A FACE BEHIND THE MEDICAL-POT DISPENSARY DISPUTE

Charlie Lynch opened his medical marijuana dispensary with a
ribbon-cutting ceremony as well as a call to the Drug Enforcement
Administration to check on its policy on dispensaries, he said. A
year later, the DEA raided his business and home, and he faces
sentencing Monday.

Charlie Lynch did all the things people do when starting a business.

He introduced himself to other merchants in his hometown of Morro
Bay, joined the Chamber of Commerce and held a ribbon-cutting
ceremony attended by the mayor, City Council and chamber officials.

And since his business was the Central Coast Compassionate
Caregivers, a medical marijuana dispensary, he had the foresight to
call the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

"I called the DEA to find out their policy regarding medical
marijuana dispensaries. They essentially told me it was up to the
cities and counties to decide how to handle the matter."

As a safeguard, he retained his phone record to prove he had made the DEA call.

After suffering through three months of debilitating migraine
headaches, Lynch, 46, had found relief through marijuana. But to get
it, he had to drive 100 miles to a dispensary in Santa Barbara.

That's when it came to him: Why not start his own dispensary and help others?

On April 1, 2006, he did just that. "I felt we needed one in our
local area to save people time and money," he says. "In the year the
dispensary was open, I helped more people than I have in my entire
life," says Lynch, formerly a self-employed software developer.

In July 2006, the city of Morro Bay granted Lynch a conditional use
permit to operate a medical cannabis nursery at his dispensary.

Amputee helped

One of Lynch's early clients was Owen Beck, a Morro Bay high-school
senior who had bone cancer. Beck, who had played football, eventually
lost a leg. But he says the marijuana provided by Lynch helped him
through the pain of amputation.

To this, Lynch says, "I felt privileged to help people while I was
well and grateful for the help I received while I was sick."

Yet, things have not gone well for Lynch. His dispensary, which he
says never made a profit, was closed after a year. He is about to
declare bankruptcy and is on the verge of losing his home.

When I last communicated with him by phone and e-mail Wednesday, he
was leaving for Los Angeles where, on Monday, he may be sentenced to
several years in federal prison for dispensing medical marijuana.

Complicating his case is the fact that Wednesday, U.S. Attorney
General Eric Holder announced the Justice Department will no longer
prosecute sales of medical marijuana. Lynch is inclined to believe
the ruling came too late to help him.

Business, home raided

At 11 a.m., March 29, 2007, two days before the dispensary's one-year
anniversary, Lynch phoned his secretary at the facility. "I had been
working all night and was calling to let her know I was running late.
She was frantic and said, 'They are coming, Charlie."'

That cryptic message became clear moments later, when Lynch's
attorney called to say federal agents were raiding the dispensary. At
almost that exact moment, he says, he heard fists pounding at the
door of his house, and voices shouting, "Search warrant. Open the door!"

When Lynch shouted that he was not dressed, he says, "They yelled
back 'Open the door or we are going to bust it down."'

He describes what happened next.

"I opened the door and 10 to 15 DEA agents came barreling in with
guns, masks, shields and bulletproof vests. They threw me on the
ground and put a gun to the back of my head."

After filing through his rooms, one behind the other, he says the
agents sat him down at his kitchen table and placed a search warrant
in front of him.

"From the looks of the warrant, it sounded like they were hoping to
find a huge grow(ing) operation in my house, which they did not find
since I did not grow (marijuana) in my house.

"Then they started bringing items out that they were going to seize
and took my laptop computer and money I used to pay our vendors with.
They also took my personal supply of medical marijuana. I asked them
if I was under arrest, and they said that depended on what they found
in the house.

"They gathered up what they were going to take from me, brought in
the local sheriff and his K-9 dogs ... then they packed up and left.
I was not arrested that day."

But his dispensary was closed and, according to Lynch, $27,000 he had
set aside to pay vendors was seized.

Lynch insists he ran his dispensary tightly, insisting on being given
prescriptions from doctors before dispensing marijuana.

"We required all patients to provide a valid California
identification and a doctor's recommendation. We verified the
(validity of the) doctors on the California medical board Web site to
make sure they were in good standing. Then we called the doctors to
verify the patients were in good standing."

Sheriff gets involved

At one point, a local TV station, KSBY, reported that the DEA had
raided Lynch's home and dispensary at the suggestion of San Luis
Obispo County Sheriff Pat Hedges. The sheriff has said the dispensary
was "not in the best interest of a community that prides itself in
providing a healthy family environment."

Days after the raids, the clinic reopened with the approval of Morro
Bay officials. A week after that, however, it closed for good. This
reportedly happened when the DEA threatened to seize the property if
Lynch's landlord did not evict his tenant.

In August 2008, Lynch stood trial in federal court in Los Angeles. He
was found guilty of five cannabis offenses.

As noted above, he is due to be sentenced in Los Angeles on Monday.

DEA critics, of which there are many, see the agency as one with
members who are fond of making commando-

style raids against people who pose little threat, such as those who
cultivate and sell medical marijuana.

While campaigning for president, Barack Obama announced his
intentions to stop such raids. Still, the DEA raided four
dispensaries in the Los Angeles area after the president took office.

When I communicated with Lynch by phone and e-mail late Wednesday,
shortly before he was leaving for Los Angeles, he seemed harried and
at the end of his rope. Holder still had not announced his decision
to end federal raids on medical marijuana facilities. It came later that day.

Meanwhile, he has been living a nightmare.

"My family posted a $400,000 bond on my behalf. My oldest brother, a
nuclear engineer and manager of a nuclear power plant, put up
$100,000 cash and $50,000 in investment property. My stepfather put
up $70,000 of his commercial property in New Mexico.

"My little brother, who died of cancer on Nov. 1, 2008, put up his
home for $200,000 of the bail. The federal government continues to
hold these bonds on my family's properties.

"My mother has provided great emotional support and has been coming
to California from New Mexico for all of my court hearings and
holidays so I am not alone. My mother has no significant assets of
her own. My sisters, my brothers and my family continue to support me
to this day."

Having lost one son in November, Lynch's mother, Bodine Jones, says,
"I'm not going to stand by while they take another from me."

Lynch is now the central figure in California's medical marijuana
debate. TV's Al Roker and Drew Carey have reported on his case.
Public rallies have been organized by supporters who believe
government efforts to convict him have cost taxpayers more than a
million dollars.

He has earned praise even from the forewoman of the federal jury that
found him guilty. "We all felt Mr. Lynch intended well," says Kitty
Meese, a nurse from Torrance, "but under the parameters we were given
for the federal law, we didn't have a choice."

Policy change coming?

As he awaited his court appearance for sentencing, Lynch told me this:

"I feel like we are on the cusp of change. If there is a change of
(federal) policy, then there is a real mess to clean up from previous
administrations such as ending raids, ending prosecutions and freeing
our brothers and sisters who are currently incarcerated in federal
prisons for medical marijuana 'crimes."'

He also said he plans to appeal his conviction and ask for a
presidential pardon.

Meanwhile, Thom Mrozek, of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Central
California, has declined to comment on what will become of
outstanding marijuana cases in the Los Angeles area.

Statewide, more than two dozen such cases are pending in federal
court, according to Kris Hermes of Americans for Safe Access, a
national organization that advocates legal use of medical marijuana.