Butt Out, Feds
Opinion Editorial by John Stossel -
Apr 4, 2009
56 ratings from readers
President Obama has joked about his own marijuana use — but since
his inauguration, federal police have raided five marijuana
dispensaries in states where they are permitted by law. What gives?
Authorities raided Charlie Lynch’s California home.
“They say, ‘Search warrant! Open the door, or we’re gonna
tear it down!” Lynch told me for my ABC special “Bailouts
and Bull.”
“I opened the door, and about 10 to 15
agents with shields, bulletproof vests, guns, masks. [They] threw me
on the ground and ... had a gun to the back of my head.”
The federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) seized 30 pounds
of marijuana. Sheriff Pat Hedges said the facts were clear, “Charlie
Lynch was making a profit off of selling marijuana.”
It wasn’t hard for the authorities to locate Lynch’s marijuana
operation. They were probably tipped off by the public ribbon-cutting
ceremony Lynch held — the one that the mayor of his town attended,
along with city councilmen and the president of the Chamber of
Commerce. The police were invited, too.
You see, Lynch sold medical marijuana, which has been declared
legal by California and 12 other states. California says if a doctor
recommends that you use the drug, it’s perfectly legal.
Singer Melissa Etheridge is happy about that. When she got breast
cancer, chemotherapy took her hair and made her sick. She told me
that chemo kills more than cancer. “It’s like putting acid in
your body. You have absolutely no strength.”
The pills to treat the side effects have their own side effects.
She said, “Take the one drug for pain. It makes you constipated.
So then you have to take the drug that helps you not be constipated.
But that drug [gives you] diarrhea, and so you have to take another
drug to combat the side effects of that.”
So her doctor recommended marijuana.
“I had a choice: those drugs and all
these side effects, or ... one remedy that takes care of all of the
[side effects].”
It worked for high school student Owen Beck, too.
“I was playing soccer, and [my leg]
was really hurting one day. ... I went and got an MRI. It was a
medium-sized tumor.”
Doctors amputated Owen’s leg and gave him chemotherapy. Chemo
tortured him the way it tortured Etheridge.
“It destroys your appetite, and whatever you can eat, you throw
up.” When prescribed medicine didn’t relieve the side effects,
his doctors suggested medical marijuana.
“With the marijuana, I could do what I needed to do during the
day and just not be in pain. I could be comfortable.”
Owen bought his marijuana from Charlie Lynch’s dispensary.
Sheriff Hedges says that Lynch’s business “is not in the best
interests of the community.”
He was helping people, wasn’t he? I asked Hedges.
“Well, you’re making an assumption that he’s helping people.
He was primarily helping himself.”
The sheriff’s office’s staked out Charlie’s dispensary and
sent in undercover agents to see if Charlie was breaking any part of
California’s law. He wasn’t.
So after a year of diligently documenting that marijuana was
indeed being sold by a marijuana dispensary, the sheriff handed the
case over to the federal police, the DEA. U.S. Law ludicrously calls
marijuana a schedule 1 narcotic. That puts it in the same category as
heroin.
Federal authorities cleverly avoided California’s state courts
and took Charlie into federal court, where his lawyers were not even
allowed to tell the jury that medical marijuana is legal in
California. Not surprisingly, Charlie was convicted. Possible
sentence: 100 years in federal prison.
He told me his life has been destroyed. He is bankrupt; his
girlfriend left him; and friends are afraid to talk to him.
President Obama has joked about his own marijuana use, but since
his inauguration, federal police have raided five marijuana
dispensaries in states where state law permits them.
Last week,
however, the administration announced it would no longer raid legal
dispensaries. That bought Charlie Lynch some time. This week the
federal judge postponed sentencing — pending more information about
the Justice Department’s new policy.
The feds still wanted to lock up Charlie Lynch. I don’t know
why. The DEA refuses to talk to me about it.
The war on drugs is idiotic. It deters few, drives drug use
underground — making it more dangerous — and creates horrible
crime.
Adults should be free to ingest whatever they want, knowing they
are responsible for their actions.
John
Stossel is co-anchor of ABC News’ “20/20” and the author of Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media (January 2005) as well as Myth, Lies, and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the
Shovel — Why Everything You Know Is Wrong (May 2007), which is now available in paperback.
