February 12, 1998, Hilo, HI: A Circuit Court Judge complied with prosecutors’ request to retry marijuana activist Aaron Anderson on a felony charge stemming from the possession of legal hemp bird seeds. A jury voted 9-3 to acquit Anderson last October.
“I can’t think of a bigger waste of taxpayer dollars than the money spent prosecuting Aaron Anderson for purchasing a product recognized as legal under federal law,” said Allen St. Pierre, Executive Director of The NORML Foundation.
Prosecutors are charging Anderson, age 60, with second-degree commercial promotion of marijuana, a class B felony that carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine. Charges were filed after Anderson ordered a 25-pound shipment of hemp seeds from the mainland in 1991.
Although the importation and possession of hemp seeds is legal under federal law, prosecutors argue that the seeds fit the legal definition of marijuana under state law. Last year, Deputy Prosecutor Kay Iopa testified that her office would not prosecute a “little old lady” if she possessed hemp seeds, but would file charges against an individual like Anderson who “is very vocally, very outwardly, advocating the legalization of marijuana.”
Presently, Anderson and former co-defendant Roger Christie — who had the same charges against him dismissed — are awaiting trial in a federal countersuit against the county alleging that they were targeted for prosecution because of their outspoken beliefs.
Anderson’s criminal trial is scheduled for September 14. For more information, please contact either Aaron Anderson of the Hawaii Hemp Council @ (808) 965-0300 or Allen St. Pierre of The NORML Foundation @ (202) 483-8751.