$1.3M Medical Marijuana Grow Brings Decade In Federal Prison

[bobandtorey]

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – One of the leaders of a $1.3 million medical marijuana operation in Kent County was sentenced Monday to 10½ years in federal prison.

Betty Lee Jenkins was sentenced Aug. 31 by U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney in Kalamazoo. She will spend three years on supervised release once her prison term ends.

Her "life partner," Phillip Joseph Walsh, was earlier sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Federal prosecutors say the two, convicted at trial, were leaders of a marijuana grow operation that used the state's medical marijuana law as a ruse while shipping much of the drug out of state.

They were convicted of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana and maintaining a drug-involved premises.

The government said the couple, helped by eight others, grew more than 100 plants at 10 properties in Kent County and employed a doctor to qualify patients, at times without conducting examinations.

The defendants contended that they acted within Michigan's marijuana law, but the judge ruled it was not a defense to federal charges.

"While Defendants have claimed that they thought they were in compliance with the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act (MMMA) the Government has alleged that they were not and that their 'compliance' was merely a ruse to shield them from state prosecution," assistant U.S. attorneys Mark Courtade and Joel Fauson wrote in court documents.

Kent Area Narcotics Enforcement Team and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents were investigating a marijuana grow operation, run by Kathleen Anne Rosengren, in Cascade Township, in late 2013 when she admitted to bringing two garbage bags of marijuana to Jenkins' Kentwood home.

Rosengren, who cooperated, was sentenced to probation.

Police eventually discovered marijuana being grown at homes and apartments where tenants could live free or for a reduce fee for growing marijuana, records said. In all, police seized 467 marijuana plants and 18 pounds of processed marijuana.

Several properties were forfeited to the government as a result of the investigation, which included the arrest of Dr. Gregory Kuldanek, who admitted certifying patients and caregivers without conducting examinations.

He was sentenced to three months in prison and acted out of "compassion," his attorney said.

The government said the operation brought in $1,293,600. The defendants said the operation was not entirely successful because marijuana proved difficult and expensive to grow.

 

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2015/08/medical_marijuana_grow_brings.html

[trichcycler]

Keep your eye on the sparrow

when the going gets narrow

don't do it, don't do it

[Kingdiamond]

"The defendants contended that they acted within Michigan's marijuana law, but the judge ruled it was not a defense to federal charges.

"While Defendants have claimed that they thought they were in compliance with the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act (MMMA) the Government has alleged that they were not and that their 'compliance' was merely a ruse to shield them from state prosecution," assistant U.S. attorneys Mark Courtade and Joel Fauson wrote in court documents."

 

That means no matter how compliant our gardens are it only takes pissing off a fed to  lose all of your legal protections under state medical marijuana laws.

[bobandtorey]

[Indigro]

That means no matter how compliant our gardens are it only takes pissing off a fed to lose all of your legal protections under state medical marijuana laws.[/font][/color]

Id say it is more pissing off the local cops, so they take the time and effort to convince the fed to intervene and circumvent the state laws.