Pot Dispensary Owner Faces Life Sentence for Being Too Profitable

Published on June 21, 2012 by admin · No Comments

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.

Another Sandusky in trouble.

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.