Jury finds pot dispensary isn’t nonprofit, owner guilty, facing 10 years in prison

flaxseedoil1000

flaxseedoil1000

Well-Known Member
Aaron Sandusky, co-founder and owner of the Ontario-based G3 Holistics medical marijuana operation, faces at least 10 years in prison following his conviction on conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute charges. The jury deadlocked on four other counts.

The panel in Los Angeles reached its verdicts for Sandusky, 41, on Friday, Oct. 12. U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson ordered him taken into custody after the convictions. Sandusky faces sentencing Jan. 7.

Jurors found that each guilty count involved at least 1,000 marijuana plants. The four deadlocked charges had to do with operating a location involved with drugs. Anderson declared a mistrial on those counts.

Five other defendants in the case, including Sandusky’s brother, Keith, had pleaded guilty before trial began.

The G3 case brought into focus the increasing tension between the federal government and what it sees as marijuana trafficking violations using state laws that permit medical marijuana.

Federal agents and San Bernardino County sheriff’s detectives investigating G3 said Sandusky and the other defendants had used California’s medical marijuana laws as a platform to create an illegal for-profit grow-and-sell operation.

G3’s operations at one time included a 40,000-square-foot cultivation warehouse in Ontario and distribution through stores in Upland, Colton and Moreno Valley. All three stores are now closed.
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Complete story: http://www.pe.com/local-news/san-bernardino-county/san-bernardino-county-headlines-index/20121015-medical-marijuana-jury-finds-pot-dispensary-isnt-nonprofit-owner-guilty.ece
 
chrishydro

chrishydro

Well-Known Member
That is the problem with being big, you paint a target on your head. I fear for the Harborside guys after the shows they did on tv.
 
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Mithrandir420

Well-Known Member
Anyone who thinks they are legally growing or selling has their head up their ass. I feel for anyone who has to do time, but Sandusky was an idiot to think that San Berdoo county was going to put up with this. SB is anti MMJ and we have some real assholes in the county gov right now.
 
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Mithrandir420

Well-Known Member
A hero to some, a martyr to others. Someone who got greedy to others. It's all in the eye of the beholder.

The question you need to ask is: Did his arrest, prosecution and incarceration change anything?
 
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Mithrandir420

Well-Known Member
Rapunzel said:
Probably not, because the other truly greedy players in the industry stay back in the shadows, stacking that cash, leaving him out to dry. Just one less competitor in the marketplace.
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OK. And what if all the others came out of the shadows to support him? How would that change things?
 
R

Rapunzel

Member
Are you really asking, or are you spinning wheels?

Practically speaking, with financial support, he could have likely had a better defense, with better extrinsic force brought to bear.

And more broadly, well funded popular campaigns to remove the officials who executed these legal actions. I don't know if it happened in his case, but usually some local officials reache out to the feds to help them contravene California law. If those officials knew that they would be losing their positions of authority if they initiated federal prosecution, I doubt they'd be so eager.

And more proactively, sheriffs can be installed via well funded and executed campaigns, who carry out California law and protect growers and end user providers from federal involvement in California's affairs.

And way more proactively, popular campaigns advocating the removal of the federal prosecutors in California who are violating California law.

And way way way more proactively making this a campaign issue for Obama. It is clear some kind of deal was reached for funding, but if Barry O stood an actual chance of not carrying California... the fed attack dogs would be gone and federally subsidized joint rollers would be all over the state.

Just a few potential avenues off the top of my head.
 
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