10-year sentence in medical pot case

The Sacramento Bee ^ | October 8, 2002 | Denny Walsh

[The FRugitive]

Bryan James Epis, the first person associated with a California medical marijuana dispensary to be tried in federal court for growing pot, was sentenced Monday in Sacramento to a mandatory 10 years in prison.

Epis, 35, insists the crop in his Chico house was only for himself and four other seriously ill people whose physicians had recommended the drug in conformance with California's 1996 Compassionate Use Act. But he ran head-on into federal law that makes no allowance for medical necessity.

[gdc61]

more pot than five guys can smoke in one year and still remember to water the plants gauranteed !

[gdc61]

thanks for this post ! heads up !(sorry for the pun).....;] the WODies are out in force tonight!

[bluefish]

He'd rather get his brains bashed in or his car stolen apparently. The WOD folks could spend their time going off on wife beaters, or terrrorists, or thieves. But for who knows what reason, they get their panties in a bunch over some guy mellowing out with a plant. And for some other reason, they don't get up in arms over another guy cracking his wife's skull after coming home drunk. They never address the complete hypocrisy in their position. Because they can't address the violence issue with regards to pot vs. alcohol, they then try to focus on pot making people lazy, unproductive or stupid. Yet their own lack of reasoning skills demonstrates that an empty skull apparently can be attributed to more than pot. Beyond that, I see nothing but sadistic, evil glee among the drug warriors when another life is ruined by the draconion anit-drug types. Something is wrong with them.

[cinFLA]

Add to that the taxes this guy won't pay.

I don't think he was paying taxes on his "profit".

[cinFLA]

Plants! 10 years in prison mandatory for plants. Surely you see the absurdity in that?

Yes. You would have thought he would have been smarter than to try to mislead the jury!

[Kevin Curry]

And the victim-doper con shifts into overdrive. So let's hear the weeping and wailing, the sobs, for the poor schmuck whose unbearable pain of psuedofolliculitis is only eased by three or four grams of "good sh*t" in a bong, for the poor downtrodden homeless waif whose genital warts are coxed into remission only when she can suck long draughts on a medicinal spliff.

[The FRugitive]

Even if all that is true, even if medicinal pot has no benefit, surely you recognize the absurdity of hard time for plants. 10 years? Come on!

And further please comment on the constitutional issue regarding state's rights.

[ThinkDifferent]

They are talking about growing and distributing the plant within California.

Well, you're just failing to see the penumbras. See, one of his customers could have crossed state lines and given the pot to someone else there. Or a customer might have bought pot for medical purposes from him instead of buying other medicine from out of state. Clearly it has a profound effect on interstate commerce.

Yes, this is total BS. It's also the federal government's official position, and for some reason the Supreme Court has generally upheld it.

[bluefish]

I don't think he was paying taxes on his "profit".

Well gee, if that is a concern, legalize it and tax it. Instant income for the Feds. Of course, confiscating a guy's car and house b/c they found a bag of pot may be more lucrative to the drug warriors.

[Frank_2001]

So growing dope is half as evil as doing a Jihad Johnny? Unbelievable!

[The FRugitive]

I'd be interested in your comments on the constitutional issues.

[bluefish]

You make my point in post 23 for me. Your concern for the human race is mind-boggling. Gee, if it wasn't for compassionate, decent folks like yourself, where would this world be? And don't give me "tough love" BS. You clearly hate people and you are projecting that hatred on an inanimate object. You seem to spew and sputter on all these threads. I can visualize the veins popping out of your forehead whenever "pot" is mentioned. What is truly up with that? Certainly, it is a bigger issue than pot.

[Kevin Curry]

I've made my point. I won't sit at the monitor and obsess over it long into the night as the pro-dopers will.

There is far, far more to life than dope. I know that's hard to believe, but it is a simple, true fact.

[Leper Messiah]

Good luck in getting sane comments from either of them on this issue.

I think this is WAY out of proportion.

[Kevin Curry]

"Leper Messiah." LOL!

And pro-dopers wonder why people ignore their feeble mental mumblings.

[MarkL]

I've got a serious issue with the "war on drugs." It has to do with pain medications, and I'll give two examples that I know of personally.

I've got a friend who was in a very serious auto accident. And yes, she was wearing a seatbelt, and the airbag did deploy. She was waiting at a stop light when a drunk driver tried to turn right, but didn't quite make it, hitting the driver's side door, which broke a number of ribs, her collerbone, and her pelvis. She was in the hospital for almost three weeks, and had four surgeries before she left the hospital. She has a perscription for a number of different pain meds... Percocet and vicodin, for when the pain is really bad. Unfortunately, both of these pretty much turn her into a zombie. On the other hand, a few puffs of marijuana eases the pain, and she's able to function more normally. In this case, she really does prefer the "dope," since it's effect on her is nowhere near as strong.

In a second case, I had an uncle who was dying of congestive heart failure. When her was in the army, during WWII, he broke a number of vertabre, and they've caused him considerable pain over the years. For the last 6 months of his life, he was begging the doctor for additional pain medication, but the doctor was afraid to perscribe a strong enough does of oxycontin to really ease the pain. The problem is that it seems oxycontin is becoming the drug of choice for many drug abusers. And the government is coming down very hard on doctors who perscribe "too much" to their patients. His doctor knew that he had less than a year to live, but still couldn't perscribe the doses that my uncle needed out of fear that he would lose his license.

Those are two personal examples of what's wrong with the war on drugs.

Mark

[breakem]

It's actually about $32,000 per year give or take. Add cost of living increases and court costs (not to mention wod costs) and your looking at a $600,000 case. Our government in action. Or is -in action- one word.

[breakem]

Please provide a list of pro-drug freepers so the rest of us can watch out for them..

[KDD]

That's just the thing Kevie ought to be good at.

[breakem]

I think Kevin specializes in the broken record technique. No matter what information he receives he says thing same thing over and over. After a few years here, I'd say he has an automatic reply feature on his computer.