Charlie Lynch Trial Begins Tuesday

Radley Balko | July 18, 2008

Charlie Lynch is the owner of a medical marijuana dispensary in Morro Bay, California.  Though the business is legal under state law, Lynch was arrested in July of last year for violating federal drug laws.  Last month, he was featured in the Drew Carey documentary below.  As the video explains, Lynch is facing extra charges for giving medical marijuana to 17-year-old Owen Beck, who used the drug to treat the symptoms of bone cancer.

Lynch faces up to 100 years in prison.  His trial begins Tuesday.

Check Lynch's website for more information on his case, including directions to the courthouse where he'll be tried.

Comments

Josh|7.18.08 @ 12:30PM|#

That'll teach him to ease dying people's pain! Throw the book at him!

ktc2|7.18.08 @ 12:31PM|#

These sick DEA bastards need 100 years in prison.

Episiarch|7.18.08 @ 12:37PM|#

You know what would be a great documentary to do? Go to the DEA and interview agents. Act sympathetic, and they'll definitely talk to you to spread their propaganda. Right in the middle of the interview, ask them why it is right to imprison a person for helping sick people using a plant that has never killed a single person.

Do it across the country at a bunch of DEA offices, and then cut them all together.

That would be fascinating to see.

|7.18.08 @ 12:40PM|#

To me, the most important aspect of this, is if the jury will be allowed to know the full circumstances of what he was doing, and that it was sanctioned by the state of California. When Ed Rosenthal was prosecuted the judge ruled the facts that he was licensed by the state, and that all his customers where sick people under a doctors care, to be inadmissible. Total fucking kangaroo court bullshit.

Jennifer|7.18.08 @ 12:44PM|#

Right in the middle of the interview, ask them why it is right to imprison a person for helping sick people using a plant that has never killed a single person.

The cowards won't answer. I once interviewed a drug warrior and asked her point-blank how long a certain wheelchair-bound medical MJ patient should spend in prison, and she got offended and said it was a ridiculous question.

|7.18.08 @ 12:49PM|#

The drug warriors don't worry about having to answer to the press because the press has been their lapdog. You can hit them with the 'gotcha' questions all day long and stitch em into a full length documentary. And even if you could get more than three people to watch it, they'd just say your piece was nothing more than editing out of context and blatant propaganda. And every newspaper would print their press release word for word. And every parent would read it and nod their head.

Bingo|7.18.08 @ 12:51PM|#

Make the children suffer... for the children! Jesus would be so proud of their noble suffering.

|7.18.08 @ 12:51PM|#

Sounds to me like the FEDs have WAY too much spare time on their hands! Give the guy a break. A little POT never hurt nobody!

JT
http://www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com

Episiarch|7.18.08 @ 12:51PM|#

she got offended and said it was a ridiculous question

Perfect. As long as it's on tape, there is no answer they can give that doesn't expose how absurd the whole thing is. They'll either refuse to answer as she did which indicates she can't justify it, or give some incredibly tortured justification that will be so patently ridiculous that it's even better than them just admitting that they're wrong.

You literally can't fail. Your problem (I assume) was that you were doing it for print, which just can't express the failure of their response like their own recorded image.

|7.18.08 @ 12:52PM|#

I fail to understand why the federal government is pursuing this case. Why are they overstepping their mandate to prosecute a lawful merchant in the service of seriously ill people?

Josh|7.18.08 @ 1:08PM|#

I fail to understand why the federal government is pursuing this case. Why are they overstepping their mandate to prosecute a lawful merchant in the service of seriously ill people?

For fun and profit.

J|7.18.08 @ 1:08PM|#

Because they are (as individuals) morons or monsters. It's the M&M theory of government.

|7.18.08 @ 1:23PM|#

Compassionate conervatism my ass. GWB is such a hypocrite I have no questions for him. I do have questions for the major party candidates though.

Senator McCain, why shouldn't your wife have done time for stealing prescription narcotics?

Should other addicts/users receive similar treatment for violating drug laws?

Senator Obama, would you or society have been better off if you had been arrested and prosecuted for possession?

Are the present users of marijuana and cocaine better served by arrest and prosecution? Is society?

I would certainly love to here the tortured drug war justifications in response.

|7.18.08 @ 1:24PM|#

Here = hear. Stupid homonyms.

|7.18.08 @ 1:38PM|#

Not morons or monsters. True Believers.

|7.18.08 @ 1:48PM|#

Not morons or monsters. True Believers.

I'd rather take my chances with monsters.

|7.18.08 @ 1:58PM|#

David: I agree. I should have added that true beleivers are scarier.

|7.18.08 @ 1:58PM|#

I lived in Morro Bay for many years. The town is no hotbed of radical thought or causes, as is Santa Cruz (my home town for the past dozen years). Morro Bay's character is primarily tourist town, fishing village, and retirement community, with a few families and university students thrown in for good measure. That a medical mj dispensary exists there, and that, presumably, there is community support for it, tells you a whole lot about the hearts and minds of real people throughout the US.

Uncle Sam had better play carefully with this case. He is just one step away from stomping the toes of the vast "silent majority" in middle-American "flyover country." The backlash from such a mistake could be very costly to the power-grabbing poobahs in DC.

J|7.18.08 @ 2:01PM|#

The true believers fall into the first category, I would argue.

|7.18.08 @ 2:18PM|#

Could someone please get CNN or 60 Minutes or Dateline or 20/20 to do a documentary segment on this case? I love reason.tv as much as the next--probably even more--but this travesty needs as much exposure as possible. This guy could rot in jail for the rest of his life because he tried to help sick people.

Americans should learn what their government is up to.

(I think 60 Minutes might be enough to get the feds to drop the case.)

|7.18.08 @ 3:33PM|#

Not morons or monsters. True Believers.

Same diff.

Morons, monsters, and true believers are not mutually exclusive descriptors. You can be all three at once.

|7.18.08 @ 3:33PM|#

J-That's an oversimplification, and a dangerous one. The fact is that intelligent people (even geniuses) can be caught up in the myopia and mania that comes with total fealty to a given set of ideas.

|7.18.08 @ 5:54PM|#

Number 6....it isn't a oversimplification to say that true believers are morons on at least one IQ test.

why do you think this is a "dangerous oversimplification"?


the one's who are not true believers are either monsters or scared of monsters(poeple who know how easy it is to get killed when releasing info the government/drug cartels don't want released).

I suppose it is dangerous to think that smart evil people don't have the ability to truly convince themseleves of absolute nonsense in order to maintain a positive self image.
That is why a lot of the high up folks are psychotic killers.

Most of the public are morons. Most of the lower levels of government are morons, most of the higher level government are either scared of monsters or are monsters themselves...and yes some of these people are very smart.

The higher up you get the more psycho insane power monster you are likely to encounter. The positions attract those who are the most willing and able to do whatever dastardly things they need to do to get the power they so crave to abuse.

Anyone who thinks that George Bush, Nancy Pelosi and Barrack Obama are upset by this kind of injustice is insane. These people might create different lies to make themselves feel good for supporting this activity or even miraculously never hearing about it. I'm sure they are all very skilled at not even knowing about unpleasant cases like this...however, that doesn't mean they aren't just as guilty as a SS trooper war criminal.

|7.18.08 @ 5:59PM|#

two of these questions are easy, I'll give the answers.

"Senator McCain, why shouldn't your wife have done time for stealing prescription narcotics?"

I know that people like to go on their web blogs and spin their conspiracy theories but this one is just non sense. She never broke the law.


"Senator Obama, would you or society have been better off if you had been arrested and prosecuted for possession? "

I know that people like to go on their web blogs and spin their conspiracy theories but this one is just non sense. I never broke the law.

80% of you idiots are programmed to have your brains shut off when we mention certain key words. Good Luck!

|7.18.08 @ 7:17PM|#

I went over to Bob Barr's campaign website to see his position on the drug war. I couldn't find it. Does anyone know where he put it? I know he made a number of promising statements before he got the Libertarian Party nomination, and so I expected to find at least those quotes at his website without much trouble. But he didn't even seem to mention medical marijuana in his section on Healthcare Policy. Did I just miss it? Otherwise, what's going on?

|7.18.08 @ 7:38PM|#

I also went over to the LP's website and looked at THEIR officially advertised positions on the issues.

Under Healthcare, they basically advocate end end of the FDA. No mention that I could see of the drug war or the medical marijuana controversy.

I did see a demand to "End Prohibition" under their "Crime and Violence" topic. So then I went back to Barr's site, in hopes of finding such a thing there. He doesn't have a "Crime and Violence" topic, alas, so I am still unsure if the War on Drugs is mentioned ANYWHERE on his site.

Feijoa|7.18.08 @ 9:42PM|#

Good God, he has a public defender...

http://www.friendsofccl.com/donate.htm

Federal Dog|7.19.08 @ 5:54PM|#

"Why are they overstepping their mandate to prosecute a lawful merchant in the service of seriously ill people?"


Because it's in their financial interest to do so. Between the number of jobs that directly or indirectly depend on prohibition, and assets to be gained from forfeiture, the feds profit. That's an important part of why prohibition will never end: Too many people have substantial interests in seeing it continue.

|7.22.08 @ 1:14PM|#

Read Thoreau's essay on civil disobediance to see the course of action that is left to us on this and many other issues in our "free society".

chris|7.25.08 @ 1:05PM|#

I would like to see some sort of news coverage on this matter. I had never even heard of this case until a friend sent me to a semi unrelated website and I stumbled across Drew Carey's video. It absolutely sickens me that they could exclude the fact that this was entirely legal under state law and the fact that he was helping sick people. It really blows my mind how close-minded some people can be, and the vast majority of America will never hear the full story, or any of it, because the media will not play this sort of clip.

|7.26.08 @ 12:17PM|#

When the TRUTH is declared to be "irrelevant" in a criminal trial, a railroad-job kangaroo court is in session. That is all you need to know.

These abominable travesties must end.

http://www.friendsofccl.com/index.html

|7.26.08 @ 5:59PM|#

Thank you Drew!!! This is very effective and shows the ignorance, cruelty and prejudice of our messed up government. Its ok to turn people into legal junkies giving them 120 mgs a day of methadone plus 225 8 mg Diladud a month turning them into total addicts. God forbid if marijuana would be effective enough to free them from the addiction of opiates or reduce there need. Time for a change, vote responsibly. Thanks again Drew.