Charlie Lynch Sentenced to Jail for Medical Marijuana
Today, Charlie Lynch was sentenced to one year and one day in jail for operating a medical marijuana clinic that was legal under California state law. U.S. District Court Judge George Wu declined to impose the 5-year mandatory minimum that federal prosecutors deemed appropriate and I've been informed that the U.S. attorney was visibly upset with this outcome. In contrast, Reason reports that Lynch's attorneys "seem extremely happy and relieved with the sentence and are convinced they will knock it down much lower and that Lynch will not be in prison anytime soon."
In that respect, today's outcome brings back memories of the government's epic campaign against Ed Rosenthal, in which federal prosecutors exhausted phenomenal resources, drew virulent public criticism, frustrated the trial judge, and ultimately walked away disappointed. Rosenthal's persecution and ultimate vindication galvanized national support for medical marijuana, thus the Lynch trial feels very much like a parting shot from an entrenched clan of desperate drug war demagogues who've all but expended their legal and political resources while alienating the American public at every turn.
The fatal flaw in the federal war on medical marijuana has always been that if you try hard enough to put people in jail for it, you'll lend urgency and credibility to the movement for reform.
In that respect, today's outcome brings back memories of the government's epic campaign against Ed Rosenthal, in which federal prosecutors exhausted phenomenal resources, drew virulent public criticism, frustrated the trial judge, and ultimately walked away disappointed. Rosenthal's persecution and ultimate vindication galvanized national support for medical marijuana, thus the Lynch trial feels very much like a parting shot from an entrenched clan of desperate drug war demagogues who've all but expended their legal and political resources while alienating the American public at every turn.
The fatal flaw in the federal war on medical marijuana has always been that if you try hard enough to put people in jail for it, you'll lend urgency and credibility to the movement for reform.
Looking for the easiest way to join the anti-drug war movement? You've found it!
of course not 5 years.
bakugan, read an article about it. Mr. Lynch had no prior legal issues and was making every effort to stay within state law. The judge knew he HAD to give him some time, but he clearly did not deserve the mandatory minimum. IMO, he deserved no time and the Feds should be sued for wasting everyone's time here. This is what most professionals like to call "bull shit."
Stop apologizing
for Judge Wu.
Here is a man that clearly believes keeping his job as a judge is more important than 1 year of Lynch's life in prison, 2 years on probation and the rest of life as a felon after that.
Let's not act like he would be unable to find another job if he decided to give Lynch nothing. Perhaps he would be overruled by another judge. However, at least he would be able to go to sleep at night knowing he isn't part of the monstrous police state that is the federal government. Then again, I'm sure this isn't the first non-violent offender he's jailed.
Judge Wu is garbage.
of course not 5 years
Completely agree. Feds sued for wasting time and tax dollars!! And the sheriff in question, Pat Hedges. Oh, he decided not to re-run for sheriff?? How about Jail time for illegal wire-tapping???!!! Sorry, Pat (not sorry), you broke The Law. Period. New documentary - "Lynching Pat Hedges and Corruption in America"
IM ANGRY
this isnt RIGHT at all!!! he deserved the manatory minuim at least marijuana is a crime and menance to the youth an posion to american he was killing people with cancer with that shit! i'm not happy at all with this outcome. that fuck deserves to DIE for selling marijuana. I FOR ONE WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS INJUSTICE i am gonna find away that he gets more time .fuck that pot head
i support goverment control and power over people to keep out socity a moral place for familys to grow in peace.
Idiot
You are really an idiot...
LOL im an idoit haha
Oh my God that makes me laugh that you seriouslly think im the idiot buddy!! i'm not the dumbass who smokes pot and makes themselves retarded and useless to a productive socity,That our great justice system trys to protect! YOUR marijuana is ruining AMERICA!! AND you use this stupid "medical marijuana" excuse to try and "legally" smoke it when you know damn well it's ILLEGAL and for good FUCKING reasons.Marijuana has over 400 deadly toxins in it.all which can kill you.it's much worse driving under the infulence of pot than it is booze.you wanna feel good drink fucking beer.only if your old enough cause if your not i'll report it to the police.marijuana is the cause of 99.9% of the violent crimes and rapes and child molesting in this country.I'm SICK and tired of you potheads badmouthing the goverment.the DEA is doing their job to protect use and if most of america didnt want them to go after pot then they wouldnt fund them the billions of dollars to fight it every year. GET YOUR GOD DAMN FACTS STRAIGHT pot is dangerous.
Idiot troll
DEAthugs are perpetrating atrocity. Deal with it.
Richard P Steeb
San Jose California
Idiot troll aka Josh
Indeed!! Josh, you really are an Idiot. I bet you are a "christian". Who put cannabis on this earth?? Oops, that would be GOD. I'm betting you take prescriptive medicine. Do some research on those. Again, you really are an Idiot. Period.
You are so brainwashed.
I know doctors, lawyers, physicists, that smoke weed on a daily basis. It is organic, non-addictive, and no one has ever died from it alone. Legalizing it would do so much good for our economy and the earth. Get informed then talk.
Slave
The question comes down to whether you think you own your own body, or whether you think the government owns you. The benefits or dangers of pot to an individual or to society as a whole are irrelevant.
Does big government (which by definition has exceeded its constitutional mandate of protecting individual rights against other individuals or groups) make life better for everyone, or does it make it worse? The answer is the latter, in all spheres - economic, most recently by underwriting and securitizing bad loans, injecting toxic waste into the global financial system, destroying civil liberties, by enacting the Patriot Act, FISA, Real ID (Obama voted for all three in the Senate and has done nothing to rein them in), ensuring bankruptcy or economic malaise for the country through runaway spending and entitlements such as Medicare, starting unecessary wars killing hundreds of thousands of people and spending trillions of dollars. If you think the government owns your body to make life better for us all, you also empower it to do all the above. Government is instituted to protect the invidividual, not to enhance society. Doing the first accomplishes the latter, while a focus on the latter destroys it all by giving politicians free rein to do virtually anything in the guise of doing good. We ignore the genius of the founders at our peril.
alchohal and ciggs it's a
alchohal and ciggs it's a fact they do more harm then marijuana
and driving on beer is the worst thing you could ever do thats not funny my wife died from a DWI some loser imbread drinking cans of cheap beer in his pick up truck
NOT 1 PERSON HAS EVER DIED FROM MARIJUANA NOT 1 NOBODY HAS EVER OVERDOSED FROM MARIJUANA MILLIONS OF PPL DIE EVERY YEAR FROM TOBACCO AND ALCHOHAL YOUR A FUCKIN IDIOT AD YOU HAVE NO EDUCATION
YOU BRAINWASHED PPL ARE THE REASON WEED IS STILL ILLEGAL
99% OF RAPES ARE BECAUSE OF WEED WHAT THE HELL IS THE MATTER WITH YOU WERE OBVIOUSLY BRAINWASHED AND I FEEL BAD FOR YOU
THIS MAN HAD PERMITS AND PAYED LOTS OF TAXES AND WILL NOT SPEND 1 DAY IN JAIL NOT 5 YEARS AND NOT 1 YEAR
EVEN PPL WHO ARE AGAINST MARIJUANA KNOW YOUR A COMPLETE JOKE AND UNEDUCATED IMBREAD
HOW IS POT DANGEROUS????? NAME 1 PERSON WHO WAS EVER KILLED FROM WEED OR 1 PERSON WHO EVER GOT LUNG CANCER SORRY NEVER HAPPNED
AND THAT 400 CHEMICAL THING IS COMPLETE BULLSHIT
STREET WEED GROWN BY MEXICAN CARTELS HAS LOTS OF CHEMICALS BUG SPRAYS AND GROW CHEMICALS ALL MARIJUANA SOLD IN THE DISPENSARY IS ORGANICLY GROWN AND HOLDS NO CHEMICALS AT ALL
THATS WHY THEY NEED TO LEGALIZE WEED SO THEY CAN CONTROL WHAT GOES INTO IT
IF PPL WOULD STOP THIS BULLSHIT LEGALIZE WEED THE MEXICAN CARTELS WOULD HAVE TO LEAVE CUZ NOBODY WOULD BUT THERE GROSS BRICKWEED
PPL R GOING TO SMOKE YOU IDIOT YOUR REDIC RANTS ARE NOT GOING TO STOP THIS
WOULDN'T YOU WANT THAT MONEY GOING TOWARDS COPS SALARY SO THEY CAN BUST REAL DRUG DEALERS LIKE HERION AND METH DEALERS CLEAN UP THE STREETS A LITTLE BIT INSTEAD OF SPENDING MILLIONS TO SEND A DOCTOR WHO HELPS PPL TO JAIL
THIS MAN IS A DOCTOR AND HAS PATIENTS AND PROVIDES A SERVICE TO SOCIETY UNLIKE YOU YOUR UNEMPLOYED AND ARE ON YOUR MOTHERS COMPUTER IN THE BASEMAN AT THE AGE OF 45 GET A FUCKIN LIFE
TALK ABOUT GETTING YOUR DAMN FACTS STRAIGHT
Thank You
Couldn't have said it better. Thank You.
WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE !!!!
WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE !!!!
Stop using God's name in vein. Make your point as an adult. Can you not express yourself without using profanity? Make your point succinctly with words that nail down your exact expression. If I say "uhm" over and over, what is the point? If I say "FU" over and over, what is the point? I learn nothing and you fail to succinctly express your thoughts with clarity. The impact of which is trivial to say the least and childish at best. Grow up.
Clarification
Pardon my misspelling, VAIN and my comment was meant for
LOL im an idoit haha.
Whoa! - Cop-loving Raging Fascist Anonymous Dude - Calm down!
You are JUST the type who needs a nice big hit off a joint... it could really help you deal with your RAGE issues.
Oh, and please cite your sources for:
"marijuana is the cause of 99.9% of the violent crimes and rapes and child molesting in this country"
"Marijuana has over 400 deadly toxins in it.all which can kill you."
(Marijuana is) "much worse driving under the infulence of pot than it is booze"
"if most of america didnt want them to go after pot then they wouldnt fund them the billions of dollars to fight it every year. "
Let's take these one at a time, Cop-loving Raging Fascist Anonymous Dude.
First: From the National Drug Intelligence Center
Maryland Drug Threat Assessment, August 2002: "Violent crime generally is not associated with marijuana abuse in Maryland. Most individuals who abuse the drug experience physical relaxation and sedation and are not prone to violence." Seriously Dude... more high people are raping children than slobbering, angry drunks? Please prove that one...
Secondly, to pretend that marijuana has 400 deadly toxins and is deadlier than booze, is nuts, since almost 20,000 die every year from liver damage from drinking and disease. Death rate extrapolations for USA for Alcoholism: 19,170 per year, 1,597 per month, 368 per week, 52 per day, 2 per hour, 0 per minute, 0 per second. Note: this extrapolation calculation uses the deaths statistic: 19,171 persons died of alcohol-induced causes in 1999 USA (NVSR Sep 2001). Find me one source that says 368 people die every week from using marijuana. Can't? Didn't think so. However, I think alcohol also kills brain cells, which explains why you, Cop-loving Raging Fascist Anonymous Dude, are such a mental case.
Third, Alcohol is an extremely dangerous drug when you drive, and certainly nobody has NEVER been proven that driving while using POT is anywhere near as dangerous as driving when drunk. From the NY times, in 2007: In a preliminary estimate, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said 43,300 people died in motor vehicle crashes in 2006, down slightly from 43,443 the previous year. The number of people injured fell more sharply, to 2.5 million from 2.7 million, a 6 percent decline. Look, I'm not proud of this, but I've driven drunk, and I've driven when I'm high, and I'm a much deadlier person drunk than when I'm high. You just have more of your faculties when stoned than when you're blotto - Now get this straight, I'm not saying anyone should get high as hell and drive around, and I would never do either anymore, but I KNOW that more people die by drunks every year than ever die by potheads.. Prove me wrong.
And your last point is simply naive. If what the people wanted mattered, really matter, than Congress would vote for peace, not war, Congress would vote for free health care, not force us to pay 35% of our income to health insurance (not health care), Congress would bail out the PEOPLE, not the BANKSTERS, and Congress would stop pissing away money on wars against NOUNS, like DRUGS or TERROR, which, inthe case of the DRUG WAR, only leads to a huge underground criminal cash economy which DOESN'T PAY TAXES. If Congress cared about people, then Congress would instead legalize all drugs (alcohol too - Booze is a DRUG, Dude!) and TAX them. Of course, if Congress did that... then the CIA couldn't smuggle drugs, enrich a syndicate class of gangster elites, and use those trillions of illegal dollars to create clandestine wars... much like your hero, Ollie North, who was a state-sponsored criminal drug smuggler who sold drugs to get underground money to buy military guns and missiles for Iran. Oh, you didn't know that one? Dude! Your ignorance floats on a sea of alcohol like a boat on a pond.
PS learn to spell. It's influence, not infulence; its America, not america; it's didn't, not didnt; its wouldn't, not wouldnt. Smoke a doobie bro - IT WILL CURE YOUR DISEASED MIND!
Well said! (actually it's well written).
Thank you for taking the time to analyze and respond to the earlier rant.
Regardless of your point of view on an issue it's important to rationally discuss all points.
Stay open to all points of view or you'll never learn an grow.
Support your arguments with facts not opinion or rumors.
If you really don't want to learn, why even write anything at all? Stay in your hovel and be angry.
I'm not sure where I'm at on this issue but the first thing I did was stop reading the rants of an angry person who is closed minded and obviously highly un-educated. Try college, or perhaps high school if your missed out, it will broaden your horizons and may even help you with your anger issues.
How can you be so obtuse?
How is it you can be so obtuse about the compassionate use of a historically well known medicinal plant.
If your so sure of yourself, how about linking for us proof of its dangers.
After all, I'm providing 423 links to scientific reasons why your wrong here.
The least you could do would be to give me one link to the contrary!
I'm talking science facts not fiction here Josh!
Show us the bodies[metaphorically speaking]of all the overdosed cannabis users.
I suggest you read Granny's reference list and enlighten yourself before you make another caustic remark!
Granny Storm Crow's MMJ Reference List- July 2010
https://www.greenpassion.org/index.php?/topic/23575-new-420-page-grannys...
or how about this one
Pot Shrinks Tumors; Government Knew in '74 AlterNet
http://www.alternet.org/story/9257
maybe this then?
The case for legalizing marijuana
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/gary_mason...
and the best for last
BBC report on cannabis and the human body's cannabinoid receptors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQIBKLXsH2s
Oh... BTW, the DEA isn't protecting us but rather, are protecting themselves.
I could go on and on here but I don't think I need to.
POT ISN'T DANGEROUS JOSH BUT RATHER, IT'S PEOPLE LIKE YOU THAT ARE!
I sure hope you don't own a gun
forgot a link... part 2 of the BBC documentary on Brainreceptors
A must watch part 2
Cannabinoid Receptors - Horizon: Cannabis - The Evil Weed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGKpbqXwg84&feature=related
Cannibas
You are the type of idiot that thinks it is OK to down a couple of six packs and beat your wife after you get drunk. Get YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT. POTHEADS are far less of a problem than THOSE THAT DRINK. Get over it troll!
Charlie Lynch
The people of California and a federal Judge disagree with you. Crawl back under your rock.
God Bless you Charlie...
r u kidding me?
this guy has been helping cancer patients live a NORMAL life instead of dealing with all the pills and drugs that just mess them up more. he has been helpful to keeping cancer patients living a better life and not going through extensive kemotherapy. he should be let free with nothing against him. look at all the kids getting in accidents and dieing because of alcohol. more people die of alcohol in 1 year then 100 yrs of marijuana. he even got the congressman and mayor to be there as he cut the ribbon to open his new business. you are 100% wrong and the government is the worst ever.
IM ANGRY
You're angry. ok. You're also very uneducated. What happens when YOU get Ill?? Are you going to subject yourself to all the chemicals a doctor gives you (which, by the way are man-made, all have side effects and are Toxic)? Educate yourself. Oh, and read the Bible. Who put this plant on earth...? I suppose you are a "Christian" too...?? GOD forbid you or your children ever get sick. Oops, again, that was GOD who put this plant on earth.
Kafkaesque Ending for Lynch and the Drug War
Charlie Lynch must feel like the last war casualty in a war that should not exist. Then there’s the case of Judge Wu. How do you tell a man to go to jail for someone else’s mistake?
Franz Kafka would have appreciated Charlie’s dilemma. Talk about being caught in the machinery of state. Timing is everything.
Rumor has it that Obama will soon replace all the U.S. attorneys with his own picks, so that further nonsense of the type that’s currently afflicting Mr. Lynch will probably be much reduced—too late for Peter McWilliams, Ed Rosenthal, Charlie Lynch, Marc Emory, or the tens-of-millions of other victims of Amerika’s drug laws. But it’s a start.
Giordano
Kafkaesque Ending for Lynch and the Drug War
Yay Obama. So, how do you explain Michelle Leonhart?
Possible article of interest:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-armentano/obamas-dea-nominee-pledge_b_785630.html
Bratty Americans
At least medical marijuana is legal in some US states, even though the federal government still opposes it. At least you Americans are allowed to vote on such things such as medical marijuana. In some backwater communist, Muslim or police/nanny state countries the likes of Charlie Lynch would not spend one year in jail... he would be hanged while onlookers cheered (even if they KNEW the marijuana he distributed was for medical purposes). So whaa whaaa whaaa!
Make it legal ???!!
Am I missing something ? Make Marjiuana legal !! and make money of it ??? Last time I read it was a drugs and am quite sure it still is. Why you want to legalized a drug in a country? Later someone else will make cocaine legal and make revenue out it.
Tom
Make it Legal
Tom,
You are missing something. GOD created this plant, not man.
Tom, alcohol and nicotine
Tom, alcohol and nicotine are drugs and orders of magnitude more dangerous and destructive than cannibis. If "they" really want to protect us why are such destructive substances legal? I suspect that they are more interested in protecting thier source of income, the drug war itself.
Tom, alcohol and nicotine
Yay J.W. !! Furthermore, I wonder if Tom is a 'Christian'. Tom, GOD forbid you or one of your loved ones becomes ill. Would you be willing to go through a course a chemotherapy, radiation and prescription drugs (which all have side effects, are man made and toxic)? Who put cannabis on this planet? GOD.
Marijuana
Best medicine out there. people who are against it are fucking closed minded. sit down, smoke a bowl, and chill the out.
Oops - my bad grammar...
Oops. Typo. I meant to say: Third, Alcohol is an extremely dangerous drug when you drive, and certainly nobody has EVER proven that driving while using POT is anywhere near as dangerous as driving when drunk.
instead of: "Third, Alcohol is an extremely dangerous drug when you drive, and certainly nobody has NEVER been proven that driving while using POT is anywhere near as dangerous as driving when drunk."
My bad. Happens every time I try to correct somebody else's grammar.
Smokers Unite!
We ALL need to put our foot down to the Fed. Gov. and Finally have Marijuana Legalized. Enough is Enough. #LegalizeIt on Twitter. Add me -> www.Twitter.com/MDWilliams7 and lets start assembling! Get Lynch out with many others and Live Together in this "Land of the Free". !
Mark MD WIlliams
www.FaceBook.com/MarkMDWilliams
www.FaceBook.com/MDWilliams777
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