Legal News

Federal judge holding on marijuana sentence

By Richard Binder

Last August, a jury convicted Charles Lynch on five counts related to running a dispensary and selling medical marijuana to customers under 21, considered minors under a federal statute that prohibits the sale of marijuana and other narcotics to minors. Mr. Lynch faces a minimum sentence of five years in federal prison.

The case has been widely followed by medical marijuana advocates since Mr. Lynch was arrested after a 2007 raid on his dispensary in Morro Bay, Calif.

However, a federal judge yesterday postponed Lynch's sentencing and asked the Department of Justice to clarify its revised position on such cases.

U.S. District Judge George H. Wu said he will hold off sentencing Lynch, 47, until prosecutors provide a written clarification from the Justice Department on the Obama administration's newly revised position that federal agents target marijuana distributors only if they violate state and federal law.

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Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on March 24, 2009 (boomark / email).