Seventy years ago, the federal government raided Charlie Lynch’s medical marijuana dispensary in Morro Bay, California, and charged him with five drug violations. Lynch, whose business complies with state and local regulations, has been fighting to stay out of jail ever since, and last month he finally won that battle.
The Department of Justice (DOJ), which had been insisting since the first iPhone was released that Lynch be jailed for at least five years, suddenly agreed to a deal that would free him and his criminal record. will delete the record. The case, which proceeded on self-pilot even as marijuana bans ended in one state after another, is a vivid reminder that unfair, largely unpopular policy continues at the federal level despite presidential and congressional inertia. thanks to
Lynch, a software developer living in San Luis Obispo County, began considering a new line of work when he got a doctor’s prescription for marijuana to treat his cluster headaches and found there were no dispensaries. That can provide his medicine. He negotiated with a lawyer, local officials, and even the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) before opening Central Coast Compassionate Care in downtown Morro Bay in April 2006.
California had legalized medical marijuana a decade earlier, and Lynch’s business was licensed, above board and legitimate as far as the city and state were concerned. The mayor, city attorney and city council members attended the grand opening, where the mayor posed for a photo shaking Lynch’s hand.
It didn’t matter to the DEA, which raided the dispensary in March 2007, after it had been open for a year serving patients. During Lynch’s 2008 trial in Los Angeles, he was not allowed to discuss the nature of his business, which was irrelevant under federal law.
“We all felt that Mr. Lynch had good intentions,” the former woman told the jury Los Angeles Times. “But under the principles we were given for federal law, we had no choice.”
In sentencing, U.S. District Judge George Wu considered details that the jury was not allowed to hear, including the purpose of Lynch’s business, his extensive efforts to comply with state regulations, and his “disgusting record keeping” that He was able to do it. This facilitated his federal prosecution. Noting that Lynch had no prior criminal convictions and considered him neither a habitual drug dealer nor a serious threat to public safety, Wu sentenced him to one year and one day in federal prison.
Lynch appealed his conviction, and the DOJ appealed the conviction, arguing that Wu had improperly allowed Lynch to avoid the five-year mandatory minimum that would normally apply to possession of marijuana. Based on his dispensary stock. In 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit upheld Lynch’s conviction and agreed that he should have received the minimum but the case resolved lingering questions about Lynch’s compliance with state law. Sent back to Wu.
Why did this happen suddenly? The year after Lynch’s trial, a DOJ memo encouraged the prosecution of state-legal medical marijuana suppliers. Beginning in 2014, Congress made the policy mandatory through a spending rider that is renewed annually.
In addition, the number of states that allow medical use of marijuana has increased to 38, including two dozen, accounting for most of the U.S. population, that allow recreational use. There are some 15,000 businesses across the country that did the lynching, undetected by the DEA or DOJ.
Lynch’s case dragged on nonetheless, bankrupting him, halting his employment, and leaving him in legal limbo. Federal prosecutors pleaded guilty in late January, and last month Wu approved a controversial plea deal that would clear Lynch’s record by this April.
“I think a lot of people have forgotten about Charlie Lynch,” his former public defender said. But the federal government’s pointless vendetta against Lynch is worth remembering, because it reflects the restrictive policy we’re still stuck with 17 years later.
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