Truth Seeker
New Member
Rancho Cucamonga resident and erstwhile medical marijuana purveyor Aaron Sandusky must have noted the irony as he cooled his heels in the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles on Nov. 6.
It was Election Day, when Colorado and Washington state voters made their states the first to legalize the recreational use of marijuana; when Massachusetts became the 18th state to legalize marijuana for medical use, and when voters in Needles voted overwhelmingly to tax medical marijuana dispensaries in their city on the eastern edge of San Bernardino County.
California voters made medical marijuana legal in this state 16 years ago when they passed Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act.
Sandusky, meanwhile, sits in jail as he awaits sentencing Jan. 7 in U.S. District Court for two federal convictions of drug trafficking, which could bring him a prison term of 10 years to life. Marijuana - whether its intended use is medical or otherwise - is an illegal drug - classified Schedule 1, the same as heroin - under federal law.
For comparison, two brothers in their 20s got sentences of just 15 years to life early this year for beating a 63-year-old man to death in front of a San Bernardino liquor store.
The Inland Empire men arrested in Chino several days ago by the FBI on suspicion of terrorist activities - with the aim of killing U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan - face a statutory maximum federal sentence of 15 years. For Sandusky's convictions, 10 years is the statutory minimum.
Sandusky accused John Pomierski, the disgraced former mayor of Upland, of extorting a bribe from him; in Pomierski's plea deal with the feds he admitted extorting a bribe from a different Upland business. Pomierski got just a two-year sentence for violating the trust voters had placed in him.
Only four others nationwide have been convicted at trial of crimes similar to Sandusky's, rather than reaching a plea bargain. Their respective sentences were a year and a day, five years, 10 years and 92 years.
That year-and-a-day sentence came in a California case in which the judge took the differences in state and federal law into account in his sentencing; federal prosecutors have appealed for a longer prison term.
It's not as though Sandusky is an "innocent" victim of the differences in state and federal law. He relied too much on a 2008 campaign statement by Barack Obama that he would not expend federal resources to arrest medical marijuana sellers in states that have legalized it. He pushed the envelope far and hard, reopening his operations even after a federal Drug Enforcement Administration raid of his warehouse on Nov. 1, 2011. That bust of the facility where marijuana was being grown to supply his G3 Holistic dispensaries in Upland, Colton and Moreno Valley was the basis for the two counts on which he was convicted; jurors could not reach verdicts on the other four counts involving operation of the dispensaries.
Less than two months after that raid, Sandusky reopened. Two-and-a-half months later, DEA agents raided his G3 Holistic dispensary in Upland, and shortly after that, he reopened the place again.
Yeah, that's asking for it. It's not smart to not only run a marijuana operation in violation of federal law, but also rub the feds' noses in it. And now Sandusky is paying the price.
Still, a 10-year sentence - or longer - would seem unduly harsh in light of not only the differences in California and federal law, but also the trend toward legalization among states.
News Hawk- TruthSeekr420 420 MAGAZINE
Source: sbsun.com
Author: sbsun.com
Contact: Contact Us - San Bernardino County Sun
Website: Sentence of 10 to life for selling medical marijuana would run against trend among states - San Bernardino County Sun
It was Election Day, when Colorado and Washington state voters made their states the first to legalize the recreational use of marijuana; when Massachusetts became the 18th state to legalize marijuana for medical use, and when voters in Needles voted overwhelmingly to tax medical marijuana dispensaries in their city on the eastern edge of San Bernardino County.
California voters made medical marijuana legal in this state 16 years ago when they passed Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act.
Sandusky, meanwhile, sits in jail as he awaits sentencing Jan. 7 in U.S. District Court for two federal convictions of drug trafficking, which could bring him a prison term of 10 years to life. Marijuana - whether its intended use is medical or otherwise - is an illegal drug - classified Schedule 1, the same as heroin - under federal law.
For comparison, two brothers in their 20s got sentences of just 15 years to life early this year for beating a 63-year-old man to death in front of a San Bernardino liquor store.
The Inland Empire men arrested in Chino several days ago by the FBI on suspicion of terrorist activities - with the aim of killing U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan - face a statutory maximum federal sentence of 15 years. For Sandusky's convictions, 10 years is the statutory minimum.
Sandusky accused John Pomierski, the disgraced former mayor of Upland, of extorting a bribe from him; in Pomierski's plea deal with the feds he admitted extorting a bribe from a different Upland business. Pomierski got just a two-year sentence for violating the trust voters had placed in him.
Only four others nationwide have been convicted at trial of crimes similar to Sandusky's, rather than reaching a plea bargain. Their respective sentences were a year and a day, five years, 10 years and 92 years.
That year-and-a-day sentence came in a California case in which the judge took the differences in state and federal law into account in his sentencing; federal prosecutors have appealed for a longer prison term.
It's not as though Sandusky is an "innocent" victim of the differences in state and federal law. He relied too much on a 2008 campaign statement by Barack Obama that he would not expend federal resources to arrest medical marijuana sellers in states that have legalized it. He pushed the envelope far and hard, reopening his operations even after a federal Drug Enforcement Administration raid of his warehouse on Nov. 1, 2011. That bust of the facility where marijuana was being grown to supply his G3 Holistic dispensaries in Upland, Colton and Moreno Valley was the basis for the two counts on which he was convicted; jurors could not reach verdicts on the other four counts involving operation of the dispensaries.
Less than two months after that raid, Sandusky reopened. Two-and-a-half months later, DEA agents raided his G3 Holistic dispensary in Upland, and shortly after that, he reopened the place again.
Yeah, that's asking for it. It's not smart to not only run a marijuana operation in violation of federal law, but also rub the feds' noses in it. And now Sandusky is paying the price.
Still, a 10-year sentence - or longer - would seem unduly harsh in light of not only the differences in California and federal law, but also the trend toward legalization among states.
News Hawk- TruthSeekr420 420 MAGAZINE
Source: sbsun.com
Author: sbsun.com
Contact: Contact Us - San Bernardino County Sun
Website: Sentence of 10 to life for selling medical marijuana would run against trend among states - San Bernardino County Sun
