Los Angeles, CA: Founders of one of the state’s largest and most respected medical marijuana dispensaries accepted a “pre-indictment” plea agreement with the US Department of Justice this week for their role in operating the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center (LACRC). The club, which was regarded as one of California’s most strictly regulated medicinal marijuana cooperatives, operated for five years until being raided by federal agents in October 2001. The LACRC manufactured and distributed medical marijuana to over 900 qualified patients at the time of its closure.
Under the agreement, LACRC founder Scott Imler and two others pled guilty to one federal count of maintaining a drug establishment. Though the charge carries a statutory maximum of 20 years in jail, Imler is hopeful that the judge will impose a lesser sentence “when considering our actions within the totality of the situation.” Sentencing is scheduled for later this summer.
Imler says he accepted the plea after it became clear that any evidence regarding the use of medical marijuana or California’s law legalizing it would not be allowed at trial. Currently, federal defendants can not introduce such evidence as a defense against criminal prosecution because the federal government fails to legally recognize marijuana’s medical value.
The Feds’ raid of the LACRC in late 2001 was part of a federal crackdown on statewide medical marijuana dispensaries, including the raid of the California Medical Research Center in Cool California, which served some 5,000 members. Club proprietors Dr. Marion Fry and her husband, attorney Dale Schafer said earlier this week that the US Attorney’s Office has called requesting a “pre-indictment” status conference to discuss their case, and that the Justice Department is likely to move forward with federal charges.
NORML Executive Director Keith Stroup called these latest developments evidence that the federal government is continuing to make targeting and prosecuting California medical marijuana patients and providers a top priority. “It appears the federal government is using the likelihood of long, mandatory prison terms, and the shock of the Ed Rosenthal conviction earlier this year, to coerce other medical marijuana providers to plead guilty to federal charges before they have even been indicted,” Stroup said. “The real tragedy is that more patients who are legally entitled to use medical marijuana under state law will be forced to obtain their medicine on the black market as a result of the government¹s strong-arm tactics.”
For more information, please contact Keith Stroup at (202) 483-5500 or California NORML Coordinator Dale Gieringer at (415) 563-5858.