West Hollywood, California (Thursday, February 5, 2009) – Larry Roger Kristich, former owner of the Compassionate Caregivers medical marijuana dispensary, known as the “Yellow House” in West Hollywood, was sentenced this week to five years in prison for operating it and six others scattered across the state.
Altogether, prosecutors charged that Mr. Kristich distributed more than 15,000 pounds of pot through seven dispensaries, known as the McDonald’s of medical marijuana at its peak of operation.
He was ordered by U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real to pay $500,000 in fines; he had faced up to 40 years in prison.
The targeted club, Compassionate Caregivers located at 1209 N. La Brea Ave and commonly known as the “Yellow House,” had been under surveillance by LAPD since September 2004 after the arrest of a Compassionate Caregiver patron with 60 marijuana plants in his possession, all allegedly purchased at Yellow House.
According to LAPD spokesperson Sgt. Plow at the time, that surveillance found that the club allegedly sold large amounts of marijuana to customers on a regular, sometimes daily, basis.
State law forbids the sale of more than eight ounces of medical marijuana to a patient at one time.
This is another reason why marijuana needs to be legal for all adults, healthy or sick. Most dispensary owners are vigorously following the law and dispensing reasonable amounts of medicine to legitimate patients. But the allure of grand profits from selling mass quantities to the healthy consumers is always going to lure someone into breaking the law. Then law enforcement can claim to a gullible public that medical marijuana is being abused for drug dealing, throw some piles of cash and guns on the evening news, and make the situation more difficult for everyone trying to convince the public that marijuana isn’t dangerous.
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