Seventeen years ago, the federal government raided Charlie Lynch’s medical marijuana dispensary in Morro Bay, California, and charged him with five drug-related crimes. Lynch, whose business complied with state and local regulations, has since fought to stay out of prison and finally won that battle last month.
The Department of Justice (DOJ), which had insisted since the release of the first iPhone that Lynch should be jailed for at least five years, suddenly agreed to a deal that will spare him that punishment and expunge his criminal record. The case, which has continued on autopilot even as marijuana prohibition has collapsed in state after state, is a vivid reminder that unjust and massively unpopular policy persists at the federal level thanks to presidential and congressional inaction.
Lynch, a software developer living in San Luis Obispo County, began pondering a new line of work after getting a doctor’s recommendation for marijuana to treat his cluster headaches and finding that there was no ‘there were dispensaries nearby that could supply his medicine. He conferred with an attorney, local officials and even the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) before opening Central Coast Compassionate Caregivers in downtown Morro Bay in April 2006.
California had legalized medical marijuana ten years earlier, and Lynch’s business was licensed, fair and legitimate as far as the city and state were concerned. The mayor, city attorney and city council members attended the dedication ceremony, where the mayor posed for a photo shaking Lynch’s hand.
None of this mattered to the DEA, which raided the dispensary in March 2007, by which point it had been openly serving patients for a year. During Lynch’s 2008 trial in Los Angeles, he was not allowed to discuss the nature of his business, which was irrelevant under federal law.
“We all thought Mr. Lynch had good intentions,” the jury foreman said Los Angeles Times. “But under the parameters we were given by federal law, we had no choice.”
During sentencing, U.S. District Judge George Wu considered details the jury was not allowed to hear, including Lynch’s business purpose, his extensive efforts to comply with state regulations and the “scrupulous record-keeping” he allowed it to do so even as it facilitated his federal prosecution. Noting that Lynch had no criminal record and deeming him neither a typical drug dealer nor a serious threat to public safety, Wu sentenced him to one year and one day in federal prison.
Lynch appealed his convictions, and the Justice Department appealed the sentence, arguing that Wu had improperly allowed Lynch to avoid the five-year mandatory minimum that would normally apply based on the amount of marijuana stored at his dispensary. In 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit upheld Lynch’s convictions and agreed that he should receive the mandatory minimum, but sent the case back to Wu to resolve lingering questions about Lynch’s compliance with state law.
Why did it suddenly matter? The year after Lynch’s trial, a Department of Justice memo discouraged prosecution of legal medical marijuana providers in the state. Starting in 2014, Congress made the policy mandatory through a spending clause that has been renewed annually since then.
Meanwhile, the number of states that allow medical use of marijuana has risen to 38, including two dozen, representing the majority of the U.S. population, that also allow recreational use. About 15,000 companies across the country are doing what Lynch did, without being harassed by the DEA or DOJ.
Lynch’s case dragged on, however, bankrupting him, blocking his employment and leaving him in legal limbo. Federal prosecutors belatedly relented in January, and last month Wu approved a diversion agreement that will expunge Lynch’s criminal record starting this April.
“I think a lot of people have forgotten about Charlie Lynch,” his former public defender noted. But the federal government’s needless vendetta against Lynch is worth remembering, as it reflects a prohibitionist policy we’re still stuck with 17 years later.
© Copyright 2024 by Creators Syndicate Inc.