Pubdate: Sun, 22 Mar 2009
Source: Charlotte Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2009 The Charlotte Observer
Contact: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/contact/#editor
Website: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/78
Author: Rob Hotakainen, McClatchy Newspapers
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/topic/dispensaries
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/people/Charles+Lynch
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

MEDICAL MARIJUANA ADVOCATES ARE BREATHING MORE EASILY

WASHINGTON After California 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 the mayor showed up for the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

A year later, U.S. drug enforcement agents 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 last 
Wednesday, 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-Calif., 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 chairman 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 that the new policy would protect millions of 
Americans who benefited 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. 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. "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 local doctor 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 
forfeited 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. 
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.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom