This week in Ca. the trial started for Charles Lynch in Federal Court. Charles is a businessman, a member of the local Chamber of Commerce, who secured all the needed permits to open his business. The City leaders of Morro Bay thought so important was Charlies store that even after the Feds shut down his store, they reissued Lynch's business license to continue his store and it is valid to this day.
After reopening for a short time the Feds scared Charles's landlord into asking him to close out of fear of seizure of his property. Charlie was the owner, manager and Caregiver for Central Coast Compassionate Caregivers in Morro Bay, a Medical Marijuana provider. His store was open for over a year without incident or major complaints in the small town. Today he is facing 100 years in prison.
Drew Carey has even done a short documentary about Charlie and one of his patients that you can view at Charlie Lynch Trial Begins Tuesday
There are some things Drew doesn't cover about this case in his short time frame. This is another one of those very strange trials like the one where in a rape case the Judge banned the word Rape from his courtroom. In Charlies case using the term "medical marijuana" is forbidden.
The LATimes piece on Charlies trial starts off with the typical salacious type paragraph and buzzwords meant to inflame. To be fair the rest of the article is much better and less evil than the hook leads you to think. Below is that 1st paragraph.
A highly anticipated trial involving conflicting marijuana laws got underway Friday in Los Angeles federal court with a prosecutor painting the owner of a Morro Bay medicinal marijuana store as a brazen drug trafficker who sold dope to teenagers and toted around a backpack stuffed with cash. Conflicting marijuana laws take stage in trial
"Sold dope to teenagers and toted around a backpack stuffed with cash." Sounds pretty evil doesn't it. Full of innuendo, but if you watched Drews clip you know better. At the age of 18 you can vote in the USA and die in Iraq but under Federal law you are a minor until you turn 21. The jury will also probably never be allowed to hear that every minor under the age of 18, that Charles provided medicine to, had to have their parent do the buying themselves. That 3 yr. span in the law falls into a Never- never land between State and Federal Law is being used to enhance and radically increase charges and penalties up to 100 yrs in prison. People do less time for Murder and Rape.
Charles does have a few good things going for him in this case depending on who the Judge allows to testify and how.
But one of Lynch's lawyers hinted during opening statements that Lynch had sought -- and presumably received -- approval from an official with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration before he set up shop. If they are able to convince U.S. District Judge George Wu that there is a sufficient basis for mounting such a quasi-entrapment defense, they may be allowed to present evidence that Lynch believed he was operating within the law, which legal experts said would likely make him more sympathetic to jurors.
"It could have an enormous effect," said Rebecca Lonergan, a USC law professor and former federal prosecutor in Los Angeles. "Any time you have a hot political or public policy issue like this, there is the risk that members of the jury will decide based on their politics, not the evidence in the case."
The local News coverage of the bust pointed out a few interesting things that happen including a note left behind by the Authoritys, "All Hippies Die" Here is a video of my local tv channels coverage.
The other real problem the Feds will have is the trying of this case in Ca. because Marijuana has been legal here now for a few yrs, made legal by the voters. The Times story quotes some of the jurors not picked and their answers show some of the difficulties. One potential juror summed it up this way, "It just doesn't make sense to me." He was not picked to serve.
Another juror explained it differently,
"I don't think I'd be a fair juror because I tend to side with the state law," said a young woman from Torrance who told lawyers she had one friend with chronic back pain and another with stomach cancer who had used the drug medicinally.
"If a person is going to have a better quality of life, I'd prefer to give them that," she said.
Of course Ca. has it's share of Dittoheads also as one womans statement proves.
Another potential juror said she was so troubled by the fact that someone would break any law -- state or federal -- that she had already concluded the defendant was guilty.
This woman seems to fit the John Ashcroft way of thinking when he set this policy of the Feds overriding State Law in regards to Medical Marijuana and Oregans Death with Dignity Act. Just to make the point of the hypocrisy of Ashcroft and so many others in positions of power is this excerpt from a NYTs article a few yrs old.
As governor of Missouri, Mr. Ashcroft once remarked: ''Those in Eastern Europe and the Russian republics know that it's futile to have an all-powerful centralized bureaucracy. And we pray that someday those on Capitol Hill will learn the same.'' Now, however, he has become the ultimate federal nurse, interposing himself -- and the Drug Enforcement Administration -- between Oregon physicians and their dying patients.
So, is John Ashcroft a hypocrite? Of course. But so are we all. One scans American history in vain to find a major figure whose position on states' rights was not directly connected to his or her position on the underlying political question. When it suits our leaders, they are in favor of broad federal power; when it does not, they claim ''states' rights.'' The Opportunist's Friend (and Foe): States' Rights
I invite people to help Charles if they feel so moved by going to the website Friends of Charles C. Lynch and reading his story and or donating to his cause.