Pubdate: Mon, 26 Nov 2012
Source: Long Beach Press-Telegram (CA)
Copyright: 2012 Los Angeles Newspaper Group
Contact:  http://www.presstelegram.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/244

CAUGHT IN LEGAL HAZE

Possible Federal Sentence of 10 Years to Life for Selling Medical Pot 
Unduly Harsh, Given Trend

ERSTWHILE medical marijuana purveyor Aaron Sandusky of Rancho 
Cucamonga must have noted the irony as he cooled his heels in the 
Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles on Nov. 6.

It was Election Day, when Colorado and Washington state voters made 
their states the first to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, 
when Massachusetts became the 18th state to legalize marijuana for 
medical use, and when voters in Needles voted overwhelmingly to tax 
medical marijuana dispensaries in their city on the eastern edge of 
San Bernardino County.

California voters made medical marijuana legal in this state 16 years 
ago when they passed Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act.

Sandusky, meanwhile, sits in jail as he awaits sentencing Jan. 7 in 
U.S. District Court for two federal convictions of drug trafficking, 
which could bring him a prison term of 10 years to life. Marijuana - 
whether its intended use is medical or otherwise - is an illegal drug 
- - classified Schedule 1, the same as heroin - under federal law.

For comparison, note that the Inland Empire men arrested in Chino 
several days ago by the FBI on suspicion of terrorist activities - 
with the aim of killing U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan - face a 
statutory maximum federal sentence of 15 years. For Sandusky's 
convictions, 10 years is the statutory minimum.

Sandusky accused John Pomierski, the disgraced former mayor of 
Upland, of extorting a bribe from him; in Pomierski's plea deal with 
the feds he admitted extorting a bribe from a different Upland 
business. Pomierski got just a two-year sentence for violating the 
trust voters had placed in him.

Only four others nationwide have been convicted at trial of crimes 
similar to Sandusky's, rather than reaching a plea bargain. Their 
respective sentences were a year and a day, five years, 10 years and 92 years.

That year-and-a-day sentence came in a California case in which the 
judge took the differences in state and federal law into account in 
his sentencing; federal prosecutors have appealed for a longer prison term.

It's not as though Sandusky is an "innocent" victim of the 
differences in state and federal law. He relied too much on a 2008 
campaign statement by Barack Obama that he would not expend federal 
resources to arrest medical marijuana sellers in states that have 
legalized it. He pushed the envelope far and hard, reopening his 
operations even after federal Drug Enforcement Administration raids 
of his warehouse and his G3 Holistic dispensaries in Upland, Colton 
and Moreno Valley.

Yeah, that's asking for it. It's not smart to not only run a 
marijuana operation in violation of federal law, but also rub the 
feds' noses in it. And now Sandusky is paying the price.

Still, a 10-year sentence - or longer - would seem unduly harsh in 
light of not only the differences in California and federal law, but 
also the trend toward legalization among states.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom