Pubdate: Thu, 14 May 2015
Source: Monterey County Weekly (CA)
Copyright: 2015 Milestone Communications Inc
Contact:  http://www.montereycountyweekly.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3959
Author: Mary Duan

Lynch Mob

SAM FARR ASKS COURT TO TELL DOJ TO STOP PERSECUTING LEGAL POT BUSINESSES.

In April 2006, down the coast in little Morro Bay, a man named 
Charles Lynch opened a medical marijuana dispensary. A story in the 
New York Times set the scene, straight out of a small-town community 
feel-good picture: The mayor, city attorney and various members of 
the Morro Bay Chamber of Commerce attended the grand opening. There 
was a ribbon cutting ceremony. Lynch posted his business license and 
rules for operation (nobody under age 18 allowed, for example). And 
for a time, he operated without interference from police and in 
compliance with California's medical marijuana laws.

Then, in March 2007, the local sheriff, operating in conjunction with 
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, raided Lynch's dispensary. 
It re-opened within a few weeks, but then the DEA threatened the 
landlord with seizure of the building under asset forfeiture laws, 
and the dispensary closed for good.

Lynch was eventually convicted of multiple felonies under federal 
law, which puts marijuana sales in the same class as heroin, with no 
exception for legal medical sales. He's out on bond, reportedly 
living in a trailer on his mother's New Mexico property as his case 
wends through the court system. Now it's reached the 9th Circuit 
Court of Appeals. It's there Lynch has found a pair of powerful friends.

U.S. Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, and U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, 
R-Huntington Beach, on May 6 filed an amicus brief en banc - legalese 
that means they've made the unusual request that all 9th Circuit 
judges hear an appeal as soon as possible and rule that the U.S. 
Department of Justice has illegally spent federal funds on the Lynch 
prosecution.

Farr told the story of Lynch, and set the scene on the current 
federal stance on medical cannabis, on May 7 to a packed room of 
about 150 at the Hotel Intercontinental on Cannery Row. The 
invite-only event was sponsored by the law firm L+G, and guests 
included a who's who of local business and politics: Supervisor Dave 
Potter; representatives of County Supervisor John Phillips and state 
Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville; and city officials from 
Hollister, Watsonville and Greenfield.

Also present: scads of businessmen - including Bob and Lonna 
Blodgett, who last month opened the county's first legal dispensary 
in Del Rey Oaks, just down the block from the Weekly's offices - 
trying to figure out ways to cash in on a nascent industry that may 
be fully legalized by voters in 2016.

In talking about the Lynch situation, Farr says the DOJ is trying to 
play out the clock in the hopes that the Farr-Rohrabacher Amendment 
to the 2015 federal appropriations bill will run out. (It's scheduled 
to do so Sept. 30.)

That amendment, cosponsored by Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, prevents 
the Justice Department from spending money interfering with states 
that have their own laws authorizing the use, distribution, 
possession or cultivation of medical marijuana.

The amicus brief was written and filed pro bono by the law firm Reed 
Smith LLP. "The brief argues that justice delayed is justice denied, 
and that the DOJ is illegally spending money to prosecute. That money 
has not been appropriated," Farr said. "If the court agrees, it could 
be a pivotal moment for marijuana enforcement across the country."

Last December, Farr told the crowd, he, Rohrabacher and Lee "shocked 
the world" with the amendment on the big spending bill. "It says to 
the feds, 'stay away, stay out,' for those states that have adopted 
legalization, but we're still fighting the DEA," Farr says.

There's still fighting going on beyond the Lynch case, the kind of 
fighting that should make everyone's head spin. For example, Veterans 
Administration doctors are still not allowed to talk to patients 
about medical cannabis. An amendment floated to the first fiscal 
appropriations bill of 2016 would have allowed VA docs to talk about 
medical cannabis, but it failed to pass in the House by two votes.

Cannabis "is still a ground war in politics," Farr said. "But that 
ground war is always won when the American people engage in it, 
because we are elected every two years." In California, the next 
battle-  recreational use-  will likely be waged on the 2016 ballot. Fire it up.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom