Federal Government Extends Tragedy by Needlessly Imprisoning Los Angeles Medical Marijuana Provider Virgil Grant
March 24th, 2010Posted by Kris Hermes
Virgil Grant, a loving husband and father, was sentenced Monday to 6 years in prison for lawfully providing medical marijuana to patients in accordance with California law. Grant, who operated dispensaries in some of the poorer and Black neighborhoods of Los Angeles, is the victim of a bygone federal policy, which is still needlessly ruining lives. Although there is a back-story to Grant’s persecution, make no mistake he was targeted by a hostile Bush Administration and now sentenced under President Obama despite a policy that should deter such needless and harmful punishment.
On December 19, 2007, Jeremy White, who was 20-years-old at the time, drove off the road on Highway 101, north of Ventura, killing a pulled-over driver and paralyzing a highway patrol officer. White happened to be in possession of medical marijuana obtained from Grant’s dispensary Holistic Caregivers in Compton, and he also allegedly admitted to being under the influence of marijuana at the time. However, current news reports are not telling you that, according to forensic evidence used in White’s subsequent prosecution for vehicular manslaughter, the drug Ecstasy was also found in White’s blood. White was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
There are truly no winners in that story. However, White’s punishment was not enough for the federal government. After the December 2007 accident, Bush’s Justice Department had all the sympathy it needed to go after Grant. In May of 2008, Grant and his wife Pshyra were arrested on drug conspiracy, money laundering and operating a drug-involved premises within 1,000 feet of a school. A press release issued by the DEA at the time accused the Grants of being “nothing more than drug traffickers.” U.S. Attorney Thomas O’Brien chimed in, claiming their dispensaries “were simply drug-dealing enterprises designed to generate profits for those who chose to ignore federal law and flout state law.”
However, none of their charges amounted to a violation of state law. As is often the case, the federal government made accusations of state law violations, but never had to back up those claims with any evidence. Instead, U.S. Attorney O’Brien issued the rhetorical statement that, “The tragic accident that killed Andreas Parra and crippled CHP Officer Pedeferri can be directly linked to this disregard of the laws.” What O’Brien isn’t saying is that the Grants would be prohibited from using medical marijuana or evidence of state law compliance as a defense in federal court. What’s worse is that a plea bargain was extorted from Grant by the federal government. As long as he pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy to possess and distribute marijuana, the charges against Grant’s wife Pshyra would be dropped; a cynical and sinister tactic to say the least.
The Grants had nothing to do with White’s accident and the tragedy it caused. Yet, that mattered little to the government’s misguided and moral crusade, which resulted in the needless imprisonment of another man. Not only should the federal government stop prosecuting medical marijuana patients and providers, something the October 2009 Justice Department directive fails to curb, we should also pass legislation that would provide those still being prosecuted with an adequate defense in federal court.
Consider writing to Grant and others serving time as a result of needless federal prosecutions. They are neither gone nor forgotten and are in need our support!
March 31st, 2010 at 12:28 pm
I am a medical marijuana user (for severe arthritis in my Kees, feet, hands and back) I was legally growing medicine in my home with a doctors rec. They raided my home and arrested me and my wife. My wife is a ER Nurse and they threatened her with 6 years in a state pen. to force me to plead quilty to possesion for sale. They made her plead quilty to cultivation and enter DEJ to save her nursing license, that she had worked 7 long years to achive. My wife does not use any drugs and was never even given a drug test. Yet this did not stop LA County Sherriffs from using her to force me to say I was doing somthing I have never done. I was forced to plead quilty to possesion for sale, (a crime I have never commited) my wife had to say she was a drug addict and enter costly drug deversion, without any proof she ever used cannabis.
People need to be aware that this is happening in our American Justice System every day. Law Enforcement is active in the practice of tyranny, when they use threats on inocent citizens to blackmail inocent medical marijuana patients into pleading juilty to crimes that even law enforcement knows were not commited. They only care about the revenue that is generated, they have zero concern to the fact they are destroying inocent lives just to make themselves look good for promotions. The officer who did this to me and my wife was promoted to Sargent weeks after violating our Constitutional Rights. The system rewards dishonest officers, because all they want is convictions not the truth.