Medical marijuana dispensary owner Aaron Sandusky might be going
to jail for a long, long time.

While President Obama made news last
week by putting a temporary stop to the deportation of
immigrants who’ve resided in the U.S. since childhood,
Mike Riggs noted the inconsistency of the administration’s
refusal to apply a similar do-no-harm approach to medical
marijuana.

Don’t Make Money

Sandusky has the misfortune of sharing a surname with a
news-making, alleged child molester, but he has the perhaps greater
misfortune of potentially facing a prison sentence equally harsh to
what Jerry Sandusky’s might be. But instead of sexually abusing
more than 50 young boys, Aaron Sandusky’s alleged crime is simply
that of supplying people with a product they want and legally are
allowed to have in the state of California.

Sandusky, whom reason.tv profiled in
this video, faced a post-arraignment hearing and a pre-trial
hearing in two Los Angeles federal courtrooms on Monday, as did his
brother Keith Alan Sandusky and four other employees of Sandusky’s
dispensary, G3 Holistic.
According to
the federal indictment, the Sandusky brothers each face six
separate counts, and each of the defendants face counts that could
also carry life sentences.

A group of about 30 friends and activists gathered outside of
the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building, where the first hearing of
the day occurred at about 8:30am. Among those gathered was Dan
Forman, a friend and colleague of Sandusky’s who, in the clip
below, speculates about the motives of the DOJ and DEA in targeting
G3.

“I really believe it was a case of the government believing that
Aaron was commercializing and profiteering,” he says.

Thom Mrozek, the press representative for the Department of
Justice’s Central California district, responded to questions about
G3 Holistic with this emailed statement:

“Those associated with the G3 marijuana store ignored a series a
warnings that the retail store in Upland was operating in violation
of the law. Those warnings came from local officials, through
letters from the Department of Justice, during the execution of
search warrants and through civil lawsuits. The allegations of
illegal activity are clearly laid out in the indictment.”

But Forman’s speculation seems consistent with past statements
made by DOJ officials in describing the raids.

“The law has been hijacked by profiteers who are motivated not
by compassion, but by money,” said Melinda Haag, one of
California’s U.S. Attorneys, at a DOJ
press conference on October 11, 2011.  

In other words, Haag isn’t bothered by the concept of medical
marijuana, so long as it remains safely in feel-good, nonprofit
“collectives” where, supposedly, nobody makes a dime. Because
Sandusky, a former real estate businessman, created a supply chain
and a distribution network that provides his customers with
high-quality, low-cost product—i.e., established a workable
business model—he must be stopped.

Drugs aren’t bad. But making money off drugs is bad, or
something.

Too Many Governments, Too Much
Corruption

While the medical marijuana fight is largely a battle between
state and federal jurisdiction, the Sandusky case is even more
complicated. Reason previously covered the
problems that Sandusky had with his city government. The mayor
of Upland, where the original G3 Holistic was located, was himself
indicted on federal corruption charges after he allegedly attempted
to extort Sandusky and other local business owners.

In 2010, Upland’s city council attempted to ban medical
marijuana dispensaries altogether, which triggered a series of
legal challenges that landed the issue in California’s Supreme
Court in the form of
Pack v. Long Beach. Until that case is decided,
however, some dispensary owners, including Sandusky, believe they
are allowed to stay open unless the city can prove they are acting
illegally under California state law.

This raises the question, are city officials colluding with the
the DEA and other federal agencies to do the dirty work while their
hands are tied? Nothing in the federal indictment indicates that
Sandusky was engaging in activity inconsistent with state law,
though these are precisely the sorts of operations Attorney General
Eric Holder
promised that DOJ wouldn’t target. Don Duncan, California
Director of Americans for
Safe Access tackles that question in the clip below.

“What this feels like is retribution,” says Duncan. “Because
what we have here are collectives that are fighting with the city
over what are basically land use and license issues, really local
issues.”

Stalling Tactics

The Sandusky brothers have been sitting in prison since last
Thursday. Aaron Sandusky, a soft-spoken, 42-year-old man with a
full head of salt-and-pepper hair, looked downright haggard and
defeated as he sat in court wearing an orange 2XL jumpsuit and
chain restraints. 

This hearing was meant to set the trial start date, which is
tentatively scheduled for August 7, 2012, as well as to resolve the
issue of Sandusky’s bond. Sandusky and the other defendants were
arrested last Thursday, and a judge set bail for each defendant at
the initial bond hearing in Riverside. However, prosecutors
successfully filed an appeal, which kept the Sandusky brothers in
prison until now.

Aaron Sandusky’s attorney, Roger Diamond, raised this issue,
mentioning that Sandusky has a heart condition called a
cardiomyopathy and stressing the importance of setting bail as soon
as possible. Judge Percy Anderson seemed willing to proceed with
the hearing, but prosecutors had failed to bring a crucial
transcript from the prior hearing, which was necessary to
proceed.

“It’s just a stalling tactic,” Diamond said after the hearing.
“They just don’t want him out at all.”

The court failed to set a deadline for the production of the
transcript. In the meantime, Sandusky will have to sit in jail,
wait, and hope his heart doesn’t go out before the trial.

Watch the video below and decide for yourself whether or not
this man, who never hid any of his activities from the government
and, in fact, invited government officials to tour his facilities,
deserves multiple life terms in a federal penitentiary.