If you signed the petition you already know. In
an
email sent yesterday to 29,536 signatories calling for a
presidential pardon of Chris Williams, the Montana medical
marijuana provider who faced at least 80 years in prison, the White
House explains it “can’t comment.”    

Reason’s own Mike Riggs
noted on December 12^th that the petition had
exceeded 25,000 signatures, the threshold that triggers a response
from the Obama Administration. But the Administration’s petition
site (“Your Voice in Government”) invoked the terms of
participation: “the White House may sometimes choose not to respond
to petitions addressing certain matters.”

But, as Jacob Sullum
wrote earlier this week, federal prosecutors offered Williams a
rare post-conviction deal, reducing his sentence to as little as
five years in return for waiving his right to appeal. Williams
accepted on December 18^th and will be sentenced in
February.

In related news, Chris Lindsey, one of Williams’ business
partners and the president of the Montana Cannabis Industry
Association, was sentenced yesterday to three months of house
arrest and five years of probation after pleading guilty to one
count of conspiracy to maintain a drug-involved premises.