Medical marijuana dispensary operator Charles Lynch, 47, is
facing a government-recommended five years in federal prison -- even though he meticulously followed
state and local laws. Under federal law, Lynch could receive up to 100
years. At a hearing late Thursday afternoon, the judge in the case indicated a decision on sentencing will be delayed until June 11.
When he opened Central Coast Compassionate Caregivers, in
Morro Bay in 2006, Lynch was welcomed by the mayor and chamber of commerce in a
ribbon-cutting ceremony. He paid his taxes and he carefully went by the rules.
Lynch's business license clearly stated "medical marijuana
dispensary." He even called the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 2005,
months before opening, to inquire about the law. An agent told him "it's up to
the cities and counties to decide how to handle that." So he opened the
business.
Despite Lynch's meticulous adherence to city, county, and
California law, the federal DEA raided his business and home on March 29, 2007,
seized his medicine and money, and charged Lynch with unlawfully distributing
marijuana under federal law. Draconian federal sentencing guidelines dictate a five-year
mandatory minimum in Lynch's case.
police station, according to the informant.
Larry Grathwohl -- who has asserted that he heard Weather Underground founder Bill Ayers place responsibility for the bombing on his wife, Bernadine Dohrn -- said during a press conference that he will be interviewed for the first time Friday as part of the SFPD's ongoing investigation of the four-decade-old incident. Police Sgt. Wilfred Williams said he could not confirm or deny that Grathwohl would be interviewed because the case is still active.
Ayers is now an education professor in Chicago. His wife is a lawyer. The pair was indicted decades ago in connection with a bomb explosion that killed several members of the Weather Underground, but the charges were dropped. Ayers has denied having any hand in the 1970 bombing of the Park Police Station in San Francisco, which injured eight officers and killed Sgt. Brian McDonnell.
fucking Earth! The most wretched, miserable, servile, pathetic trash
that was ever shat into civilization. Some hate the English. I don't.
They're just wankers. We, on the other hand, are COLONIZED by wankers.
Can't even find a decent culture to be colonized BY. We're ruled by
effete assholes. It's a SHITE state of affairs to be in, Tommy, and ALL
the fresh air in the world won't make any fucking difference!" -- Mark "Rent Boy" Renton, Trainspotting.
Not quite, Mr. Renton. There is a bit of fucking difference between the state of being Scottish and other things -- specifically gun shows. San Francisco's own 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled it to be so -- and they're hardly wankers.
Earlier this week, the federal court upheld Alameda County's 10-year-old ban on holding firearms shows on its county fairgrounds (a move made in the wake of a 1999 shooting at a gun show). Gun show proprietors Russell and Ann Nordyke had cried foul and filed suit -- and claimed, essentially, that the Second Amendment forbade a government from regulating gun possession on its property.
In doing so, however, they made an odd claim: The Nordykes felt they should be able to have large firearm shows on public property because The Scottish Caledonian Games has been granted an exception to the ban allowing revelers to stage historic Scots battles involving ferocious, red-bearded, kilted men toting period firearms loaded with blanks.
Photos | SF Citizen
