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 veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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 Medical marijuana activist Charles "Eddy" Lepp convicted of growing 24,000 pot plants [CA] 
#8884387 - 09/05/08 09:37 PM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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Medical marijuana activist convicted of growing 24,000 pot plants
September 5, 2008 - sfgate.com
A federal court jury has convicted a medical marijuana activist of illegally growing more than 24,000 pot plants that were clearly visible from a highway near his home in Lake County.
Federal prosecutors said Charles "Eddy" Lepp, 56, faces a mandatory sentence of at least 10 years in prison after the jury in San Francisco found him guilty Tuesday of conspiracy and cultivation with the intent to distribute marijuana. Sentencing is scheduled Dec. 1.
Lepp is a longtime medical marijuana advocate whose battles with the government over his prosecution won him a "freedom fighter" award from High Times Magazine.
He was arrested in 2004 after federal agents said they found 32,500 marijuana plants in gardens near his home in Upper Lake. U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel ruled that the seizure was based on an invalid warrant, but allowed prosecutors to offer evidence of more than 24,000 plants that were in plain view of Highway 20.
Lepp also argued that, as a Rastafarian minister, he had a religious right to grow and use marijuana, a sacrament to his faith. He claimed his church had 2,500 members who were all sharecroppers of the plants.
But Patel barred him from using religion as a defense to the charges in a pretrial ruling Aug. 14. She said an individual charged with possession for personal use might be allowed to argue that marijuana was central to his faith. Lepp, however, could not credibly claim that his religion compelled him to distribute thousands of plants to unidentified parishioners, the judge said.
Defense lawyer Michael Hinckley said Lepp would appeal on the religious issue and perhaps on other grounds as well. He said Lepp, whose wife and father both died of cancer, believes strongly in the religious and medical use of marijuana.
Noting that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld such federal prosecutions despite California's medical marijuana law, Hinckley said, "As long as the state and federal government are in conflict on this issue, unfortunate results like this are going to continue to occur."
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mellontatauda
Stranger
Registered: 06/05/08
Posts: 727
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Re: Medical marijuana activist Charles "Eddy" Lepp convicted of growing 24,000 pot plants [CA] [Re: veggie]
#8884409 - 09/05/08 09:43 PM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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sad news
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 CptnGarden
fuck this site
Registered: 05/13/04
Posts: 11,945
Last seen: 14 years, 11 months
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Re: Medical marijuana activist Charles "Eddy" Lepp convicted of growing 24,000 pot plants [CA] [Re: mellontatauda]
#8884431 - 09/05/08 09:48 PM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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yeah man its bullshit
anything thats naturally produced without alteration should be legal for religion
and one doesnt have to go to a church to be religious
religion is a belief and a faith
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Coaster
Baʿal
Registered: 05/22/06
Posts: 33,501
Loc: Deep in the Valley
Last seen: 12 years, 6 months
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Re: Medical marijuana activist Charles "Eddy" Lepp convicted of growing 24,000 pot plants [CA] [Re: mellontatauda]
#8884435 - 09/05/08 09:48 PM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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yay more harmless people in prison 
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Groomies
Ghost
Registered: 08/16/07
Posts: 1,119
Last seen: 7 years, 4 months
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Re: Medical marijuana activist Charles "Eddy" Lepp convicted of growing 24,000 pot plants [CA] [Re: Coaster]
#8884494 - 09/05/08 10:08 PM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
Coaster said:
yay more harmless people in prison
not one person was hurt or harmed by what he did, and he gets 10 years. Isn't molesting a little girl get you 7 years? Isn't beating up someone like 4 years?
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Coaster
Baʿal
Registered: 05/22/06
Posts: 33,501
Loc: Deep in the Valley
Last seen: 12 years, 6 months
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Re: Medical marijuana activist Charles "Eddy" Lepp convicted of growing 24,000 pot plants [CA] [Re: Groomies]
#8884498 - 09/05/08 10:09 PM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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isnt this country backwards?
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Chemy
Jesus is Lord
Registered: 10/05/07
Posts: 6,276
Loc: A Church
Last seen: 14 years, 4 months
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Re: Medical marijuana activist Charles "Eddy" Lepp convicted of growing 24,000 pot plants [CA] [Re: Groomies]
#8884661 - 09/05/08 10:56 PM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
Groomies said:
Quote:
Coaster said:
yay more harmless people in prison
not one person was hurt or harmed by what he did, and he gets 10 years. Isn't molesting a little girl get you 7 years? Isn't beating up someone like 4 years?
My friend received 3 years mandatory for drug charges, while he was in the reception center, a pedo that was admitted to PC had a sentence of 18 months for messing with his 8 year old niece, it would make you sick to know of the very lenient deals that prosecutors offer child molesters to keep kids off the stand, they save a child witness stand trauma but at the same put other children at risk by letting a predator back on the streets.
Politicians only use that "think of the children" stuff to demonize drugs, when children are actually attacked they could not care less, it took 20 years for John Walsh to demand an act to protect children before politicians listened, and finally in 2006 Dubya signed the AWA into law.
Politicians don't care at all about actual crimes against children, why? Because children can not vote.
One mention of controlled substances and the politicians are writing up bills and voting and referring bills to here and there.
But, John Walsh demanded a bill to protect children and nobody cared, he demanded an actual law to protect children for at least 20 years and nobody including Biden gave a damn.
One mention of teens using salvia to "get high" and the retards make it illegal for a 71 year old to possess, many people speak out against children being abducted and killed and the politicians basically say "what do you want us to do about it"?
Edited by Chemy (09/05/08 11:41 PM)
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AltonBrown
GZ
Registered: 08/14/08
Posts: 156
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Re: Medical marijuana activist Charles "Eddy" Lepp convicted of growing 24,000 pot plants [CA] [Re: Chemy]
#8885108 - 09/06/08 01:35 AM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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bud hurts everybody who wastes their money funding cops who bust people. 240 people can each grow 10 plants and actually get away with it. and fly under the radar.. and use the cash crop to buy guns and overthrow sober society...just kidding
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