ECHO PARK, Calif. (KABC) — For the third time in a week, the Los Angeles Police Department has raided a medical marijuana facility.

Police arrested three people during the raid Thursday night at the Royal Temple of Zion in Echo Park.

Authorities say the facility has not applied for a hardship permit like all the other medical marijuana dispensaries, so selling the marijuana is illegal. About two pounds of marijuana were seized.

Oh my gosh!  A whole two pounds of marijuana!  Here in Oregon, that’s 2/3rds the amount of medical marijuana two registered patients may possess.  Even at ridiculously-inflated black-market-dictated California dispensary prices that’s less than $10,000 worth of marijuana.  I wonder how much it costs the city of Los Angeles to execute and prosecute such a raid?  Wanna bet it’s more than $10,000?

Those associated with the temple say it is a Rastafarian ministry, and it has the legal right to sell marijuana to the sick.

“This is a church run medical marijuana club providing medical marijuana for sick people, but we do it as a church,” said Pastor Craig Rubin.

Pastor Rubin believes police are targeting those that have been vocal about legalizing the drug.

Pastor Rubin, as you may remember, is the man who was offering patients a free eighth ounce of marijuana if they would come testify at the LA PLUM hearings two weeks ago.

“They seem to be particularly picking out people who have applied for these hardships who speak out,” said Pastor Rubin.

Members say because this is a place of worship they have not done anything illegal.

“It’s because we believe a cannabis from Revelations 22 is a plant for the healing of all nations and that people should have access to this plant. It’s not only benign, it’s benevolent,” said Pastor Rubin.

Yes, and I believe the Flying Spaghetti Monster brought forth cannabis from his noodly appendages to give to humanity so they may savor His Succulent Meatballs, so I shouldn’t be arrested for my pot smoking, either.

Sorry, I know many reading this have sincere religious beliefs and some have sincere beliefs that treat ganja as sacrament, but as an atheist I continue to be offended by the notion that because I treat all books as written works of men, not gods, I deserve to be arrested and jailed for my use of cannabis.  I completely support the right of religious folks to use ganja because I completely support the inalienable right of ALL folks to use cannabis, but when religious folks think they have a special and unique right to not be arrested for cannabis because they picked the right god, they are discriminating against me for my lack of a god.

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SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in San Francisco Monday sentenced a Lake County man to 10 years in prison for growing more than 1,000 marijuana plants, saying the marijuana activist appeared to “want to be a martyr for the cause.”

The sentence for Charles “Eddy” Lepp, 56, was the mandatory minimum under federal law for growing more than 1,000 plants.

U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel said Lepp didn’t qualify for a so-called “safety valve” exception with a lesser sentence because he testified at his trial last fall that he was a proud leader of others who grew marijuana on his land.

Patel told Lepp, “I think Mr. Lepp is very proud of what he’s been doing. The problem is that now unfortunately, Mr. Lepp, it’s caught up with you.”

“Maybe you want to be martyr for the cause,” Patel said. “That will be your lot.”

The U.S. law doesn’t allow the safety-valve exception for people who are leaders of drug crimes.

Patel said she thought the length of the sentence was excessive, but said it would be up to Congress to change the law.

I’ve been working in marijuana law reform now for four years.  Eddy Lepp is the first activist I’ve known personally to become a prisoner of drug war.  I last spoke with Eddy last September at our Portland Hempstalk:

To know that this gentle man is going to prison for a decade at age 56 makes me physically ill.  This religious man who so bravely helped so many sick and dying and sense-threatened Californians find relief through the medicine grown on his land is going to spend more time in prison than the average rapist, manslaughterer, and child molester because our country has not yet overcome its prudish impulse to punish people for moral reasons.

President Obama, you can commute his sentence.  With the stroke of a pen, you can see that Rev. Eddy Lepp receives no more punishment for being convicted of growing plants for sick people than Scooter Libby received for felony convictions of obstruction of justice, perjury (twice), and providing false statements to federal investigators.  Eddy Lepp’s felony conviction will still stand, but we will save the taxpayers the unnecessary burden of feeding, clothing, and housing a man who is no threat to society.

Or you could do the truly just thing, Mr. President, and pardon Eddy Lepp, removing all prison punishment and the felony convictions, seeing as Eddy Lepp was forbidden from entering any real sort of defense to the charges, since federal courts do not allow testimony regarding California’s medical use law.

I just cannot stomach the notion that people that ordered torture are getting away with it, people that greedily sacked Wall Street are getting away with it, and the guy that ordered 9/11 has gotten away with it, but one middle-aged Rastafarian minister who grows medical marijuana must be punished according to strict adherence to the “rule of law”.  President Obama: FREE EDDY LEPP!

Call President Obama at 202-456-1111 and tell him to FREE EDDY LEPP!

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Rasta pot smokers win legal leeway in Italy | International | Reuters
ROME (Reuters) – Rastafarians caught in possession of marijuana in Italy may now have legal recourse, thanks to a high court ruling made public on Thursday.

Italy’s Court of Cassation ruled that since the Rastafari religion considers marijuana a sacrament, its members should be given special consideration when it comes to possession — and how much makes a drug trafficker.

The case before the judges dealt with a reggae musician who was sentenced to 16 months in prison by a lower court in Perugia after being found in possession of enough marijuana to roll 70 cigarettes.

The Court of Cassation annulled his sentence, saying the amount appeared appropriate for personal use considering the heavy amounts that Rastafarians smoke, and ordered an appellate court in Florence to review the case.

“He was convicted because of the amount … for trafficking, but it was for his own personal use,” said the defendant’s lawyer, Caterina Calia.

Rastafari, a religion that emerged in Jamaica in the 1930s, considers Ethiopia its spiritual home and that country’s former emperor, Haile Selassie, a divine figure.

Up to 10 percent of Jamaicans identify themselves as Rastas, but they are virtually unheard of in Roman Catholic Italy.

No disrespect intended, but personally, I find the religious use exception for ganja sacrament a bit troubling.  Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely 100% agree that if you sincerely believe ganja is a sacrament that brings you closer to Jah / God / Allah, then you should be free to smoke it.

What troubles me is that I’m an atheist, so I have no mystical supernatural tales to protect my use, and I shouldn’t need any.  Why is it that people who can never in a court of law prove that God wants them to smoke weed get immunity from prosecution, but I go to prison because I only believe in stuff that can be proven?

Then there is the question of which religions get that special immunity.  No religion under 70 years old need apply.  Rastas may get this break in Italy, but in the US sincere Americans who believe in ganja sacrament get to do time because their religion is younger than marijuana prohibition, so they must have formed the religion as an excuse to get high.

It’s like the medical marijuana situation.  Of course I want cancer and HIV patients to have medical marijuana; you’d have to be blackhearted not to.  But I want perfectly healthy people to have that right, too.

I guess it just seems absurd to me that if you had Jamaican Rasta, a disabled Californian, and me all passing around the same blunt, you’d have a believer, a patient, and a criminal.

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