Courts: He gets four years for selling marijuana to those with doctor's
permission.

A former San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy was sentenced Friday
to four years in state prison for selling marijuana to people who had
obtained doctors' permission to use the drug under Proposition 215.

David Lee Herrick, 48, who said he started using marijuana to deal
with a back injury he suffered on duty, was convicted in May of
selling pot through the Orange County Cannabis Co-Op. Jurors in that
trial were not allowed to consider the state's medical marijuana
initiative, because it allows only the use of the drug, not the sale.

Cannabis co-op founder Marvin Chavez, awaiting trial on a similar
charge, criticized the sentence handed down by Orange County Superior
Court Judge William R. Froeberg.

"What they did today was wrong," Chavez said. He said groups like his
exist only because local government agencies have not done their share
to make marijuana available to ill people, as the proposition had suggested.

The group accepted donations in exchange for marijuana but made no
profit, Chavez said.

Deputy District Attorney Carl Armbrust said Herrick deserved a prison
sentence because of a prior conviction for marijuana sales - which
occurred before voters approved Prop. 215. Herrick was on probation
for that offense when he was arrested.

"I don't see any difference between Mr. Herrick and a street dealer,"
Armbrust said.

Froeberg said to impose a lesser sentence would violate his oath of
office.

"He used to be a law enforcement officer," Froeberg
said.

"He should have known what he was doing was against the law,
especially because he was on probation for the same thing.

"He's nothing more than a marijuana salesman."


Checked-by: "Rich O'Grady"