So Users Are Ok, Growers And Sellers Aren't

[GrassMonkey]

Meet The Former Marijuana Dispensary Employee Going To Prison Today For Complying With State Law

 

When Robert Duncan was laid off from his job in the television industry, he got a call from some family friends offering him a job. He was hesitant of their offer: they were starting a medical marijuana dispensary. He consulted a lawyer at a fee of $800 to advise him on whether to even accept the job. At the time, the wisdom was that prosecutors would not target state-compliant dispensaries, and that they certainly wouldn’t target employees.

So he moved from Los Angeles to the Bay Area and started working an estimated 80 hours a week in what he called a challenging and rewarding job managing grow houses.

“I honestly had some stereotypes of what I expected to see when I got into the business — people who probably really didn’t need marijuana for medicinal purposes,” he said in a Huffington Post synposis of his story. “But I was actually quite surprised to see people who were battling cancer, in wheelchairs, suffering from chronic pain from car accidents. It was quite justified. We had thousands and thousands of members of our cooperatives.”

He said he was particularly gratified that some of the strains he grew were able to help his own family members suffering from cancer. By all accounts, the business was operating in compliance with state law. The dispensary had interacted with state police when reporting robberies to the facility without consequence. Owner Matthew Davies showed a New York Times reporter a “sheaf” of legal documents demonstrating he had complied with California law.

But in October 2011, the grow house where Duncan worked in Stockton, Calif., was raided by the federal government while Duncan was working at the facility. For reasons that have not been disclosed to Duncan, federal prosecutors ultimately indicted Davies, his co-owner, and Duncan — an hourly employee. There were an estimated 50 employees.

Duncan was lobbed with marijuana manufacture charges that carried up to ten years in jail. He will serve two, plus several more on probation. On Monday, HuffPost Live will broadcast Duncan’s entry to prison. Davies and co-owner Lynn Smith will also begin their five-year sentences Monday.

The raid of the Stockton grow house and the subsequent arrests came during a period when the federal government had rolled back its pot prosecution policy, and then ramped it up again again. When he joined the dispensary as an employee, the Justice Department had advised prosecutors in what is known as the “Ogden Memo” not to target dispensaries complying with state law. Less than two years later, the feds backtracked in a second 2011 “Cole memo” that instead advised prosecutors not to target “users” complying with state law, and left growers and sellers more susceptible.

“None of us would have taken this risk if we thought we were at any serious legal risk,” Duncan said Monday, hours before he was scheduled to report to prison. “Basically we just wanted to be compliant and kinda set an example of kind of a model business in this line of work and obviously it didn’t pan out that way.”

The Stockton grow house is one of several businesses that aimed to become models for state compliance, and in doing so, became federal targets. A raid of a Montana marijuana dispensary run by a state lobbyist who helped design the laws also saw several prosecutions, and one defendant died in jail.

The start of these prison sentences comes in the months after Attorney General Eric Holder once again directed prosecutors to roll back crackdowns on state-compliant pot businesses. This time, he has issued several subsequent memos as part of a “Smart on Crime” initiative that aims to focus resources on serious, violent offenders. He added another piece of guidance that could have helped the Stockton grow house: the mere size or commercial nature of a business is not sufficient grounds for prosecution.

Duncan called it “frustrating” to watch President Obama dismiss marijuana as nothing more than a “vice” and less dangerous than alcohol, as his Justice Department is sending him to jail for helping sick patients. “You don’t really know what to believe,” he said.

This is in part because U.S. attorneys retain their prosecutorial discretion, and nothing short of a change in the law can fully insulate anyone from a legal action. In fact, even after Holder’s directive, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag, in the Northern District of California, has made good on her pledge to continue her targeting of large medical marijuana dispensaries.

Watch Duncan’s entry to federal prison here.

 

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/03/03/3354121/meet-employee-going-prison-today-complying-state-marijuana-law/

[mibrains]

reading that story literally made me feel like i want to throw up..

 

unreal...

 

i am so tired of the feds using their so called "super powers" to imprison Americans who are non violent cannabis facilitators.

 

what shall be the breaking point?

 

what shall be the line in the sand?

 

when do we as ordinary citizens get pissed off enough to react to this nonsense?

 

Please God help them understand that my beloved plant is benign and cannot hurt them or their way of life.

 

Amen.

[jeff from bad axe]

This makes me sick to my stomach.No man,woman or child should be in prison over a plant.I long for the day people start protesting across the country.We the people need to organize and take back are country and freedoms.For a crime to be committed there needs to be a victim.Show me the victim in this case.The victim is the people going to prison,the criminals law enforcement.

[trichcycler]

 The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. as long as we keep expecting a different result from the same actions, nothing will change.. Dressing up in marijuana leaves and yelling got us this far.

We could petition the pres to release ALL non violent marijuana prisoners of war.

.

 

what shall be the breaking point?

 

what shall be the line in the sand?

 

when do we as ordinary citizens get pissed off enough to react to this nonsense?

[bobandtorey]

And this guy had only worked there 

[pic book]

like op said so well and nailed it; users are ok, growers and sellers aren't.  any questions, or complaints?

[trichcycler]

I bet  that is enough to make growing/caregiving so risky and expensive that some will stop, and some will raise end user costs?

[+washtenaut]

It has become clear that the target shifted a while ago from the medical cannabis users to the enablers.  These are the doctors, growers, caregivers, dispensaries, bankers, etc.  These folks can still be painted by the arresting organization as in it only for the money. 

 

Look no further than our beloved Michigan to see the attacks on the doctors and caregivers to see the plan here

[trichcycler]

after these raids they find most of us don't own yachts or helicopters, and our flat screens are cheap now at best buy. chase the bigger dollar fish for the bigger dollars, I agree washtenaut, good point.

[Restorium2]

It has become clear that the target shifted a while ago from the medical cannabis users to the enablers.  These are the doctors, growers, caregivers, dispensaries, bankers, etc.  These folks can still be painted by the arresting organization as in it only for the money. 

 

Look no further than our beloved Michigan to see the attacks on the doctors and caregivers to see the plan here

Is it a coincidence that none of the good docs and caregivers are being messed with? You know, the ones who strictly follow the law. 12 plants, 2.5 oz, medical records and physical appointments. Context is key here. I don't believe the folks strictly following the law are just 'lucky'.

[Restorium2]

I bet  that is enough to make growing/caregiving so risky and expensive that some will stop, and some will raise end user costs?

Only if you believe the hype. This is the least risky time in the last 30 years for a Michigan marijuana grower. 4 time offender from Tawas gets probation. The times they are a changing.

[trichcycler]

I wish for more support for those who follow the law, rather for  those who do not.

[trichcycler]

some=dispensaries. sorry for the perplexing statement, I should have been more clear.

I wonder if caregivers/growers stop sticking their heads out for dispensaries' supply, the product will become more expensive at the dispensary counter, as supply is cut?

Supplying a dispensary is more of a legal risk maybe than working at one, caregivers will begin to question this practice if IRS/ATF/DEA is privy to their sales frequency, details, and dollars transacted, at the next inevitable raid.

Only if you believe the hype. This is the least risky time in the last 30 years for a Michigan marijuana grower. 4 time offender from Tawas gets probation. The times they are a changing.

[phaquetoo]

They have much bigger fish to fry,  How come they are not going after the dr.'s who write addicting rx's and way more than what they are supposed to, after all we are the rx drug nation, the rx's these dr's will write for yrs on end addict and kill alot of people, Yes I almost died coming off of their so called meds that would be good for me, better than mm, The only drug ive been doing in the last 3yrs is baby aspirin becuase of heart disease in my family,

 

When my dr of 12 yrs quit me because I got my card, I had to find another that would renew my mm card and help me wean off of rx's the 1st time I went to this dr, when they have you sign in it asked for my pharmacy and thier phone number, I looked around and thought to myself shoot I had a good dr. not a drug despenser, the lobby was full of people that knew each other, and they were all narcotic pt's no one in that office was there for anything other than opoids and xanax,,,,,No One!  Sorry that kind of place is not for me, and while I was trying to find another dr. that dr got his liscense taken away for prescribing drugs to to many people and I guess causing death to one 18 yr old male pt,  sorry not the kind of dr I wanted, and I knew it the 1st time in there, I had him renew me 1 time and found another dr real quick!

 

fact not fiction

 

Peace

[+washtenaut]

Is it a coincidence that none of the good docs and caregivers are being messed with? You know, the ones who strictly follow the law. 12 plants, 2.5 oz, medical records and physical appointments. Context is key here. I don't believe the folks strictly following the law are just 'lucky'.

 

Consider the recent COA rulings that have put much more responsibility on both the doctors and the caregivers.  In my reading of the original law, I never envisioned these types of requirements for caregivers or doctors either.  These attacks on the enablers are designed, imo, to discourage both from participating in the Michigan medical cannabis program

[Restorium2]

Consider the recent COA rulings that have put much more responsibility on both the doctors and the caregivers.  In my reading of the original law, I never envisioned these types of requirements for caregivers or doctors either.  These attacks on the enablers are designed, imo, to discourage both from participating in the Michigan medical cannabis program

When you have the ability to hide mass quantities of cannabis in an extract, it wasn't any surprise to a lot of us that the COA ruled like that. It was just a matter of time. We always needed a proper conversion factor. Still do. When I went to THCF in '08 they spelled out the same requirements for doctors as we see now. Edited March 4, 2014 by Restorium2

[undercurrent]

It is sickening that so many familes are torn apart, while everyone seems to be ok with MM. Im a C.G. and the risk is definately a reason to increase overall cost...however I do this to take care of people, people without money. Not get rich, would I like to make money like a "criminal cultivator"- yeah who wouldn't? But its not all about the money...to me. It is for the GoV and most others, they will target the growers and sellers to force out the smaller operations, like any other real business. This isnt speculation or consperacy theory, Corporations will eventually get their hooks into this when its not federally illegal, and it will be like tobacco. that may be years from now, but the tragedy is all the innocent people, their families left in the wake of of this.