This press release begins by explaining the trial and conviction of Dr. Mollie Fry and Dale Schafer in California.  Dr. Fry has been helping medical marijuana patients in California by writing recommendations for the therapeutic use of the herb, and Mr. Schafer has been growing the plants and providing the buds to patients.  Let’s take a look at how our federal law enforcers view the plight of these compassionate caregivers, (and note how they always use quotation marks around “medicinal”, because in the bizarro world of the DEA, a plant found to be medicinal by the American College of Physicians and the Institutes of Medicine and twelve US states isn’t medicinal):

News from DEA, Domestic Field Divisions, San Franciso News Releases, 03/20/08
These recommendations enabled the holder to avoid arrest under California’s “medicinal” marijuana law, Proposition 215. The proposition provides a legal defense to state (not federal) criminal charges when marijuana is possessed for treatment of a serious medical condition.

Evidence introduced at trial, however, showed that FRY sold these recommendation statements to people for diagnoses such as asthma, alcoholism, and sore elbow.

California’s law allows a doctor to recommend marijuana for any condition for which he or she believes marijuana will help.  It may seem counter-intuitive, but vaporized marijuana is a bronchodialator that helps some asthmatics, it can definitely help as an analgesic for a chronically sore elbow, and yours truly will testify that without marijuana, I’d have been in some severe trouble with the alcoholism of my youth.

This is just the DEA’s way of trying to blunt the criticism of the judge who didn’t want to hand out a five year mandatory minimum to a couple who aren’t drug lords, they’re just a compassionate pair of people who help the sick and disabled.  I wonder if they bothered to count all of the people with cancer, AIDS, MS, epilepsy, wasting syndrome, or any other serious ailment suffered by patients of Dr. Fry?

On cross-examination, SCHAFER admitted that by 2001, the couple had made approximately $750,000 to $1,000,000 selling these recommendation statements to over 5,000 customers who had visited their office in Cool.

Let’s see, Prop 215 was passed in 1996, so since 1996 - in five years - a doctor and a lawyer each made about $75,000 to $100,000 per year?  You know, that’s a lot for a podcaster like me, but in doctor and lawyer terms, that’s slumming.  Not exactly Medellin cartel / drug kingpin numbers there.

It was to these customers the defendants sold dried marijuana in plastic bags and as marijuana plants. Some of the customers testified at trial the hand-to-hand sales took place in the fire station parking lot near their office. Other customers signed up at the office for home delivery of dried marijuana or plants. The couple also employed a delivery man who drove to customers’ homes and delivered bags of marijuana and marijuana plants.

Egads!  You mean these compassionate caregivers were making it easier for some of their severely disabled to acquire their medicine, instead of forcing them to drive across the busy Southern California freeway system?

The trial exhibits included photos of SCHAFER and the couple’s minor children harvesting marijuana plants from this garden area and “trimming” marijuana bud inside the residence.

Well, it’s not a good drug war scare story without a “what about the children?” appeal.  Oh my god, the kiddies saw a pot plant!  And they touched it!  Why, they might grow up to think all the propaganda fed to them by the DEA and ONDCP about that plant are just lies!

The court released the defendants on bail pending their anticipated appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. As a condition of her release, the court prohibited Dr. FRY from directly or indirectly recommending “medicinal” marijuana.

Having met Dr. Fry, this to me is the saddest aspect of the case.  Why in the world would there need to be a gag order on Dr. Fry’s opinion on medical marijuana?  Is it because the government knows they’re on the wrong side of public opinion here?  Why does she lose her free speech right and her right as a doctor to recommend treatment simply because she was caught with a federally controlled substance?  Crack is federally controlled, but nobody sentences crackheads to never talk about how great crack is, and it’s not even a medicine.

Tags: Dale Schafer, DEA, Dr. Mollie Fry

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 22nd, 2008 at 2:08 pm and is filed under 4:20 NewsHour, Law Enforcement, Reefer Madness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a trackback from your own site.