#66 day sentence for Lynch

366-DAY SENTENCE FOR POT DISPENSARY OWNER

A federal judge sentenced the owner of a Central California medical
marijuana dispensary to a year and a day in prison Thursday, spurning
the Obama administration's push to give the defendant five years
imprisonment in a test case of new federal policies toward state pot
laws.

Charles Lynch's case was the first to reach court after Attorney
General Eric Holder announced in March that the administration would
target only traffickers who violated both state and federal drug laws
in California and 12 other states that allow the medical use of
marijuana. The Justice Department said Lynch was properly convicted
and shouldn't get leniency, despite his insistence that he complied
with state law.

Lynch, former operator of Central Coast Compassionate Caregivers in
Morro Bay (San Luis Obispo County), is the latest of several marijuana
defendants to receive lighter-than-usual sentences for violating
federal drug laws after arguing that they were complying with
California's voter-approved medical marijuana law.

Federal courts have ruled that the 1996 state law, which allows
patients to use the drug with their doctor's approval, is no defense
to a charge of violating U.S. laws prohibiting marijuana possession,
cultivation and distribution. But some federal judges have taken the
state law into account in sentencing.

U.S. District Judge George Wu of Los Angeles didn't spell out his
reasons for exempting Lynch, 47, from the five-year sentence normally
required by federal law for conspiring to grow and distribute
marijuana. But Wu noted that Lynch ran his dispensary openly, with a
business license and the awareness of local elected officials, before
federal agents raided it in 2007.

At a previous hearing, however, he made it clear that Lynch had to
spend at least a year in prison because one of his customers was a
minor, whose parents obtained marijuana at the dispensary. Lynch
remains free during his appeal, which will challenge Wu's refusal to
allow evidence that a federal drug agent had allegedly assured Lynch
he would not be prosecuted.

The judge "was trying to do everything he could to minimize the
sentence," said Joe Elford, a lawyer for the advocacy group Americans
for Safe Access. "This is another case where a federal judge has
indicated to the Department of Justice that these cases are not worth
bringing."

Prosecutors could ask an appeals court to overrule Wu and order a five-
year sentence. The U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles is
considering an appeal, said spokesman Thom Mrozek.

"This was a large-scale commercial operator," Mrozek said, referring
to prosecutors' assertion that Lynch had sold $2.1 million in
marijuana products for profit. "He didn't fit the criteria of being a
caregiver" under state law.

Federal prosecutors in California, including U.S. Attorney Joseph
Russoniello of San Francisco, have argued that marijuana dispensaries
- even licensed businesses approved by local authorities - are
commercial enterprises that violate state as well as federal law and
can still be prosecuted under Obama administration policy.

In announcing the new policy in March, Holder did not say how it would
apply to defendants already awaiting trial or sentencing after being
charged by Bush administration prosecutors. Citing Holder's
announcement, Wu asked for a formal Justice Department statement in
Lynch's case and was promptly told that Lynch's prosecution,
conviction and proposed five-year sentence were consistent with the
attorney general's position.

Medical marijuana advocates, who wore green "compassion" buttons in
the packed courtroom, had mixed reactions to the sentence, praising Wu
for leniency but criticizing the imposition of any prison term.

"This was a guy who tried very hard to do everything by the book,
working with the city, getting a business license," said Bruce Mirken
of the Marijuana Policy Project. "To treat this man as a criminal, a
felony drug dealer feels counter to the spirit of the policy Mr.
Holder announced."