Source: https://edca.typepad.com/eastern_district_of_calif/medical-marijuana/
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 10:34:42+00:00

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Yesterday, according to this EDCA US Attorney press release, Judge Mendez sentenced Yan Ebyam to 6 years in prison for two separate conspiracies to grow and distribute marijuana in United States v. Ebyam, No. 2:11-CR-0275-JAM & 2:11-CR-0276-JAM.
Luke Scarmazzo and Ricardo Montes were high school football teammates who went on to bigger fame, fast riches and federal prison after opening a medical marijuana store in a conservative Central Valley town in the early era of the California cannabis industry.
Now President Barack Obama, as one of his last acts in office, is letting one of the two Modesto dispensary operators go free. The White House announced Thursday that Montes, 37, has been granted clemency. He will be released from prison on May 19 after serving nine years of a 20-year sentence for illegal marijuana distribution and conducting a continuing criminal enterprise.
Today's Sacramento Bee reports that Luke Scarmazzo and Ricardo Montes have sought clemency from President Obama to reduce their federal marijuana trafficking sentences of 262 and 240 months, respectively. The story says they opened Modesto's first medical marijuana dispensary in 2004. But no luck yet for the pair as I didn't see their names on today's White House's list of the 173 persons granted sentence commutations and 78 pardoned inmates. In fact, Dolly Ann Chamberlain is the only EDCA defendant on the list. She received a pardon after being convicted of conversion of government money and receiving a probation sentence in 2002. But there is still time for those waiting as the White House said it expects there will be more clemency grants before Obama leaves office.
In other words, the rule of law doesn't apply to Trump and his family.
Today, the EDCA U.S. Attorney's Office filed this opposition to defendant Steven Adgate's motion to stay his prison sentence based on the Ninth Circuit's recent McIntosh opinion, which held that an Appropriations Act of Congress (§ 542) barred the Department of Justice from expending funds to prosecute individuals who were in compliance with state medical marijuana laws. No word on the hearing date yet.
Tuesday, I blogged about the Ninth Circuit's McIntosh opinion, which held that the Appropriations Act barred the federal government from prosecuting medical marijuana cases where the defendants were in compliance with state law. Today, I learned that Sacramento attorney Bill Portanova filed this motion to stay his client's prison sentence in United States v. Adgate, No. 2:12-CR-00198-MCE, based on the McIntosh decision. I'd expect many more McIntosh-based motions to follow.
In ten consolidated interlocutory appeals and petitions for writs of mandamus arising from three district courts in two states, the panel vacated the district court’s orders denying relief to the appellants, who have been indicted for violating the Controlled Substances Act, and who sought dismissal of their indictments or to enjoin their prosecutions on the basis of a congressional appropriations rider, Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016, Pub. L. No. 114-113, § 542, 129 Stat. 2242, 2332-33 (2015), that prohibits the Department of Justice from spending funds to prevent states’ implementation of their medical marijuana laws.
The panel held that it has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1) to consider the interlocutory appeals from these direct denials of requests for injunctions, and that the appellants have standing to invoke separation-of-powers provisions of the Constitution to challenge their criminal prosecutions.
The panel held that § 542 prohibits DOJ from spending funds from relevant appropriations acts for the prosecution of individuals who engaged in conduct permitted by state medical marijuana laws and who fully complied with such laws. The panel wrote that individuals who do not strictly comply with all state-law conditions regarding the use, distribution, possession, and cultivation of medical marijuana have engaged in conduct that is unauthorized, and that prosecuting such individuals does not violate § 542.
Remanding to the district courts, the panel instructed that if DOJ wishes to continue these prosecutions, the appellants are entitled to evidentiary hearings to determine whether their conduct was completely authorized by state law. The panel wrote that in determining the appropriate remedy for any violation of § 542, the district courts should consider the temporal nature of the lack of funds along with the appellants’ rights to a speedy trial.
This morning, Judge Mueller issued a minute order postponing the status conference on her own in United States v. Schweder from March 11 to March 25, 2015, at 9:00 a.m. in courtroom 3. I'd guess she needs more time to finalize her ruling on defendants' motion to dismiss that challenges (1) the constitutionality of classifying marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance; and (2) the uneven enforcement of federal marijuana laws as violating the constitutional Equal Sovereignty principle. I would still expect she will issue her ruling in writing before the March 25 status conference. All posts on this case are available here.

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