By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Nearly a year and a half ago we featured a story describing the plight of the “Kettle Falls Five” who were arrested by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency on charges relating to marijuana cultivation and firearms violations. I am reprinting here portions of my previous article which has many details of the original case. Now, three of these defendants were sentenced to federal prison.
The confusion as to what constitutes lawful medical marijuana grows with federal deference and ten year punishments for doing so, the United States Department of Justice prosecuted five rural Eastern Washington residents accused of growing seventy-four medical marijuana plants in a private collective. Washington State is a Medical Marijuana State. The accused include a seventy year old man who states he uses the medicine to treat pain from a job related injury, his wife for her arthritis, and their son. The patriarch of the family, the accused Larry Harvey, had the charges dropped but has since died of cancer.
While state law at the time permitted the cultivation of up to forty-five plants, federal law prohibits any cultivation. Originally confusion of the numbers of plants that might be permissible under state law (in aggregate) should take into consideration that multiple individuals had separate grows and this led to a misunderstanding. While the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office told the accused to remove those plants in excess of the amounts allowed, the DEA later arrived and raided their farms.
What compounds the severity for these five individuals is that within the thirty-three acre property, two of the defendants’ residence had inside several firearms, including rifles which are used by the family to hunt and for protection from wild animals. Firearms are very common in residences in rural Eastern Washington. Yet, the firearms in relation to the marijuana grow add an additional five year minimum sentence, adding to the defendants’ minimum of ten years imprisonment, something the senior defendant claimed to be a “death sentence.”
What is rather extraordinary in this effort by the department of justice, despite guidelines in not allocating resources to prosecute medical marijuana patients, the defendants claim it was a misunderstanding of Washington’s medical marijuana laws that caused them to go from legal users to being potentially imprisoned for ten years. Many viewed this case as necessitating jury nullification.
At the federal trial, the defendants were not permitted to mention that medical treatment was the reason for these grows, though it was allowed during closing arguments.
Federal prosecutors alleged the five were conspiring to manufacture and distribute marijuana and possession of firearms in relation to drug trafficking. The defendants deny they intended to distribute the marijuana and claim they grow the marijuana for their own usage. They faced a minimum of ten years imprisonment if convicted on all charges. Though the prosecution attempted to convince the jury that one hundred plants were being grown, and therefore necessitating a greater penalty, the jury did not agree yet found them however guilty in the growing of less than one hundred.
According to Americans for Safe Access, a group that advocates cannabis for medicinal and research use, 100,000 Washingtonians use medical marijuana. Presently there are about thirty state licensed retail marijuana growers who are permitted under state law to grow thousands of plants for distribution to eventually several hundred licensed marijuana retailers.
But there has been irregular enforcement and ambiguity with regard to the federal Drug Enforcement Agency and the Office of the US Attorney. The office posted guidelines in August of 2013 listing priorities and what resources the federal government would consider in whether to prosecute marijuana grows or uses. A copy of this guideline can be found HERE
Within this memorandum one of the guidelines seems to be permissive on this incident:
The Department’s previous memoranda specifically addressed the exercise of prosecutorial discretion in states with laws authorizing marijuana cultivation and distribution for medical use. In those contexts, the Department advised that it is likely was not an efficient use of federal resources to focus enforcement efforts on seriously ill individuals, or on their individual caregivers. In doing so, the previous guidance drew a distinction between the seriously ill and their caregivers, on the one hand, and large-scale, for-profit commercial enterprises, on the other, and advised that the latter continued to be appropriate targets for federal enforcement and prosecution. In drawing this distinction, the Department relied on the common-sense judgment that the size of a marijuana operation was a reasonable proxy for assessing whether marijuana trafficking implicates the federal enforcement priorities set forth above.
The memorandum does not confer any rights or defenses, according to its wording, but purports itself to be a guide to prosecutions and delegation of federal resources.
The underlying incident that brought about this prosecution, reportedly ready for trial in June, allegedly happened in August of 2012 when a sheriff’s deputy arrived at the home of 70 year old Larry Harvey to cut down SOME of his marijuana plants, telling the patients state law only allows forty five plants among a collective grow. The plants originally were alleged to have been sixty eight in number. Mr. Harvey stated he believed he was in compliance because under Washington’s Medical Marijuana Laws, a medical marijuana patient is permitted to grow fifteen plants themselves and among the five of them, they should have been permitted to grow seventy five plants.
Apparently, the sheriff’s office then notified the federal DEA which then arrived at Larry’s home, seized his marijuana plants along with eight of his firearms.
Essentially Larry was put into this jeopardy of his freedom because of numbers. According to Washington Law he could not have more than forty five plants in one collective but if he had instead divided the garden into three areas, perhaps leasing the land to the other defendants, he would have been in compliance. But, since he was allegedly out of compliance the DEA went after them. If the deputy in this case would have recognized this was simply a misinterpretation of the law, according to Larry, a teachable moment might have corrected the matter. Why the DEA was called is unknown. But along with this alleged numbers game, the DEA drew in to the firearms issue to rack up another potential five year penalty. There is a strong possibility the government will seize their farmland.
Here are the sentences of the remaining defendants as handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Rice:
- Rhonda Firestack-Harvey, One year and one day in federal prison
- Rolland Gregg, Thirty-three months imprisonment
- Michelle Gregg, One year and one day imprisonment
Scapegoats of the empire
By Darren Smith
Sources:
USNews
KREM News
KXLY
NextNewsNetwork
US Department of Justice
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.
This makes me SICK! How can we do this to citizens in this country? Why do we do this? I guess that will sure tech the kiddies to not use marijuana. NOT. To the jury, shame on you. to the prosecutor, may you rot in hell.
This is the real motivation.
Haven’t even read the enabling law relies upon by the US, but it might have been arguable, or preserved for the Supremes, that the “reasonable relation to a rationale goal” may have been deemed to allow the US law to supersede the state law no longer survives JUDICIAL review. 10 Amendement vs Commerce Clause. I would feel comfortable answering questions from the Justices on that one.
The one thing federal, state and local officials have in common is they all voluntarily agree to the same “supreme” loyalty oath, their oath of office to uphold the U.S. Constitution. None of these officials take an oath to “protect & serve” that supersedes the constitutional oath – that loyalty oath includes the 10th Amendment and Article VI of the U.S. Constitution.
During the Jim Crow era many local and state officials betrayed that loyalty oath, falsely citing the 10th Amendment, punishing and murdering African-Americans, Jews and other minorities. Essentially the 10th Amendment can’t be used to violate the 9th Amendment or any other constitutional right as was cited during Jim Crow.
In this case the 10th Amendment is NOT being used to violate any other person’s constitutional rights as it was during Jim Crow, so wouldn’t the state government supersede the federal government’s jurisdiction under Article VI?
We could not get the NBC channel on the television n the marina. So, this morning we are watching re-runs of parts of the Trumpster on CNN and Fox. My take on it is that the Mexican demonstrators did themselves a big dis service and have aided and abbetted the Trumpster. There was one guy with a big sombrero on the screen bitching about the Donald. All he did was generate animosity against the Mexican dumb image. We do need some grape pickers in America and that is for sure. Perhaps we can make road gangs out of all the inmates in the prisons and asylums and have them pick grapes and cotton. I wish cotton was a monkey. Who said that?
I watched Trump , in large part, because they tried to tell me that it was not allowed. Free speech!
Hey, the drug wars are working really great in Mexico, no?
/sarc off
What a God-forsaken third-world banana republic is the USA.
Very bad call on the part of at least the jury.
Not guilty on all charges.
I wonder what Trump would say about all of this. Is anybody gonna watch him on SNL tonight? I am if I can stay awake. The whole dogpac is staying up for the show.
No human should smoke anything. But the difference between pot and tobacco is great. Tobacco is much more dangerous and has killed millions of Americans over the past 300 years. So lets outlaw tobacco and prosecute all those cops, prosecutors and judges who smoke tobacco.
Obama needs to pardon all these defendants out in Washington state, today.
Somewhat related to exposure to the Feds.
If one is retired military, receiving pay and growing MJ, one can be recalled to active duty and court-martialed. A reservist becomes exposed when applying and receiving retired pay at age 60. So if one is a federal criminal, one should wait to retire until after getting out of the racket. In this scenario, past deeds don’t apply as the person was not receiving pay.
Once receiving retired pay, one is back under the spread of both the civil laws and the UCMJ. Although it takes a Secretary’s action to recall. I have heard that Washington State does have a retired Armed Forces service member being investigated by the Feds for this very issue in conjunction with growing MJ.
Would make a good movie in the likes of “Saving Grace.” An old beloved Vietnam War Agent Orange vet chaplain who finally draws his reserve retirement etc.
Sounds like someone has scored some good sativa. It is a cerebral high and stimulates the imagination and also the appetite. Chemo patients use sativa. Indica is more of a body sensation from the THC. It helps some w/ pain. Of course, there are all types of hybrids, but sativa and indica are the 2 strains of cannabis. The best was to understand the difference is sativa gets you high, indica gets you stoned.
J. Orlon Grabbe concluded back in the ’90’s that the USA had become “a corrupt narco state.” I am sure he was a lot smarter than I am, and probably all on this blog. I think you are spot on John.
Clinton and Bush ruled 1991 through 2008. Good possibility 2017 will bring more of the same. Drug cartel families are jealous of the control these families have. O bummer was wrong. If the drug corruption was truly uncovered, it would IMO uncover the “biggest fish” that could be fried.
A family farm is destroyed for a few marijuana plants while the Afghanistan poppy fields are back in major production since the USA invasion. Again the corruption of our federal government by a few corrupt families and corporate leaders, makes me ill.
Isn’t this the moment for the big shootout between the DEA and the pilgrims with their arsenals? 2nd amendment rights plus jack booted government agents parachuting into the freedoms of Americans. Let Leonard Peltier out of prison and he could organize the rebels. Then after the smoke clears the requisite number of rebels who are left alive can be sent off to prison for various crimes and make art. I’ll buy some.
CUT & PASTE “But there has been irregular enforcement and ambiguity with regard to the federal Drug Enforcement Agency and the Office of the US Attorney. ”
Right….at LEAST the last THREE Presidents have smoked pot, but they still continue to abuse people under the “color of law”.
The only conclusion I can draw is that there are people in key areas of the federal government that are making a ton of money with the illegal pot. Custom agents have testified that the CIA protects some shipments that they catch coming in. And the CIA helps whole countries with their ‘exports’…probably a lot of fingers in that pie.
Why else would they keep wasting taxpayer’s money putting these people into prison!?!?
Obama lied during the 2008 campaign when he said, when asked about the Feds enforcing against legal medical cannabis growers, “We have a global war on terror, we have bigger fish to fry.” He said it w/ that classic Obama swagger and smirk.
Darren, The State of Washington might have you on a hit list! I would get one of those remote car starters.
Reefer Madness still engulfs this backward thinking country as it fights a expensive, failed and discriminatory drug war.
I just finished watching a PBS documentary, Obama at War, which really should have been titled Obama Dithering. The Obama Administration speaks with forked tongue.
The DEA once again continues its useless and costly program of persecuting harmless marijuana growers even though such growths may be for medical purposes. When will these ignorant fascists leave people alone