the community, each one of us can write a letter to Judge Wu, at the appropriate time, sharing our experiences with Charles, or even with safe access generally, and respectfully asking for lenience for Charles.  Keep watch on our site and at Charles’ website, www.friendsofccl.com, for more information on sentencing letters as we get it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 at 4:41 pm and is filed under Activism, California, DEA, Dispensaries, Federal, Law Enforcement, Legal, Medical Cannabis, Raids. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.