Former Morro Bay medical marijuana dispensary owner Charles Lynch will be sentenced on Mar. 23 in the Los Angeles Federal Court House and may face a mandatory minimum of five years in federal prison for violating federal drug laws.
The jury found Lynch, 46, guilty on Aug. 5 on five federal counts including possession with the intent to distribute and criminal conspiracy.
“(This whole case has) pretty much destroyed my life at this point,” said Lynch, who was on the front page of the DEA Web site for a week after his conviction.
Lynch, a former medical marijuana patient and Morro Bay Chamber of Commerce member, opened Central Coast Compassionate Caregivers to patients with doctor’s recommendations in downtown Morro Bay in 2006, in compliance with city ordinance.
The controversial case highlighted the conflicting laws state and federal laws regarding the use and sale of marijuana.
In some cases under California law, growing and selling medical marijuana is legal. This makes California one of the 13 states that allow legal medical marijuana practices.
Proposition 215, or the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, allows patients with valid doctor’s recommendation to cultivate and possess marijuana for medical use.
But federal law, which essentially trumps state, says it is illegal to distribute or possess marijuana of any kind.
Federal authorities can and have shut down other dispensaries throughout California despite the word of state law.
“I think the feds should stay out of it. It should be a state issue,” agricultural business freshman Joseph Buskirk said. According to the Attorney General’s 2008 guidelines on medical marijuana, although dispensaries have been operating in California for years, they are not recognized under the law. The only recognized group entities are cooperatives and collectives. The guidelines read, “…dispensaries that do not substantially comply with the guidelines set forth in sections IV(A) and (B) are likely operating outside the protections of Proposition 215 and the Medical Marijuana Program, and that the individuals operating such entities may be subject to arrest and criminal prosecution under California law.”
Lynch, disappointed with the lack of state support on this issue, wrote to the governor, senators and representatives only to receive responses such as, “This is a federal matter. There is nothing we can do to help.”
“It’s kind of like saying, ‘Sorry pal, you’re on your own,'” Lynch said.
Morro Bay Mayor Janice Peters and City Attorney Rob Schultz, who testified at Lynch’s trial overseen by U.S. District Judge George Wu, gave Lynch the go-ahead with the proposal and even took a tour of the facilities once it opened.
“We, as a council, felt that it was a worthwhile cause to have a dispensary for medical patients,” Peters said. “Almost all of us had known someone who had used medical marijuana for cancer symptoms or glaucoma. We were somewhat sympathetic to its use.”
According to Schultz, the council had met all city requirements and state law.s “But it’s still federal law saying that marijuana is a controlled substance, therefore, they’re going to arrest anybody,” Schultz said. In addition to getting the city’s permission before opening his dispensary, Lynch apparently phoned the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) officials who supposedly told him legal enforcement for the dispensary was up to the discretion of the city and county.
This led Lynch to believe he was not going to be violating any laws.
“If the DEA told me, ‘No, don’t do it; we’ll prosecute you and put you in jail for five years and we’ll destroy you,’ I would’ve never done it. They never told me that though,” he said. A year after the opening, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Department, Sheriff Pat Hedges and DEA agents raided the dispensary and Lynch’s home, seizing Lynch’s personal property, 30 pounds of marijuana and about $27,000 found in a backpack.
“The federal agents came to my home with guns pointed at me and search warrants. They cuffed me up and took everything from me. I would’ve never imagined that would happen to me,” Lynch recalled.
According to Hedges, the department and DEA served a search warrant. He said they established that an illegal activity was occurring, presented it to the judge, who reviewed it for probable cause and issued the search warrant to go to the location and collect evidence to confirm illegal activity.
“‘Raid’ sounds dramatic. This is not unlike any other trial. We issue search warrants all year. It’s not something out of the ordinary. Lynch doesn’t want to acknowledge that he was involved in illegal activity. He puts a bad light on medical marijuana,” Hedges said.
According to the Los Angeles Times, at Lynch’s trial, federal prosecutors sought to depict Lynch as a common drug trafficker who sold pot to teenagers and carried a backpack stuffed with cash.
“They wouldn’t allow any evidence of California state law to be presented,” Peters said. “All they were able to ask me was if I thought Charles Lynch was a law-abiding citizen. All I could say was, ‘Yes.’ It was frustrating.”
“(Lynch’s defense attorneys are) telling the media and everyone that Lynch was a poor simple businessman providing care for people who needed marijuana for medical needs,” Hedges said. “These people are riding up on skateboards, bikes, parking around the corner and running into the dispensary and running back out. It’s just a bunch of bologna.”
San Luis Obispo County has a population of 260,000 people. According to Hedges, over 2,000 people were going to Lynch’s dispensary and over 270 of those people were under 21.
“Lynch is trying to convince us that over 2,000 people in this county had serious medical illnesses. That to me is a stretch of imagination. Personally, I don’t believe that,” Hedges said.
“It has definitely been the greatest challenge of my life to put up with this. The biggest war machine in the world is coming down on just one person, on me. It’s a tough fight to put up,” Lynch said.
Many people, both near and far, have come together to support Lynch. There were several rallies in Los Angeles and thousands of letters from across the nation, as well as from troops in Afghanistan.
“The only people that seemed to not appreciate what I was doing were the local sheriff, federal government and the people prosecuting me,” said Lynch, who plans on appealing the case during his upcoming sentence.
“It’s a waste of money to pay our tax dollars and then have them waste it on something as trivial as this, marijuana. It’s violating state laws. That’s just putting another innocent person in jail,” said biomedical engineering freshman Cody Woodhouse.
Since the onset of Lynch’s trial, many media outlets have been giving the case serious attention.
Reason.tv, documentaries narrated by Drew Carey, covered a few pieces on Lynch’s case.
Al Roker’s documentary on Lynch airs on MSNBC Sunday night.
ABC News 20/20 with John Stossel will air an hour-long special tonight about Lynch’s case, titled “Bailouts and Bull.”
Lynch has been out on a $400,000 bail posted by his family for more than a year and lives in Arroyo Grande awaiting his sentencing.
“I think that he has been punished sufficiently for obeying state law over federal law. What we need to do now is get the laws in sync,” Peters said.